The following article was published in the Topeka Capital-Journal on April 28, 2018 – you can read it here.

One of the most iconic sounds in the Midwest is the sound of a Royals broadcast on radio. For many, it was the soundtrack of summer, whether while in the car, working in the yard, or drifting off to sleep on a warm evening.

If you were one of the thousands who tuned in, you heard one man’s name mentioned. He was to a large degree responsible for the broadcast. Yet you probably had no idea who he was.

As the announcers, almost always including Denny Matthews, signed off each evening, they noted that Don Free served as “producer/engineer” for the broadcast. That was, from 1986 until last September, when Free retired from his longtime position with the Royals.

The Capital-Journal’s Kevin Haskin described the sendoff Free received from the Royals last September, including throwing out the first pitch on Sept. 29. Free stepped away at the age of 71 with a World Series ring and a world of memories.

Now several months into retirement, one might be tempted to say Don Free is finally a free man, but he prefers to say now he’s “just Sandy Free’s husband.”

For 32 years, Free made the drive from Topeka to Kansas City for Royals home games, and boarded planes to fly with the team all over the country for road trips. But having already worked for 20 years in Topeka, most of it with WIBW, and with a wife and two daughters settled in town, it was important to the Frees that Topeka remain their home base.

Free’s wife served as a nurse in Topeka, while he worked in TV broadcasting prior to joining the Royals. He cut his teeth in radio during the Royals stretch run to the 1985 championship, filling in while longtime producer/engineer Ed Shepherd took some time off. After the season, Shepherd retired.

“When the job came open after the 1985 season, I had been going to Kauffman Stadium for 10 years already, doing TV broadcasts occasionally,” Free said. “So I thought ‘Well, I gotta try.’ I talked it over with the girls, and they said ‘Of course.’ But when I actually got the job, I was really surprised.”

Thus began three decades of tireless travel for Free, and three decades of losing baseball by the Royals.

“We had just won the World Series when I started, so I thought I was going to see a lot of playoff races, and playoff games,” Free said.

Free spent those bleak years seated behind Denny Matthews and the other announcers in the Royals radio suite, running a soundboard and controlling the broadcast. In spite of the losing seasons, he never wavered.

“Don was probably the hardest worker, the most diligent I’ve ever been around,” Matthews said. “He left nothing to chance. He would have all the equipment set up hours before the broadcast, but he wanted to make sure everything was just right. He was like that on the road, too, where things were a little more out of his control. He never let down, and that never changed over all his years.”

Matthews was impressed by Free’s ability, and determination, to fix, correct or improve just about everything he got his hands on.

“He was so helpful. Someone would come in with something wrong, and he would obsess and make sure that it was fixed,” Matthews recalled. “Even engineers from other teams would come to him for help or advice. He was a great employee and always easy to work with because he made sure everything was right every time.”

Free said he ran on adrenaline through the Royals’ two marches to the World Series in 2014 and 2015. He said he got just 10 hours of sleep during one four-day stretch of the 2015 series.

“I was pretty much the first one there and the last to leave for every game,” Free said. “It finally caught up to me after 32 years. I was pretty run down. I just didn’t have the same energy level anymore.”

Free had seen many great players retire during his decades in Kansas City. Now it was his turn to hang it up. He said he’s ready to be Sandy Free’s husband, content to follow the Royals from his living room in Topeka, when he’s not on the road to visit grandchildren.

“I met such great people and made so many memories,” said Free. “It was an unbelievable experience.”