From Bloomington to Cooperstown for Matthews
Editor’s note: Last month, BCR Sports Editor Kevin Hieronymus visited with longtime Kansas City Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews, whose brother Steve lives in Princeton, discussing his upcoming induction into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on July 29 and his 39-year career as the voice of the Royals. Here is their conversation.
KH: So how does a kid from Bloomington, Ill. make it to Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame.
DM: I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure that out for a few months. When you’re a kid in Bloomington, you don’t think about something like that. It’s a product of time and being in the right spot and doing a decent job for all these years. No one’s asked me to leave yet.
KH: You were a St. Louis Cardinals fan growing up in Bloomington. Must have spent hours listening to Harry Caray, Joe Garagolia and Jack Buck calling the Cardinal games.
DM: Playing (baseball) was a big deal. I was fortunate to play all the way through legion and on to high school and college until shortly before I got the job. I never really thought about broadcasting. I probably wasn’t any more than 4-5 years old, my dad was a Cardinal fan and WJBC in Bloomington was a Cardinals affiliate and still are. I can remember the game being on. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but I was aware there was baseball on the radio. When I was 8-9, I collected baseball cards and on a lot of summer nights I’d put a pillow against the console radio, shuffle cards and listen to the games. It’d be fun, flip the card over and see how the guy did the year before.
KH: How did they (Buck and Caray) influence your broadcast style.
DM: Probably did it without my knowing it. I guess by osmosis, laying there and listening to their description of things and phraseology. I’m sure if you listen to one of my broadcasts, maybe I’d described a play the way Jack Buck or Harry Caray did. It was just the words, not that I copied. Over the years, you develop your own phrases. I’m sure some of those creep back into my broadcasts without knowing it. One of first things Buddy Blattner, who was my dad’s age, told me when I came here, “I don’t want to think you have to do it the way I do it or anybody you hear. If you do that, all it would be would be a bad imitation. You’ve got to do it your own style and your personality.”
KH: Do you still have that baseball card collection?
DM: Oh yeah, the ones I collected from the ‘50s and ‘60s are the ones that really meant the most. I still got cards into the ‘80s and ‘90s.
KH: I understand the late and great Cubs’ announcer Jack Brickhouse was a big help getting you started.
DM: He had a Peoria connection, and I wrote him a letter and asked if I could come to Wrigley Field with a tape recorder and get into one of the booths that was empty and do a game on tape for my resume. He wrote back and said, sure, come up. He was very nice and very supportive. Obviously, at that time, he was a big hitter in the field and had a lot of influence. He was big dog in the business. He wrote letters and made phone calls once I got in the mix for the Royals job. He and Lou Boudreau influenced some the people that were auditioning the tapes. I know Jack called Buddy Blattner.
KH: You’ve been with the Royals since their inception in 1969 and seen more Royals games than anybody else. It must be special to spend this much time with one team?
DM: It’s kind of neat with the four guys going into the Hall of Fame — Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr. and Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and myself — all four of us have spent their entire career with one team. That probably won’t happen again. Even broadcasters jump around as much as players anymore. We’re the last of the loyalty and stability crowd.
KH: Did you get to make the call on the infamous George Brett pine tar incident in 1983?
DM: I was on TV when that happened. It was unusual, it one of goofy things that happened. Putting pine tar on the bat handle doesn’t help you hit the ball farther. Of course, the Royals put in a formal protest to the league. George says his kids always like watching that tape.
KH: The Royals had some great teams in the 1970s with Brett, Willie Wilson, Freddie Patek, Frank White, Darrell Porter and Amos Otis. What was that like following those Whitey Herzog teams?
DM: From the mid-’70s to mid-’80s, they were a pretty darn good team. The ’77 team was the best and lost to the Yankees in the Series. Whitey really emphasized speed because our ballpark was so big, You needed speed because it was so cavernous, other teams come in with big plodders and we could literally run them out of the ballpark.
KH: Your Royals came back in 1985 to beat your boyhood team, the Cardinals, in the World Series. Was that bittersweet for you?
DM: Not really. I just looked at the check and Ewing Kaufman signed it. It was cool. I grew up with Cardinals and having two teams from Missouri made it real exciting.
KH: Have you ever been to Cooperstown?
DM: I went when (George) Brett went in ’99. A whole bunch of Royals people went.
KH: What’s it going to be like for you on July 29?
DM: Wished I knew. I’ll have that answer for you in about (six) weeks. It’ll be fun. George (Brett) said to prepare yourself for three days of great parties, and George would know. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. The people I have talked to say it will be a blur.
KH: Do you have your reception speech prepared?
DM: I’ve worked on it, got it pretty well, but don’t have the final draft. I was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame a couple years ago; I’ll take a lot of comments from that. I’ll keep it to about 10 -15 minutes. People say it’s a once in a lifetime experience so take all the time you want, but I don’t think you want to go any longer than 10-15 minutes.
KH: Your father, George, was a real good ball player in his day and taught you and your three brothers how to play the game. What would he think about your Hall of Fame induction?
DM: He’d think it’d be pretty cool. Matty always enjoyed a great party.
KH: Will your mother, Eileen (86 and living in Bloomington), be able to make the trip to Cooperstown?
DM: She is and most of the family will be there.
KH: Do you have a favorite moment in your career?
DM: The first game has always been special, like a hitter getting their first hit, or a pitcher getting their first win. April 1969 was pretty neat. The game went into extra innings, and Buddy Blanter, the lead announcer, worked the 9th, 10th and 11th innings and they won the game in the 12th inning and I was announcing so I was the first person to be able to say the Royals win.
KH: Have you cut back on your travel? I know lot of broadcasters do like Jack Buck and Vin Scully.
DM: About the last five years, I’ve been taking off some trips. I don’t mind going to the Midwest, Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota. Going to the East Coast and West Coast with the time changes, it’s not much fun. I went to Milwau-kee last week and haven’t been there for several years.
KH: Have you set a timetable for retirement?
DM: Not really. I love to go to games here. Get to the ballpark about 4:45 p.m., be home by 10:30. That’s a piece of cake. It’s just the grind of doing it every night and traveling half the time which begins to take a toll. Having time off gives you a chance to reenergize and get kind of revved up again. In the month of August, it comes to a point you’re trying to get through the schedule and are tired of it, and I’m not sure that’s the best way to approach what you’re trying to do.
KH: I know you got home recently to play golf with your brothers in Bloomington. Who’s the best golfer?
DM: Mike, then Steven and probably me and then Doug. At least that’s the way it went that day.
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