FACE? PALM? YOU KNOW THE DRILL

Friday, January 25th, 2013 | Uncategorized

Jim Rome has a name for guys like Kevin Slaten.  Likes To Fight Guy:

The local sports radio personality who bills himself as “The King” failed to appear in court Wednesday night on an assault charge.

Kevin Slaten, 58, of St. Charles, had been charged by Webster Groves authorities with misdemeanor assault in connection with a confrontation Nov. 12 at the KFNS (590 AM) radio station studios, 8045 Big Bend Boulevard.

Slaten was supposed to appear at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but he never showed up. Court officials said they had not received any correspondence from Slaten, nor from an attorney on his behalf.

With good reason.  Kev does this sort of thing a lot.

Slaten has had a history of allegations of altercations. In 1981, he was arrested after an altercation with a Florissant policeman. It’s unclear how the case was resolved. In 1993, he was found guilty of misdemeanor and felony assault for attacking a couple after a minor auto accident after a Blues hockey game. He was placed on probation and fined.

In 1994, he was arrested after a scuffle outside the Trainwreck Saloon in Rock Hill, but charges were dropped. In 2006, Slaten faced allegations of a fight with a patron at a pub about sports. Slaten said that the other man pushed him, and no charges were filed.

This story leaves out Slaten’s most legenday encounter, one that I personally witnessed.  In the early 1980′s, Kevin Slaten was a young sportscaster with a local television station.  He was also the public address announcer for the St. Louis Steamers.

The who?  The Steamers were an indoor soccer team.  In most places, indoor soccer was an oddity but around here it was wildly popular. (FYI.  If you should ever happen to meet my intense deaf friend Jim, whatever you do, do NOT mention the name Wichita.  It’s too complicated to go into but trust me).  Back then, the Steamers regularly outdrew the NHL’s St. Louis Blues.

Kev’s job was to get the crowd going and he was pretty good at it.  Until the legendary Buffalo Stallions came to town one night and one of their players decided to have a little fun at Slaten’s expense.

Which is something that you never did.  At one point, this guy received a penalty (they treated it like hockey), was sent to the box which was right next to the public address announcer’s area and the next thing that anyone knew, dude and Kev were throwing down.  Or trying to, anyway.

The St. Louis police eventually ended up escorting Slaten out of the building and the Steamers fired him the next day.  And the rest is (really embarrassing) history.

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