Denny Matthews: One of baseball's best broadcasters

Nothing flows quite as smoothly or as steadily across the American Plains as the voice of Denny Matthews. The winds of the Plains are gusty and harsh. Weather changes erratically, from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute. One thing remains the same, Denny Matthews, voice of the Kansas City Royals.

Matthews is Kansas City, as much as barbecue or jazz. In 2009, The Royals will enter their 40th season in Kansas City, and so with Matthews behind their microphone. Matthews is among a special group of broadcasters who have spent their entire career and 35 consecutive seasons with a single team: Vin Scully, Bob Prince, Jack Buck, Jaime Jarrin, Phil Rizzuto, Bob Uecker, Richie Ashburn, Mike Shannon, and Joe Nuxhall. Matthews entered into the Hall of Fame as a Ford C. Frick Award winner in 2007.

I am familiar with Denny’s work for two reasons. One, I lived in Kansas for several years. Secondly, I subscribe to a wonderful thing called XM radio. As most regular readers know, I am a huge fan of baseball on the radio. It lends so much more to the imagination and truly is the only medium that represents the wholeness of the game.

There are a few reasons why Denny Matthews ranks so highly on my list of favorite baseball broadcasters. Not only does Denny know how to describe the events on the field and understand what the listener needs to know but he also knows when to be quite. Matthews will often leave pauses for the fans to take in the sounds of the field and the stadium. This also increases the drama of the situation because it allows a listener to recreate the previous play and anticipate the next play in his or her mind.

I feel that I learn something after listening to Matthews. Much like Vin Scully, Matthews provides interesting life stories about the players. Today for instance, Matthews informed me that Royals minor leaguer John Suomi collects tropical fish.

A listener is sure to get a few laughs from a Denny Matthews broadcast. It’s a smart, dry, Midwestern type of humor. In today’s broadcast of a Spring Training exhibition between the Royals and Giants, Matthews informed fans that with J.R. House catching for the Royals and Steve Holm catching for the Giants, there was both a ‘House’ and a ‘Home’ in the game. Also, after providing a very perceptive and in-depth discussion of Hiram “Kyle” Davis pitching turnaround at the end of the 2008 season, Denny told a story about Davies working construction with his father since he was very young. When Davies turned twelve, Davies father was asked what are you going to do with him now, “Hire ‘em” he replied.

For more on Matthews, read Curt Smith's post on his Voices of the Game blog.

If you are interested in the wide-reaching geography that is the Royals radio network, Royals Review has an excellent series of posts on affiliate towns and cities. Here is the most recent profile on Hastings, Nebraska.