Tales from the Royals dugout

I'm just about through the new book, Tales from the Royals Dugout, by Denny Matthews with Matt Fulks. The book jumps around a lot and at times seems a little unorganized, but for the most part, it lives up to it's advertising—great stories told by someone who has been with the organization since day one. I've included a link to the book on amazon.com on the left hand side of this site under the "Royal Reads" section if you are interested in purchasing a copy.

My favorite chapter was chapter six: The Men in Royal Blue. Denny wrote blurbs about 78 players by my count in this chapter. It is so current that it includes a blurb about Jose Lima and it has stories that you may not have heard before. Chapter five is about the players who are in the Royals Hall of Fame. Good, good stuff.

I have been listening to Denny Matthews since I was a child. And to think that he started calling Royals games when I was three years old seems almost unbelievable. I had the pleasure of meeting him earlier this year when I was in the press club working on a couple of profile articles for publications. Of course, he was a nice guy—until he blamed the loss that day on my presence. It was one of those gut-wrenching, early season losses that we got used to after a while. We weren't used to it at that point though. I plead innocent.