McCook Nebraska was likely be one of the last places the Russians would take, although the fidelity to the color red could have caused problems. (via www.visitmccook.com)

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The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball.

McCook, Nebraska

Miles from Kansas City: 418

Population: 8.000

Nebraska is part of the Royals true homeland. Though its rather unfortunately empty -- Nebraska's population of just 1.7 million is significantly small, even by the modest standards of its region -- there are probably still more Royals fans in Nebraska than anywhere else in the United States, save for the obvious duo of Kansas & Missouri. Aside the inevitable and unfortunate disease of Cub-fandom in Nebraska, the Royals are clearly the team in the Cornhusker State, to a greater extent anywhere outside of Kansas. As such, Nebraska doesn't make for an especially passionate part of the fanbase, but it certainly is a reliable one, which perhaps is also a somewhat lazy analog for the state as a whole. Thanks to Nebraska, we can say with certainty that the Royals truly have a regional fanbase, and for that, at least one Royals fan is thankful.

An affiliate of large importance in Nebraska is McCook [1300 KBRL-AM]. The Royals only have nine radio affiliates spread out across Nebraska, and thanks to a decline in the number of affiliates since the team's glory days, McCook is now the western most outpost in the state, and one of the furthest west in the entire network. McCook is closer to Denver (270 miles) than it is to either Omaha (284) or Kansas City (418 miles), obviously. Essentially halfway between highways 80 & 70, it's also somewhat isolated. Though it's an obscure rite of passage for many Americans to make a cross-country drive at some point, most who pass through Nebraska will only marvel at places such as North Platte or Grand Island, missing McCook forever. McCook is only sixteen miles north of the Kansas border.

McCook is a large town by Nebraska standards, given that 89% of the cities there have fewer than 3,000 people. With a population of roughly 8,000 people, McCook is the 21st largest city in the state, just behind fellow Radio Affiliate, York. McCook is also the county seat and largest city in Red Willow County, the 24st largest in the state. The Red Willow County prefix is 48, so if you pull up behind some hottie with Nebraska plates and a random 48 somewhere in there, she's likely from McCook. The county prefix is such because in 1922 it had the 48th most registered vehicles in the state. No, really. This is the reason. Sarpy County, now the 3rd most populous county in the state, has a prefix of 59.

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It floods in Monett. Often.

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The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball.

Monett, Missouri [990 KRMO-AM]

Population: 7,396

Miles from Kansas City: 184

Located 184 miles to the south of Kansas City lies Monett, Missouri. Monett (mow-net locally) straddles the line dividing Barry and Lawrence counties in far-southern Missouri. Most of Monett is in Barry, the more southern of the counties, where the city is also the largest in the county. Monett is sometimes described as an "Ozark Town" and in the most general sense, it is. However, the town itself is north of any real ridges, hills, or mountains, and looks like it could be anywhere else in Missouri. Large tracts of the Mark Twain National Forest lie not far from town however. Beyond these natural proximities, Monett is just a Miguel Olivo passed ball from either Joplin to the west or Springfield to the east.

As discussed before on this site, despite being much more of a local team, the Royals tend to play second fiddle to the Cardinals in the greater Joplin-Springfield region. However, the Royals do seem to be making a concerted effort to raise their profile in northwestern Arkansas, so perhaps some of that powder blue pride will seep back into southern Missouri. It isn't 1960 anymore and there remains no real reason for the Cardinals to so thoroughly dominate the I-44 corridor the way that they do. What we can do to help is to start making pamphlets describing Willie Bloomquist, pool our resources, and coordinate propaganda air drops in the region.

Late into the 19th century Monett was known as both Plymouth and Gonten, though as far as I can tell, the name Monett stuck when the railroad came through the town in 1887, and it isn't too much of an assumption to guess that the railroad also played a large role in renaming the town.

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Mama's Family fans flock to Iola every Spring for Iola Fest. Activities include a knitting competition, bow-making, a rhubarb pie contest, and an ecstasy and viagra aided orgy.

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The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball.

Iola, Kansas

Population: 5,966

Miles from Kansas City: 103

Kansas is the heart of the Royals Radio Network, with more affiliates than any other state. Better still, unlike many of the far-flung affiliates in Iowa, Oklahoma or even, sigh, Missouri, in Kansas, the Royals are the team. If you're a baseball fan in Kansas, you're probably a Royals fan.

Iola, Kansas lies two hours south of Kansas City in southeastern Kansas. Long the bitter rival of the nearby town of Humboldt, Iola is the county seat of Allen County and the county's largest city. Thanks in part to Iola's population, Allen County is the 33rd most populous of Kansas's 105 counties, with 14,300 residents. In 1910, the country was nearly twice as populous, with over 27,000 residents. Nobody knows where the vanishing midwesterners went to, though it is surmised that they sailed westward, perhaps with the help of Celtic monks, to a land beyond the sunset. John McCain won Allen County last fall with 61% of the vote.

Contrary to popular belief, Iola was not named after Iola Boyland, the beloved neighbor on the classic sitcom Mama's Family. Instead, Iola was the wife of one of the town founders, and the residents of the city supposedly chose her name as the city's in a vote. Because there's nothing that is more appealing to a pioneer than honoring a rich guy's wife. They love that. Really.

Iola's founding is generally dated in 1859, making 2009 the town's Sesquicentennial Year. Celebratory events began this last weekend, with the marking of Dandelion Day at the Gazebo on the Town Square. Various events are planned throughout the summer, including a Beard Growing Contest beginning in August. For a number of historical photographs of Iola, click here

In 1951, along with a number of cities in Kansas and Missouri, Iola was hit with a major flood, one of the worst of the 20th century. The Neosho River overran its banks, spilling into downtown Iola.

Iola claims to have the largest downtown square west of the Mississippi. This is interesting because I actually grew up in a small town, also west of that river, which claimed to have the largest square IN THE COUNTRY. The internet isn't large enough for these two.

 Everything's bigger in Iola.

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The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball. Baseball on the radio is a decidedly low-stakes, low-tech venture. Let it always lay hidden like a strength in the backyards of the mind.

Hastings, Nebraska

Population: 24,064

Miles from Kansas City: 280

Two hundred and eighty miles north of Kansas City lies Hastings, a proud Royals Radio affiliate in central Nebraska and one of the most colorful cities in the Cornhusker State. How colorful you ask? It stands out like a big glass bowl of bright blue Kool-Aid on a white cotton table cloth. The home of Tom Osborne and the original Kool-Aide man, Hastings is one of a handful of outlying Nebraska affiliates that may remain loyal to the Royals long after the Omaha-Lincoln corridor secumbs to all things Cub.

The county seat of Adams County (pop. 31,151, 11th largest in the state) Hastings was founded in 1872 and named for Thomas Hastings, a railroad contractor. If you ever want to have a town named after you, I suggest that you build a time machine, go back to about 1850, and start working for a railroad. I can't guarantee what state your town will end up in, but rest assured, it will happen. Just down the road, fellow Royals Radio Network Affiliate Holdrege, Ne, was named just the same way. Anyway, Hastings quickly grew as a railroad town, and also recieved some residual benefit from being close to the old Oregon Trail route. Today, four Fortune 500 Companies have offices in Hastings.

Downtown Hastings, done up for Arbor Day I believe. I see a tree, and it is Nebraska.

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The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball. In an era defined by the endless quest for the big money, baseball on the radio is a decidedly low-stakes, low-tech venture. Let it always lay hidden like a strength in the backyards of the mind.

St. Joseph, Missouri- 680 KREQ-AM

Miles from Kansas City: 55

St. Joseph, about an hour's drive north of Kansas City on the mighty Missouri, is not surprisingly one of the Royals' strongest radio affiliates not directly in the Kansas City metro area. Then again, considering St. Joe is barely farther from KCI than many parts of Kansas City... With a population of around 73,000 (metro area ~123,000) St. Joe is a crucial affiliate in the quiet corner of northwestern Missouri, which unlike the treacherous environs of the southwest (I'm looking squarely at you Joplin and Springfield) has remained, more or less, Royal blue. In fact, a large number of this own site's regular readers are from St. Joe, which makes me somewhat nervous to be writing about it.

In earlier installments of this series I've tried to talk about the unique character of small cities like Enid, Oklahoma. St. Joe, though larger than Enid, certainly fits that profile. Unfortunately, I have never been to St. Joe, and am not a huge fan of northern Missouri generally (see, Trenton), so I sincerely invite you to comment with your impressions of St. Joe's general vibe.

Founded in 1843, like a number of Royals Radio Affiliates, St. Joseph's population peaked long ago, in this case around 1900, when she topped 100,000. By 1910 however, the population was down to 77,000 (what the hell happened?), a figure that St. Joe has hovered around for the last hundred years. In particular, both the 1970s and 1990s saw the city lose substantial chunks of population, canceling out the modest gains made earlier.

As even wikipedia will tell you, the two major talking points of St. Joseph's early history are 1) the town's status as an end-point on the Pony Express and 2) the demise of Jesse James, who was killed in town in 1882. Oddly enough, Betty Dorsett Duke, of Trey Hillman's pseudo-hometown of Liberty Hill, Texas, claims that Jesse James actually lived and died in Texas. This, however, is sorta a Texas thing, as the town of Hico, Texas, has long claimed that Billy the Kid also lived and then died there as well.

As for the Pony Express angle, St. Joe boasts the Pony Express Museum, which was renovated in 1993, which may have also been the last year the Royals were a legitimately good baseball team. The Pony Express Museum not only offers group tours and a wealth of P.E. history, but also a Community Room available for public use. If I was going to marry a St. Joe girl, I'd like to have the wedding reception right there. Although, since the Pony Express only lasted like two years, maybe that would be bad luck. Or maybe good luck, depending on the girl. Or me.

While Springfield, in many ways a similar "out-state city" has continued to experience occasional periods of growth, this has not been the case with St. Joe, which in the 1990s actually grew at a lower rate than Joplin, Cape Girardeau, Columbia or Springfield. According to  Lawrence H. Larsen in A History of Missouri, Vol. 6. (link) it has been shifts in the agribusiness market which have hurt St. Joe. Still, according to the Chamber of Commerce, the getting should be good,

St. Joseph's favorable tax structure translates directly into industry profitability, and the City of St. Joseph and Buchanan County provide a pro-business environment with attractive tax rates and competitive incentives for growing companies. Undoubtedly one of the city’s most valuable resources is the people. St. Joseph workers have a reputation for hard work, high productivity and low absenteeism and turnover.

You know which city's workers have a reputation of lazy work and non-stop absenteeism? Well do I even have to say it? Actually, I think somewhere in Northern Ireland is the worst. You thought I was setting up a Joplin joke there, didn't you?

For more relevant stats on St. Joe and how it compares to other U.S. Cities, the CNN/Money breakdown is useful. (Can a local let us know how St. Joe has low air-quality?)

St. Joe's largest local employer is the hospital, but the downtown skyline is dominated by the Hillyard Building, as seen above. Hillyard Industries - The Cleaning Resource, founded in St. Joseph in 1907, still produces a variety of cleaning supplies, offers management seminars at Hillyard University and now offers a variety of green cleaning products. Can disinfectants really be green you ask? Yes, yes they can.  (Buchanan County, by the way, was one of nine Missouri counties that went for Obama in November, by a slim 47 vote margin.)

For a thoughtful account of St. Joseph, as well as a number of nice photographs, click here. By way of warning, I should say that the author sees similarities to St. Louis,

"St. Jo has many familiar faces: the old industrial section next to the river, the (now) flooding waterfront park, the old warehouse area, the nearly vacant downtown, the "it will save downtown" arena, parking garage and hotel combination, numerous older residential areas, new suburban homes and auto-centric chain shopping areas with mid to big boxes."

They never said St. Joe wasn't clean.

St. Joseph is in an interesting position media-wise, large enough to have a local ABC Television Affiliate, a strong daily paper with good Royals coverage from R.J. Cooper, but perhaps a little too close to Kansas City to extend beyond that. St. Joe is roughly the 179th largest television market in the United States. As a reference point, here are the others in Missouri: St. Louis (20th), K.C. (27th), Springfield (130th) (74th), Jefferson City (131st), Joplin (156th). In addition to, of course, the radio, St. Joe also has its own CW & TBN affiliates and St. Joe Now, a cable channel.

Missouri Western State University has called St. Joseph home since 1915, and is home to 5,300 undergraduate students. M.W.S.U. offers over 90 majors. One of my favorite campus clubs is the Alchemist Club, though they seem more interested in networking than in finding the Philosopher's Stone. The odds are, the Matrix Club has already found it. M.W.S.U. is represented on the fields of sport by the Griffins, and those Griffins are supported by a full complement of dance (the Mystics) and cheer teams.

The 2007 MWSU Mystics listened to the Royals CONSTANTLY on 680 AM. Never moreso than on their trip to St. Louis, pictured here. When they left KFEQ's signal area, the girl in the pink doing the hand signs pulled out a printed list of radio affiliates and helped the bus driver find the best station to find Denny.
 

A number of Major League baseball players have been born in St. Joseph. Byron Browne is probably the most successful of these five or six players, appearing in 349 games as an outfielder from 1965-72. A career 99 OPS+ hitter, Browne was an alum of MWSU and led the National League in strikeouts with 143 in 1966. However, hardcore Royals fans may remember Jim Wright (stats) a right-handed pitcher who appeared in 24 games with the Royals in 1981 & 1982. Mostly a reliever, Wright's 4.04 ERA was just a tick above the 3.74 league average. After the 1982 season, Wright was traded to the Cubs for Mike King, and it appears that neither player appeared in the Majors ever again (actually, King never had). Sadly, a number of former players have also died in St. Joe. For whatever reason, they have almost all been obscure old-time players like Bill Bishop (appeared in two games in 1920), Oad Swigart and Frosty Thomas (two games played, in 1905).

Other than Jesse James and ex-Royal Jim Wright, St. Joe's most famous son is Walter Cronkite, born in St. Joe in 1916 (its the same old thing, since 1916, in your head, in your head...). Beyond Cronkite (still with us, which is cool) the city can claim a truly impressive musical fatherhood. Steve Walsh of Kansas grew up in St. Joe, as did Eminem, aka Marshal Mathers, who was born in St. Joe as part of a nomadic childhood. In 2003, a parade for Eminem was held in St. Joe, although the rapper did not attend. Aspiring R&B star Kelli Pyle (relationship to Howard unknown) is also a child of the Joe.

I'm gonna rent myself a house, in the shade of the freeway...

Unlike, sadly perhaps, the majority of Royals Radio Affiliates, the boys in blue & white are the undisputed first team in St. Joe. Located north, rather than east of KC, there's a nice, though far from unimpeachable boundary from Cardinal Nation (they have a radio affiliate in St. Joe as well) and the city is more than close enough for an easy day-trip down to the K for a game. Despite a number of alternating down-decades followed by mini-periods of stability, according to some, the future of St. Joe looks bright. May her fortunes, along with those of the Royals, continue to rise.

Previous Affiliate Profiles:

York, Nebraska
Conway, Arkansas
Waynesville, Missouri
Topeka, Kansas
Storm Lake, Iowa
Vinita, Oklahoma
California, Missouri
Garden City, Kansas
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Ulysses, Kansas
Trenton, Missouri
Fairbury, Nebraska
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Winfield, Kansas
Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Butler, Missouri
Enid, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bolivar, Missouri
Holdrege, Nebraska
Shenandoah, Iowa

Shenandoah Iowa: KMA-AM 960

Miles from Kansas City: 138 miles
Population: 5,546

The "seed and nursery center of the world" Shenandoah is one of six radio affiliates in Iowa, a state the Royals are only barely remaining viable in. Shenandoah is the rare small city that straddles two counties, in this case Fremont and Page counties, although the vast majority of the city lies in the latter. Both counties have endured substantial population loss during the last century, and are much smaller today than they were in 1900, a remarkable fact considering how much larger the overall population of the country is today. After fifty years of zero growth, around after 1950, true decay set in in southwest Iowa.

Meanwhile, the nation has moved on. In 1900 the population of the U.S. was roughly 76 million, today its nearly four times larger, at 305 million. Despite those sobering statistics, according to the Chamber of Commerce, Shenandoah is a wonderful place to be:

Welcome to Shenandoah, Iowa, the Garden City, a place to shop for a day, visit for a week or live the rest of your life! Shenandoah is a progressive, bustling community full of gardens, entrepreneurs, industry, opportunity, and friendly people. Its unique shops and restaurants have made it the retail hub of southwest Iowa. Shenandoah's lifestyle and appearance have sprouted from a tradition and heritage of garden industries. It's a safe place to raise a family with a top notch school system and is filled with recreation, attractions, and activities for all ages. Its low cost of living, extensive healthcare, and relaxed lifestyle also make it a great place to retire.

Written during Shenandoah’s glory days, W.L. Kershaw’s 1909 book, The History of Page County notes that, "Shenandoah was originally called Fair Oaks, though for what reason cannot be imagined, as no oak trees or any other kind were found on the site of the town" (381). On August 6, 1870 however Fair Oaks was christened Shenandoah, supposedly because of the similarities between the local scenery and the Shenandoah valley in Virginia, which makes little sense either. The town’s proximity to the Chicago, Quincy & Burlington Railroad was what turned it into a real community, drawing in residents from the rest of the county. At the time of Kershaw’s writing, the founding fathers of Shenandoah were still alive, and their accounts testify to the city’s essential birth as a railroad boomtown, not that they would have chosen to describe it in exactly that way. As one account collected by Kershaw begins, "the child is born. Its name is Shenandoah. The story of this indigenous offspring of the prairie forms an era in the future history and romance of one of the loveliest villages of the west" (383). Interestingly, Kershaw opened his history of Page County with this bombshell,

"it is conceded by historians who have given the subject deep thought and careful research that this country was inhabited by a race of beings distinct from the red man. But that is beyond the province of this work. The men and women who opened this state to civilization had only the red man to dispute their coming and obstruct their progress… (6)

Fair enough.

Around downtown Shenandoah lies the Shenandoah Fame Walk, which includes some of Shenandoah’s most famous names, including Don & Phil Everly, aka "The Everly Brothers". Despite a sometimes rocky fraternal relationship, the Everly Brothers charted over twenty six Top 40 singles during their career, including the 1960 number one hit, Cathy’s Clown. Notably, the Everlys also sang backup on Paul Simon’s Graceland album, including on the title track. The Beehive, the E.B. fanclub, is online. A letter to fans from November 2005 reveals a complicated set of disputes, boycotts and confusion.

Western Iowa: Like a window in your heart.

Shenandoah is the proud home of the Mustangs and Fillies, of Shenandoah High School. Since this is Iowa, there’s a mysterious devotion to wrestling, a nearly incomprensible sport to ninety percent of the U.S. population. One of my few good memories from my years at the UI, I believe, were the times I would ironically try to listen to wrestling on the radio (most, if not all, Hawkeye matches had radio coverage) and try to understand even one bit of what was going on. The Shenandoah H.S. webpage is no exception, providing a quite extensive account of the ’07-’08 campaign. Royals Review extends its congratulations to Wes Swygman, Caleb Owens, Cord Willers (yep) and Jake Schubert, the Wrestlers of the Week for Week #8.

So is Shenandoah a Hawkeye or Cyclone town? Well, other than their insane devotion to the Royals, which goes without saying, 960 AM (also the Royals affiliate) was listed as a Cyclone affiliate on a random 2006 webpage I discovered, which makes sense given the vague east/west divide that exists in Iowa. Currently, neither Iowa nor Iowa State has any former Mustangs on their football or basketball rosters. Heck, Iowa only has two native sons on the basketball team, and one of them is the coach’s son, who really grew up in Indiana.

Iowa Western Community College, with an enrollment of over 5,000 and branch campuses in Shenandoah and Clarinda, is the area’s primary source for higher education. At the main campus in Council Bluffs (the Iowa side of the Omaha metro) is the main campus, including the school’s athletic teams, The Reivers. What is a reiver, you ask? A reiver is a river pirate.

The IWCC Reiver Sprit Squad listens to the Royals constantly on 960 AM when near Shenandoah, which they are with great regularity.

Has Shenandoah ever produced a Major League baseball player? With towns this size, its never a sure thing, despite Iowa’s former status as a relatively populous, nearly entirely white, state during the pre-integration era of baseball. The question comes down to the contested birthplace of Max Marshall (1913-1983) an outfielder who played three seasons with the Reds during the depths of the Second World War. According to the Baseball Cube, Marshall was born in Shenandoah, while Baseball-Reference lists Marshall as being born in Randolph, a smaller town eighteen miles away. There isn’t a clear consensus here and a run through various internet sites (most of whom are getting their information from one another obviously) shows both Randolph and Shenandoah as listed birthplaces. A story in the Des Moines Register about Iowa ballplayers lists Marshall as a Shenandoah boy, and lists an actual person as the source of this information, so we’ll go with that. Marshall was a just slightly below average hitter (career OPS+ 84) who debuted for the Reds as a 28 year old in 1942. His best season was his final one, a 1944 campaign that saw him hit .245/.308/.371. For people who think baseball was always a speed game and that steroids destroyed our national innocence by killing little ball, we note that in 1943 Marshall stole eight bases, which was good for 10th best in the National League. Max Marshall played the game the right way and died in Salem, Oregon in 1983.

Interestingly while on the subject of baseball, during the boom days, Shenandoah had a few minor league teams. In 1903 Shenandoah had an affiliate in the Southwest Iowa League, a class D outfit. Shenandoah’s squad finished 22-14, middle of the pack in the six team league, but disbanded mid-season. Eight years later, a Shenandoah club spent two seasons in the so-called Mink League so named because it was based in Missouri-Nebraska-Iowa-Kansas. The Shenandoah Pin-Rollers competed in the Mink League in 1910 and 1911, finishing third and fourth, respectively, in the six-team league. Fellow future Royals Radio Affiliate Nebraska City was also a member of the league.

The Royals affiliate in Shenandoah, KMA 960 AM is one of the hoary bearded elders of the Royals Radio Network and a fixture in southwestern Iowa since 1925. The station was long linked to Earl May’s various seed ventures in the region and was mentioned in the film version of The Bridges of Madison County. On good nights, KMA can be heard from Topeka, Kansas to Sioux City, Iowa and points in between. Thanks to KMA, despite the ravages of population loss in the region, Shenandoah remains a key affiliate.

May her next hundred years be better than the last.

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Previous Affiliate Profiles:

York, Nebraska
Conway, Arkansas
Waynesville, Missouri
Topeka, Kansas
Storm Lake, Iowa
Vinita, Oklahoma
California, Missouri
Garden City, Kansas
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Ulysses, Kansas
Trenton, Missouri
Fairbury, Nebraska
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Winfield, Kansas
Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Butler, Missouri
Enid, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bolivar, Missouri
Holdrege, Nebraska

The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball. In an era defined by the endless quest for the big money, baseball on the radio is a decidedly low-stakes, low-tech venture. Let it always lay hidden like a strength in the backyards of the mind.

Holdrege, Nebraska- KMTY-FM 97.7

Population: 5,636
Miles from Kansas City: 330

Four hours west/northwest of Kansas City, Holdrege is the Seat of Phelps County and a key affiliate in southwestern Nebraska. Despite being mostly unchallenged in rural Nebraska, the Royals have only seven radio affiliates in the Cornhusker State with the smallish Holdrege left to carry a flag that’s been dropped by Grand Island. Then again, as we know from BHWick’s look into the history of the network the Royals have always been weirdly weak in Nebraska: even in the heady days of 1980, Kansas City had only nine affiliates there, although two where in the aforementioned Grand Island. Holdrege remains the firewall against apathy in its corner of the state.

Founded in the 1880s, Holdrege is named for George W. Holdrege, a railroad executive who played a key role in developing the area around Phelps County, including encouraging immigration. In 1928 a monument to Holdrege was unveiled in town. According to the Chamber of Commerce, Holdrege is a great place to live because "Holdrege Focuses on ‘Family’", and I can only assume those quotation marks around "family" mean that they’ve come to define it in a different way in Holdrege. Makes sense too, considering that 23% of Phelps County voted for Barack HUSSEIN Obama this November.

Have you noticed that there’s like no celebration of Christmas anymore? Not in Holdrege, which is already offering Christmas Horse & Buggy rides and on November 13, had Christmas Carolers singing downtown. The fun will run through December, with Santa’s House located on East Avenue, across from the bank. Aside from Christmas, the big event in Holdrege is Swedish Days, held annually at midsummer. I’m sorry, midsommar. This last year, the Fest featured book talks, a Christian music concert, a fishing contest, an air show, and of course, the tassel-dances. (Video highlights here.) However, the most unique event, may be the annual bed races. (Again, its all about "family" in Holdrege.) Apparently, bed racing is a big folky Swedish thing, and a hallmark of many similar festivals. This year’s celebration also marked Holdrege’s 125th anniversary. Your humble blogger attempted to find more information on the Days, especially the winner of Swedish Days King & Queen. However, Holdrege does not appear to have a local newspaper, making it especially difficult. If you know who won, please let us know… Similarly, I really wanted to add a nice picture of a Swedish-looking woman to help illustrate this post, but could find nothing online in that direction. I guess there aren’t any. All I can offer is this late-90's style web graphic.

A variant of the Cross of Scania, every Scandinavian country has a flag with this design. Which is your favorite?

Seven miles from Holdrege lies the town of Atlanta, which is both Dayton Moore’s favorite place to scout and perhaps the most interesting historical site in Phelps County. Now essentially a ghost town, during World War II Atlanta was the home of a prison camp called Camp Atlanta. Originally built to hold conscientious objectors, Camp Atlantaa (this is a great link, btw) eventually held over 3,000 German POWs. The labor provided by these prisoners was a major boon to local agriculture. As to how much better the Nazis were at husking corn were than the COs, it is not known. Glenn Thompson, a Holdrege resident, is the author of Prisoners on the Plains (link) which is an account of the Camp.

via www.nebraskaprairie.org

On the south edge of town lies Lake Seldom, which is a restored wetland designed to serve as a habitat for birds. Although an outsider might not realize it, this region of Nebraska is one of the most unique birdwatching regions of the country. (Ideally, the Royals would find a way to capitzlie on this regional strength. Sandhill Crane Day at the K NOW!) If birding isn’t your thing, you can roll a few frames at the Hasty Lanes Bowling Alley.

No Major League player has ever been born in Holdrege, and as far as I can tell, anywhere else in Phelps County. Considering only 105 native-born Nebraskans have ever made the Major Leagues, this is not that surprising. (Seriously, how shockingly low is that number? Then again, as I said last week, no one lives in Nebraska.) Otto Miller, however, was born in Minden, and may be the closest thing to a local player ever. Born in 1889, Lowell Otto Miller, nicknamed "Moonie", was a catcher/1B for the Brooklyn Robins (nee Superbas) for thirteen years (1910-1922). In 927 career games, Moonie hit .245/.275/.308, which wasn’t terribly good, even in the 1910s, and comes out to an OPS+ of 67. The Robins made the World Series in both 1916 & 1920, losing both times (Red Sox & Indians). Moonie went 3-22 with a walk in post-season play. Miller seems to have stayed in Brooklyn after his career ended, dying there in 1962. Miller’s death was a strange and possibly tragic one, as he fell/jumped from a fourth story window.

On a happier note, some dude who walked across America, or is, or was trying, went through Holdrege this April. It is uncertain as to if he listened to the Royals while doing something.

Finally, a poem from Bill Holm, a Minnesotan of Icelandic heritage who looks disturbingly like Ron Gardenhire.

Under Holdrege, Nebraska

I skip stones into billowing Nebraska wheat
as if it were a rolling golden ocean.
One nips the beard in seven arcs until
it cuts into a breaker and sinks.
No telling how far that stone will drop.

-Bill Holm

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Previous Affiliate Profiles:

York, Nebraska
Conway, Arkansas
Waynesville, Missouri
Topeka, Kansas
Storm Lake, Iowa
Vinita, Oklahoma
California, Missouri
Garden City, Kansas
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Ulysses, Kansas
Trenton, Missouri
Fairbury, Nebraska
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Winfield, Kansas
Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Butler, Missouri
Enid, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bolivar, Missouri

The Royals Radio Network is comprised of over eighty affiliates and stretches across seven states. In this recurring series (previous features listed below at the bottom of the page) Royals Review attempts to give each affiliate its proper airing, celebrating the regional reach and heritage of Royals baseball. In a sporting era corrupted by the endless quest for the big money, baseball on the radio is a decidedly low-stakes, low-tech venture. Let it always lay hidden like a strength in the backyards of the mind.

Bolivar, Missouri

Miles from Kansas City: 137 miles

Population: 9,143

The seat of Polk County – one of twelve Polk Counties in the U.S. – Missouri, Bolivar is home to over 9,000 proud members of the Springfield metropolitan area. In 1990, Bolivar only claimed 6,845 people, pretty remarkable growth for a small town, absent the real possibility that a prison has been built nearby. Despite the growth of Bolivar, Polk County remains one of Missouri’s leading producers of cattle and turkey.

Bolivar was named for Bolivar, Tennessee, which was originally named for legendary South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar (shocking to imagine something like that now, in the lapel pin flag era, no?) giving it a curious lineage. Nevertheless, for a remarkably long time the citizens of Bolivar remained committed to the promotion of their town’s name as evocative of some pan-American commitment to democracy. Bolivar High School, incidentally, is home to the Liberators. On July 4, 1948, Bolivar hosted both President Harry Truman and President Romulo Gallegos of Venezuela (a fascinating figure and a renowned novelist) in a ceremony dedicating a statue of the man himself, Bolivar. Truman was also presented with a bust of Bolivar from the Venezuelans. Amazingly, there is also an incredibly cool home movie of this ceremony on youtube, perhaps tellingly, at least one commenter is disputing the fact that Bolivar is named for Bolivar… Yes, it would be much better to claim to be named merely after a small town in Tennessee and not a major historical figure like Bolivar. God Bless the twenty-first century.

Truman of course, would win Missouri by a wide margin that year, en route to his surprising re-election.

According to the Chamber of Commerce:

Unfortunately, the Bolivar Chamber of Commerce has been snuggling up to the Cardinal organization in recent years, putting together a string of Bolivar Days during Springfield Cardinal games. This year’s Bolivar Day is scheduled for August 14th, and will feature numerous Bolivar celebrities. The Chamber is even selling Bolivar Day t-shirts. I encourage all Royals fans to sabotage this hideous display.

Since 1879 Bolivar has been home to Southwest Baptist University, with satellite campuses in Mountain View, Salem and Springfield. With an enrollment of around 3,600 and 1,600 at the Bolivar campus, SBU offers 45 undergraduate programs, ranging from Keyboard/Church Music to Criminal Justice. A program on Science and the Christian Faith is also offered. SBU’s sports heroes are the Bobcats, (SBU blog here) proud members of the MIAA along with other regional schools like, UCM, Emporia State, Pittsburg State, Washburn, etc. This past May tryouts were held to determine the 2008-9 Spirit Squad, which included a fitness test:

Thanks to standards like those, the SBU Spirit Squad was named National Champions in 2007.

Members of the SBU Spirit Squad listen to the Royals constantly on KYOO-AM 1200.

The Bolivar Herald-Free Press is one of the oldest continuous businesses in Polk County and is published twice-weekly. Despite Bolivar’s status as a proud Royals Radio Affiliate, a quick scan of the Sports section did not find much coverage of the boys in blue. Bolivar High School, yes. Even practice. While no one born in Bolivar has ever made the Major Leagues, the town currently claims two members of the Missouri Tigers football squad, walk on QB Luther Roweton and Caleb Medley, a tight end. For what it's worth, four Major Leaguers, including current players Carlos Silva and Enrique Gonzalez, were born in Bolivar Venezuela. I have no doubt that Silva has made a pilgrimage to Bolivar, Mo during one of his weekends in KC.

Other than the Hospital and the Bolivar School District, the largest employer in town is the Wal-Mart Supercenter, which claims 380 employees, some 70 more than work for SBU. Tracker Marine, a boat manufacturer employs 275 people, and, interestingly enough, an artifical flower maker, Teters Floral Products (website here), employs 200. Sadly, as the company FAQ explains, Teters (doesn’t seem to be "Teter’s" in their literature) only sells business-to-business. If you want to buy one of their Christmas displays or a cemetery decoration or whatever, they will help you locate a retailer near you that offers their products, but please do not try to buy directly from them.

The Bolivar affiliate remains something of a dream, the manifestation of lofty hopes that the cynics of history do not believe are possible. As Bolivar himself is reported to have said, "the three greatest fools in history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote… and me". Located deep within the heart of the Cardinals’ I-44 corridor stronghold, the promise of Royals baseball on KYOO-AM and FM (1200 AM & 99.1 FM) is a validation of the spirit of man. Despite the Chamber of Commerce’s red-stained hands of greed, the People of Bolivar are still free to choose. Cardinals or Royals.

"A republican government: that is what Venezuela…should have. Its principles should be the sovereignty of the people, division of powers, civil liberty, prohibition of slavery and the abolition of monarchy and privileges. We need equality to recast, so to speak, into a single whole, the classes of men, political opinions and political custom."

-Simon Bolivar

Previous Affiliate Profiles:

York, Nebraska
Conway, Arkansas
Waynesville, Missouri
Topeka, Kansas
Storm Lake, Iowa
Vinita, Oklahoma
California, Missouri
Garden City, Kansas
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Ulysses, Kansas
Trenton, Missouri
Fairbury, Nebraska
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Winfield, Kansas
Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Butler, Missouri
Enid, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma