This is for all you World Series fans out there. How many of you have boarded the Kansas City bandwagon, which has stormed into the Major League Baseball classic this year out of nowhere.
I love to see an underdog rise up and knock off the so-called favorites. So here are the Kansas City Royals, eliminating the Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels, and Baltimore Orioles, all teams that dominated the American League during the 2014 season. The Royals are the first team in post-season history to win their first eight playoff games.
Let’s hear it for the hungry wanna-be’s of the world!
In their 45-year history, the Royals have won one world series ñ in 1985 ñ and six American League Central Division titles. Now they are a sixth-seeded wildest of cards, poised for their first world championship shot in 29 years. (By the way, In a twist of coincidence, Major League Baseball came to Kansas City in 1955, when the Philadelphia Athletics moved there as part of a major expansion to the west in the 1950s). Twelve years later, the KC Athletics were moved to, guess where, Oakland (!) in 1967.
While the Royals have gone largely unnoticed in recent years, they have produced some exciting stories and even some offbeat entertainment. Remember the pine tar incident? In a game against the Yankees in July, 1983 (the year the White Sox won a division crown and the American League pennant), KC Hall of Famer George Brett hit a home run in the top of the ninth to put the Royals ahead in a close contest. Umpires discovered that Brett’s bat allegedly had an illegal amount of pine tar on it (more than 18 inches above the bat handle). After examining the bat with fellow umps for several minutes, home plate umpire Tim McClelland signaled that Brett was out and the homer was nullified. Brett stormed out of the dugout, angry and hysterical, and McClelland ejected him. The game was called, and the homer was later reinstated by American League president Lee MacPhail. The game was resumed a few weeks later, and KC won it.
Did you also know that Brett, now working in the Royals front office, is one of a handful of players who have come closest to hitting .400 in a season. Ted Williams is the last man to have done it in 1941, when he hit .406. In another piece of trivia, the Royals are the only team to win a seven-game world series and a seven-game league championship in the same season ñ 1985.
Then there’s the controversial safe call by first base umpire Don Denkinger in the ’85 series, that allowed Royals’ baserunner Jorge Orta to reach base and led to a 2-run rally that beat the Cardinals in game six. Behind a shutout pitching performance by Brett Saberhagen, the Royals won game seven to take home their first and only World Series championship. Replays later showed that Orta was out.
Kauffman stadium (named after the Kansas City businessman who founded the Royals franchise in 1969) is uniquely famous as the only major league ballpark with waterfalls.
Brett is the only Hall of Famer in Cooperstown that is wearing a Royals cap insignia. Other prominent former Royals include Fred Patek, Willie Wilson, Hal McRae, Bo Jackson, Frank White, Dennis Leronard, Dan Quisenberry, Carlos Beltran, Zack Greinke, Danny Tartabull, and Johnny Damon.
The Royals, a relatively new franchise, with a chance to add to their exciting history this fall.
