I’ve gotta tell you — and it won’t come as a surprise to many of you who are Royals’ fans — the emperor of the Royals’ broadcasting crew, Denny Matthews, is wearing no clothes.
How this guy has remained on the broadcast team since the team’s inception in 1969 is a mystery to me.
His game calls are about as interesting as if he were describing a dog washing…
“There goes the soap on pooch’s coat; he’s getting his back and tail lathered now; he’s shaking off the water…”
Matthews
I wish somebody would take Denny’s pulse when the game is tied in the bottom of the ninth, and we’ve got runners on second and third, one out, with Sal Perez or another or our top hitters at the plate…“There’s a slow grounder to short, the throw comes home, safe, the game is over…We’ll be right back with the totals.”
Oh, it isn’t quite that bad, but you know — we all know — it’s pretty damn bad.
But nobody dares criticize the guy.
One day last week on Kevin Kietzman’s “Between the Lines” show on WHB radio, Kietzman said, “You won’t hear me say a bad word about Denny Matthews; he’s great.”
That was after Kietzman had spent a couple of minutes extolling the skills of Ryan Lefebvre, the Royals’ best broadcaster by far.
Then Denny’s broadcast partner Danny Clinkscale jumped in and said something like, “He paints a perfect picture in your mind of what’s going on.”
Baloney. He describes nothing and gives out precious little information.
Take today’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, which the Royals ended up winning 11-10. It was a wild game, with a total of seven errors, and both teams looked like they were mailing it in.
I watched several innings on TV, including the top of the 6th inning, where the Blue Jays scored eight runs and wiped out a 7-0 Royals’ lead. In the bottom of the inning, which I also watched, the Royals bounced back and took a 10-8 lead.
At that point, I headed to the grocery store. Actually, I had to go to two grocery stores — the Brookside Price Chopper and then the Brookside Market — to run down everything on the list. I lost track of the game for a couple of innings, and when I turned it on while heading to the Brookside Market, Paulo Orlando was up.
Orlando hit a home run, and, I have to admit, there was actually a trace of excitement in his voice when he said, “Gone!” But then Denny didn’t give the score! I kept waiting for him to give the score, but it wasn’t forthcoming. He did say something to the effect that Orlando had given the Royals “a margin,” but no specifics.
I didn’t find out ’til I got home the game had been tied 10-10 and Orlando’s blast was not only the tie-breaking run but, ultimately, the winning run.
On another game I was listening to several days ago, the opposing team had the bases loaded in a close game, and one player had a long at-bat, fouling off several pitches. Never during the at-bat did Denny say how many outs there were…Turned out there were none.
…What does this guy think? That everybody’s driving around having listened to every pitch and understands exactly what the circumstances are at any given moment?
He’s ridiculous and should have retired long ago.
…On the same “Between the Lines” show I was listening to last week, either Keitzman or Clinkscale noted that Denny wasn’t in the mode of modern-day broadcasters, who display emotion and excitement.
Oh, really? Broadcasters of days gone by didn’t display emotion?
I guess Kietzman never listened to the legendary Harry Caray, of the St. Louis Cardinals and later the Chicago Cubs, or Waite Hoyt of the Cincinnati Reds. As a kid growing up in Louisville, I hung on every broadcast of the Reds’ games, and I remember one game when the score might have been tied, and Reds’ great hitter Frank Robinson came to the plate.
On one of the first pitches, Waite said very calmly, almost in a monotone, “There’s a drive down the left-field line that, if it stays fair, is a home run.”
A second or two or silence followed, and the next thing you heard was Waite shouting, “Home run!” It was one of the most dramatic and exciting baseball broadcasting moments I have ever heard.
…Hell, there were lots of animated announcers in days gone by. Kietzman knows that, but he, like other Kansas City sportscasters, says whatever he has to say to keep from uttering a critical word about “Royals’ Hall of Fame Broadcaster Denny Matthews.” That would be breaking the code of silence.
Well, I just hope the Royals don’t commission a bronze bust of Denny after he’s left the park for the last time. It would be a miscarriage of broadcasting. Truth is, Denny is enshrined in Teflon.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fitz, good column, but disappointed you listen to Kietzman. You know more about baseball than he does. He was prepared to let the Royals leave KC rather than fix up the K. Glad Royals dumped that station.
I’ve got a long ride home from the golf course, Steve…And I can’t take those hopelessly giddy, sophomoric broadcasters on 610.
I’m in the same boat. The college humor kids on 610 or the insufferable KK on 810. There is no winner here, just me as the loser.
Fitz, I’ll got further than Steve and say I’m disappointed that you listen to talk radio, period, news or sports. Life is too short.
As for Denny, I will say this for him. He knows when to shut up and let the stadium/moment do the talking. Steve Physioc, on the other hand, assumes every second should be filled with his blather.
Denny has made a career of being the ultimate yes man to the Kauffman and Glass families. I agree he seems so disinterested and bored with absolutely no enthusiasm. He must be a real pain in the butt to work with and I feel sorry for Ryan Lefebvre, who often tries without much success to get Denny involved in a more meaningful dialogue. Wish we had someone like Jon Miller who broadcasts for the SF Giants.
Perhaps the 30-plus years of listening to Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn call the Phillies games but Royals announcers are just homers.
Perhaps that was the path needed for the years of bad teams. But it doesn’t really make the product better and often insults the intelligence of the true fan.
First year I was in Philadelphia Steve Carlton had like 30% of the Phillies wins. They were bad but the announcers brought you the good, the bad and the institutional ugly every game.
Amen. Matthews is the most boring baseball broadcaster I have ever heard. The late Ernie Harwell was old school and didn’t go over the top in his play by play for the Detroit Tigers, but he was far more entertaining and informative than Matthews, whose most annoying habit is saying the same exact thing every time a Royals player hits a home run: “There’s a drive to deep (insert field here)…Gone. (Insert last name of hitter here.)” Zzzzzzzz. Matthews.
We welcome to the Comments Dept. an esteemed former investigative reporter and assignment editor for The Star…
Dalton knows boring when he sees it…Thanks, Bill!
Denny is a concept, much like the old days of journalism, where the reporter’s/writer’s name was not included in a byline. If you accept that style, and the theory that fewer words and emotions allow the listener to make the emotional judgements on what is happening, then Denny becomes a pleasure to listen to. In other words, he promotes the game, respects the listener, relies on institutional memory and doesn’t put himself in the story. You remember, “short, declarative sentences.”
That’s another way of looking at it. Maybe we’re so used to in-your-face entertainment that anything else seems wrong.
A segment on the radio the other day illustrated your point. On a national ESPN show, the host noted all the walk-off homers there had been in the previous week and proceeded to replay the various calls by the local broadcasters (some radio, some TV). Some were more over the top than others (I’m looking at you, Hawk Harrelson), but all but one reflected the excitement and drama of the game-winning moment. Denny Matthews’ call of Pablo Orlando’s walk-off GRAND SLAM barely registered a pulse. Based on Denny’s delivery, it could have been a foul ball in the 5th inning.
That kind of announcing doesn’t respect the listener, especially on radio, because if I had turned on the radio at that point, his call would not have conveyed any context, drama or excitement. It’s not “matter-of-fact” non-judgmental journalism that he’s practicing; it’s a bored, too-cool-for-the-room approach that doesn’t match the energy that the Royals’ resurgence has created in KC.
Mike, I see your point…however, if you subscribe to your theory about catching the excitement of the good times, then it would follow that it would be the obligation of Denny to be bummed out, depressed, Eoree-ish during the bad times ( that would have made for a long 29 years, not to mention the disappointment of Yankee playoff losses.)
In my mind, the narrative of a baseball season is more than just the winning and losing….there is a bigger picture…from the players, the pre-game, out to out, pitch to pitch, the post game, the off season, ( McGuff and countless others made this happen in afternoon papers)…the zeitgeist… history and baseball are bigger than some self-promoting yahoo trying to make his name at the expense of our internal memory banks. A game-winning home run is a game-winning home run…it is up to us, not another, to supply the genuine value of that memory. Denny’s style respects me to paint my own mind’s mural of the games first draft. Time and perspective will add the emotion.
Good give-and-take between Dick and Mike…You captured the plusses and minuses of Denny’s style and approach…In the end, I agree with Mike — that Denny’s announcing carry’s a tone of entitlement. And that’s a fact: He’s an institution; he’s not going to be fired; and it appears he’s only coming out of the game when the heart attack gets him in the middle of a boring sixth inning. Maybe he’ll emit a grunt or an exclamation that let’s us know something out of the ordinary is taking place.
It’s too bad you went shopping during Sunday’s game when Denny mentioned that the Blue Jays, down 7-1 at the time, would not surprise him by coming back. The always exciting Rex Hudler replied, “Well, I don’t know about them, but I know the Royals have came (sic) back a lot.” Who’s the homer in this picture and who’s the informed observer?
Denny is not entertaining, which for me is a plus. You can turn on ESPN or MLB any time of the day and have someone shout their fifth-grade humor, if that’s your pleasure. Ernie Harwell and Red Barber (a better comparison to Denny) didn’t measure success in decibels, but students of the game appreciated their insights.
Denny has lost some of the hop on his fastball, but he tells me what I need to know to follow the game.
Finally, the law of averages says that Kietzman and I had to agree on something after all these years. And I’ll disagree with you, Fitz, at least on this one.
Early last season, I wrote a letter to Mike Swanson, Royals’ vice-president for communications and broadcasting, calling on him to fire Rex. But a funny thing happened as the year went on. As the Royals got better, I started liking him better and appreciating him a lot more. The reason, primarily, is that, like Ned Yost, he has an unflagging belief in this team and these players, and, to me, it’s infections. I remember him saying that if the Royals got into the playoffs they could go deep, on the strength of their defense and relief pitching. And wouldn’t you know? It came to pass.
…So this week I wrote a letter to Swanson, saying I was wrong about Rex — but I also asked him to fire Josh Vernier, the pre-game and post-game host on 610 radio. He’s as irritating as Rush Limbaugh. His idea of a “call-in” show is to talk nonstop and mention he wants to hear what the fans have to say, but then deciding he has even more to say.
I expect more Royals’ fans would agree with you than with me.
Last year I went against the tide by supporting Ned and with the tide by disliking Rex. I still like Ned (as a manager) and I still dislike Rex (as an announcer). I don’t know either personally, but it would probably be more fun having lunch with Rex than Ned.
But Ned is paid to support and encourage his team, and Rex is paid to analyze the games. You’re right that he was an early believer in our post-season chances. May he would be more tolerable without Phizz fawning over him.
Vernier I hear only rarely so I can’t comment.
And where have Ned’s critics gone anyway?
Oh no, please, not an infection!!
(I know what you meant.)
We’ve ALWAYS liked Rex; he’s very entertaining and says some funny things. And we boo hiss at all the negative letters about him in The Star. There’s a nice report about him on KSHB.
Good article and I’m glad people are starting to talk about this.
Matthews isn’t very good. If you can’t get excited for a walk-off grand slam (Orlando), then what gets you excited?
His wife? :-)
Denny is a lifelong bachelor and fancies himself a ladies man. I had heard about that long ago and got verification from a friend who sat next to him on a plane last year. Denny was showing my friend photos of his latest flame — a show dog who was decades younger than he…But maybe you’re on to something Gayle: Possibly he’s so wiped out from his frolics with the babes that he can’t get up for the broadcast.
…Dammit, I missed that typo on “infections.” Good catch, Gayle.
Show dog? Ouch …
I personally have never dated one…
Gayle is our arbiter of good taste, always standing by with a plastic ruler, ready to rap the knuckles.
…and enjoys a good, snide comment as much as the next person.