THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 39, NO. 37 | MAY 11, 2018
LEAVEN PHOTO BY LORI WOOD HABIGER
Toby Cook, Kansas City Royals vice president of community affairs and publicity, and his wife Barbara sit in Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Toby credits his job with the Royals for being a catalyst for his conversion to the Catholic faith.
ROYAL CONVERSION
Job with the Kansas City Royals leads couple ‘home’ to the Catholic Church By Todd Habiger todd.habiger@theleaven.org
K
ANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals might seem like a strange vehicle of conversion to Catholicism, but for Toby Cook, that’s how it all began. A little over a decade ago, Cook had carved himself out a nice niche as a local TV personality. He was the co-anchor for WDAF-TV FOX 4 Kansas City’s morning show and was happy in that role. But one day, in 2006, after emceeing a Royals Charities gala, Royals president Dan Glass approached Cook about working for the Royals. Cook was floored. “To have this once-in-a-lifetime, fall-from-the-sky, favorite-baseballteam job opportunity — it was too good to pass up,” Cook said. It was a life-changing decision. He not only ended up changing careers — but religions as well.
Raised Royal Cook grew up listening to Royals games on the radio every night in his hometown of Independence, in southeast Kansas, and taking in the occasional game at Royals Stadium. “My dad took me to my first Royals game in 1976,” Cook said. “We played the Oakland A’s. Reggie Jackson hit a three-run home run for them. Big John Mayberry hit a home run for us. I just was hooked from the very beginning.” Cook’s broadcast career began when he was 16 and worked at a small radio station in Independence, where he would man the station while it broadcast Royals games. “I kind of dreamed that one day I was going to be a play-by-play announcer for the Royals,” Cook said. “The Royals were easily one of the top things in my life.” Of course, when Cook was growing up, the Royals were one of the
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“I KIND OF DREAMED THAT ONE DAY I WAS GOING TO BE A PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER FOR THE ROYALS. THE ROYALS WERE EASILY ONE OF THE TOP THINGS IN MY LIFE.” premier teams in baseball. They made the playoffs six times between 1976 and 1985 — winning it all in 1985. In 2006, however, the Royals were in disarray. They had fired general manager Allard Baird and replaced him with newcomer Dayton Moore. A few months later, Cook had that fateful meeting with Dan Glass —
and joined the Royals as vice president of publicity.
Lutheran beginnings Cook was raised in the Lutheran faith. His father was an elder. His brother is a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor. “Church was an important part of my upbringing,” Cook said. “Church was about five blocks from where I grew up. When it was nice, we walked. We went every Sunday.” After graduating from Pittsburg State University, Cook started investigating whether he was being called to pastoral ministry. He eventually married his wife Barbara, and settled into a life as the host of a morning show in Pittsburg and later as a TV reporter and anchor. “But it kept knocking at me that I wanted something more spiritual and >> See “SWEENEY’S” on page 6