NEWPORT — Newport native Don Free is a firm believer that good things come to those who wait. Free began his radio career with the Kansas City Royals Radio Network in 1986, one year removed from a World Series Championship for the Missouri-based Major League Baseball team. Twenty-nine years later, Free will end his career with a World Series ring after the Royals beat the New York Mets in five games early in November.
“I never really thought about the World Series when I first got the job,” said Free, the longtime producer/engineer for the Royals, who will officially retire in June 2016.
“In 1985, they weren’t even the best team. They only won 85 games, but they played together, and of course, St. Louis had all the injuries that year. We had some good things happen for us along the way. I just figured they would play well, and whatever happened would happen, and of course, it took 20-plus years to get back.”
Free never played the game he loves but was involved in other sports growing up. Free played football and ran track, but when it came to baseball, he chose to be involved as the manager for an American Legion team. Free said he saw his first semiprofessional games in Memphis watching the Chickasaw Indians, a minor league farm team for the Cleveland Indians. His first taste of major league baseball, like so many others who live in this area, was the St. Louis Cardinals — for his 17th birthday in 1963.
“Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, who worked at Kelly’s Big Star, took me and their son Jerry, who was in my class, to St. Louis to the old Busch Stadium for my birthday,” Free said. “I remember we went back to the hotel room after the game, where we were going to celebrate and cut the cake, but we didn’t have anything to cut with, so we used a toothbrush. I never will forget that trip for a number of reasons.”
That trip to St. Louis was just the first of many road trips to come after Free enlisted in the Air Force. Free left Newport in 1964 and arrived that same year at Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kansas. It was there that he wanted to pursue an interest in electronics, but that path did not initially take off.
“I flunked the military test, so I was assigned to be a supply clerk,” Free said. “Actually, I was inventory manager and specialist. Three years in, I went out to the TV station (WIBW-13) and applied for a job and got on as a cameraman. After I got out of the service, I started working full time, and the rest is history.”
There are only a handful of people who produce Major League Baseball games, and only about 10 of these lucky few travel and do every single game, in addition to spring training. Free is among this elite group. Free said there are a lot of long nights and time away from his family, but he compared it to being a school teacher, only you have the winters off and more time to spend with loved ones and family during those months.
“I drive 140 miles round trip every day to work,” Free said. “I loved going on the road because I didn’t have to drive anywhere. I had the opportunity to travel on the team bus and fly with the team. We used charter flights with United [Airlines] based out of Houston. We have great crews, and they treat us really nice. They make sure that
everything works OK, and I get to be near the game and just have fun at it.
“Things have changed a lot since I started. In 1985. I had one case, and now I carry five cases. Over the last 10 years, I have run the Royals network straight off my laptop. I do all the commercials, and I send the automation commands that tell the stations that it’s time for them to go to break. I just send a command down the line to make sure [they do].”
Free also has the opportunity to work with other producers and engineers from the various major league teams. Free called it a small fraternity of brothers who do whatever it takes to make the other person’s job go smoothly. Free said that while every team does not travel with an engineer, he has a close bond with the ones that do.
“We always get together doing spring training,” Free said. “One of my best friends, Kevin Cremin, works for Seattle, and he was one of the engineers for ESPN doing the World Series. We always try to help each other, and we do anything we can for each other.”
Mike Cannon, the former producer and engineer for the Houston Astros, recalled the first time he met Free in 1995. Cannon said the things that stood out about Free the most were his smile and his desire to help everyone have a memorable visit to Kansas City, even when things weren’t always going smoothly in the booth.
“My first season with the Astros was the ’95 season,” Cannon said. “When I arrived at spring training, one of the first people I met with another team was my counterpart with the KC Royals, Don Free. The Royals trained very close to Kissimmee, so we played them a lot. Don and I became friends. When you went to play the Royals, from a radio-broadcast standpoint, there was nothing you could need that Don did not provide. He was and is a consummate professional — friendly, helpful and engaging. He told me he was the best broadcast engineer in baseball. I objected, and we settled on him being the best in the American League and me being the best in the National League,” Cannon said, noting that the Astros have since moved over to the American League.
“One of my saddest days in the game was when the Royals moved their spring training from Florida to Arizona and took my friend Don with them,” Cannon said. “He probably does not know that he was my baseball mentor and that I tried my best to be as good as him and as accommodating to visiting broadcast crews at my ballpark as he was at his for my 17 years with the Astros.”
Free said the chance to work the World Series was well worth the wait and called it an awesome feeling on both trips to baseball’s best-of-seven championship, despite coming up short the first time around.
“I remember getting there last year and losing in the seventh game,” Free said. “To come back this year and win it the way we did is something I will never forget. It’s just unbelievable.”
Free credits the vision of Royals owner David Glass and the hiring of general manager Dayton Moore as a big part of the Royals’ recent success. Free said in his entire 29 years of working in Major League Baseball, this year’s world-champion Royals are most like a family, rather than a baseball team.
“When Moore came six years ago, we started getting some really good players,” Free said. “He started to make moves, and it all just fell in place and started to jell. These guys love each other, and they are just like a family to each other, and I think that’s the difference. We have several free agents, but we hope to get back as many as we can. I think the fact that Moore is actually from Kansas is also a plus. He trained in Atlanta during the good years under Bobby Cox.”
Free and his wife, Sandy, have been married for 35 years, and they have two daughters, Kristin and Jennifer. His sister Dorothy and her husband, Rick, live in McCrory. Free said that in all his 48 years of working broadcast, his favorite stadium is Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington.
“The dome … and it’s just so pretty up there,” Free said. “And there is just something special about the smell of rain while you are playing baseball. It’s really neat. I really enjoyed every moment of my time with the Royals.”