{"id":912067,"date":"2026-10-01T09:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912067\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T09:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:18:13","slug":"hall-of-fame-royals-broadcaster-denny-matthews-celebrates-calling-his-8000th-game-kcur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912067\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews celebrates calling his 8,000th game | KCUR"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you tuned the radio to a Kansas City Royals game at any point between 1969 and now, you probably heard the voice of Denny Matthews. In fact, Matthews has called 87%<\/a> of all Royals games since the team\u2019s inception 57 years ago.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, Matthews called his 8,000th game for the team. However, he made sure to remind Up to Date\u2019s Steve Kraske that the official number is now 8,002, after he announced the final two games of the season.<\/p>\n

Despite the Royals having yet another bad game at the tail end of an equally poor season, fans were given a reason to celebrate during the 5th inning when the whole stadium paid tribute to Matthews’ historic milestone. <\/p>\n

Matthews waved from inside the press box as players, staff and fans all waved and tipped their caps<\/a> to the man who’s been the team’s voice for over half a century.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat image and the audio of it all is gonna remain in my memory for as long as I can remember,\u201d Matthews told Up to Date. \u201c\u200aIt was pretty overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Matthews got his start with the Royals alongside veteran announcer Robert \u201cBuddy\u201d Blattner. Matthews considers Blattner to be one of his most influential mentors.<\/p>\n

Matthews is one of only four announcers<\/a> in MLB history to call games for the same team for more than 50 seasons, joining the elite company of Vin Scully, Jaime Jarr\u00edn and Bob Uecker.<\/p>\n

Matthews joined the Royals Hall of Fame in 2004, the Missouri sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, winning the esteemed Ford C. Frick Award<\/a>, the highest honor for baseball broadcasters.<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 years since those accolades, and thousands of games later, Matthews is continuing on to his 59th season.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt’s the enjoyment of being at the ballpark, the people that are there. That’s the reason I’m still in Kansas City,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n

When the Royals went searching for a co-anchor to accompany longtime broadcast veteran Buddy Blattner<\/a> in 1969, 26-year-old Matthews drove down to a Cardinals game in St. Louis to record his audition. That tape ended up securing him the job over more than 200 other applicants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Denny Matthews has been the “voice of the Royals” for about as long as the team has been in the league. Generations of fans can remember listening to his calls on the radio broadcast.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI didn’t think I’d be in Kansas City for this long,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cIn fact, my plan was, having grown up with the Cardinals and the Cubs and the White Sox a little bit in Chicago, I thought maybe St. Louis, Chicago would eventually come calling.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they did. Over the years, teams from all over the league reached out hoping to get Matthews into their own broadcast booths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody is in their house or in their car, wherever they might be\u2026 when they turn the radio on and you’re there, they are inviting you into their environment. And so they are comfortable with you, and that works two ways,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Kansas City’s a very comfortable place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

But perhaps there\u2019s no place in the city where Matthews feels more comfortable than inside Kauffman Stadium. Matthews has been recording from the K since the team\u2019s move from Municipal Stadium in 1973.<\/p>\n

\"Denny<\/p>\n

Sam Lutz<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Kansas City Royals<\/p>\n

Matthews plans on returning for his 59th season next year. He sees the Royals bouncing back from a mediocre year.<\/p>\n

Matthews even had his wedding ceremony<\/a> there this past November, where he married his wife Amy Baker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided that it would be kind of a fun thing to get married at the ballpark, and we told people who were invited, \u2018Do not come into the ballpark with a coat and tie or a fancy dress or even a tux because you’re not gonna be allowed into the wedding. You better wear your Royals gear,\u2019\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n

Current Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre emceed the ceremony.<\/p>\n

As far as next season goes, Matthews has high hopes for the team. This year the Royals finished 69-93, the same record they held their first season in 1969.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you tuned the radio to a Kansas City Royals game at any point between 1969 and now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-912067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}