Kansas City Royals

• 1. Introduction

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  The Kansas City Royals were born out of political fury. When the Kansas City Athletics packed up and left for Oakland after the 1967 season, Missouri Senator Stuart Symington did not write a polite letter of complaint. He threatened to strip Major League Baseball of its antitrust exemption unless Kansas City got a new team. Baseball blinked, and the Royals were awarded a franchise at the 1967 winter meetings. What followed was something nobody predicted: a small-market team in the American heartland that would reach the World Series four times, win it twice, and build a dynasty out of powder-blue wool and ferocious pitching. But who named this team, and why? What does a livestock show have to do with baseball? And how did a club that once lost 106 games in a single season come back to be world champions?

• 2. A Name With Roots

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  Pharmaceutical executive Ewing Kauffman won the bidding for the new Kansas City franchise and immediately threw the naming decision open to the public. Out of 17,000 submissions, the winning entry came from Sanford Porte of Overland Park, Kansas. Porte nominated the name Royals in recognition of Missouri's billion-dollar livestock industry, and specifically to honor the American Royal, an annual event in Kansas City since 1899 that combines a livestock show, horse show, rodeo, and championship barbecue competition. The Royals Board voted 6-1 to adopt the name. That single dissenting vote belonged to Kauffman himself, though he eventually came around. The name also carried deeper historical resonance. Two earlier Negro league baseball teams had used the identical name: a semi-pro touring club based in Kansas City in the 1910s and 1920s, and a California Winter League team based in Los Angeles in the 1940s managed by Chet Brewer, with Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson on its roster. The Los Angeles team had connections to the Kansas City Monarchs but could not use that name. The team's crown-and-shield logo, with the letters 'KC' inside, was designed by Shannon Manning, an artist at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City.

• 3. Building a Winner Fast

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  On the 8th of April 1969, in their very first game, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 12 innings. Lou Piniella won the AL Rookie of the Year Award from that inaugural season. General Manager Cedric Tallis built the core quickly through trades, picking up center fielder Amos Otis, first baseman John Mayberry, second baseman Cookie Rojas, shortstop Fred Patek, and designated hitter Hal McRae. The farm system contributed future stars including pitchers Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, and Steve Busby, as well as infielders George Brett and Frank White. By 1971, the Royals had their first winning season. In 1973, under manager Jack McKeon, the club moved into the brand-new Royals Stadium and adopted their iconic powder blue road uniforms. Manager Whitey Herzog took over in 1975 and the Royals became the dominant franchise in the AL West, winning three consecutive division titles from 1976 to 1978, including the franchise's only 100-win season in 1977. Each time, they ran into the New York Yankees in the ALCS and lost. The Yankees rivalry burned.

• 4. Brett, Pine Tar, and a Pennant

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  George Brett's 1980 season stood apart from anything else in Royals history. He hit .390 that year, the highest single-season batting average in franchise history. The Royals finally defeated the Yankees in the 1980 ALCS, a three-game sweep punctuated by Brett's home run off Goose Gossage. They fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games in the World Series, but Game 6 of that series carries a distinction to this day: it remains the most-watched game in World Series history, with a television audience of 54.9 million viewers. Then came July 1983, and the moment that came to be known as the Pine Tar Incident. Brett hit a two-run home run off Gossage in the 9th inning to put the Royals ahead 5-4. Yankees manager Billy Martin alerted home plate umpire Tim McClelland to the pine tar on Brett's bat, measuring more than 18 inches up the handle. McClelland disallowed the home run. Brett stormed out of the dugout and was ejected. American League President Lee MacPhail later reinstated the homer, and the Royals won the game when it resumed weeks later. That same 1983 season, owner Kauffman sold 49% of his interest to Memphis developer Avron Fogelman, and John Schuerholz was named general manager. Schuerholz promptly rebuilt the farm system with pitchers Bud Black, Danny Jackson, Mark Gubicza, David Cone, and Bret Saberhagen.

• 5. The I-70 Series

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  Bret Saberhagen won the Cy Young Award in 1985, and George Brett called that year his best all-around season. The Royals came back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, with Jim Sundberg delivering a go-ahead 3-run triple off Dave Stieb in Game 7. The World Series that year was nicknamed the I-70 Series because both clubs, Kansas City and the St. Louis Cardinals, sit along Interstate 70 in Missouri. The Royals fell behind three games to one again. In the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 6, facing elimination and trailing 1-0, Jorge Orta led off and hit a ground ball to first baseman Jack Clark, who flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell covering the bag. The ball beat Orta, but umpire Don Denkinger called him safe. A dropped popup by Clark and a passed ball followed, and pinch hitter Dane Iorg singled to win the game. In Game 7, Saberhagen shutout the Cardinals as Kansas City won 11-0, claiming the franchise's first World Series title. The manager on the Cardinals' side was Whitey Herzog, the very man who had led the Royals to their first three playoff appearances from 1976 to 1979.

• 6. Drought and Rebuild

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  The Royals posted winning records in three of the four seasons after 1985, developing players like Bo Jackson, Tom Gordon, and Kevin Seitzer. Before the 1990 season, the club signed Mark Davis, the 1989 National League Cy Young Award-winner, to a 4-year, $13 million contract, the largest annual salary in baseball at the time. Both newly acquired Davises had lackluster seasons in 1990, and Bo Jackson suffered a devastating hip injury playing football in the off-season and was waived during spring training in 1991. Then Ewing Kauffman died in 1993, and General Manager John Schuerholz had already departed in 1990. Facing a fractured ownership structure, the team slashed its payroll from $40.5 million in 1994 to $18.5 million in 1996, and traded away Kevin Appier, Johnny Damon, and Jermaine Dye. The Royals lost 100 games in 2002, then 100 in each of the seasons from 2004 through 2006, becoming just the eleventh team in major league history to lose 100 games in three consecutive seasons. Their all-time worst record, 56-106, came in 2005. For 28 consecutive seasons from 1986 through 2013, they did not qualify for the postseason, one of the longest droughts in the sport's wild-card era. A solitary winning season appeared in 2003, when manager Tony Peña guided them to an 83-79 record and won AL Manager of the Year.

• 7. Return and Redemption

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  On the 21st of July 2014, the Royals sat at 48-50, eight games behind the Detroit Tigers. Then they went 22-5 over the next month. They reached the top of the AL Central standings on August 11 after winning eight games in a row. They secured their first-ever wild card berth and carried an eight-game winning streak into the postseason. In the Wild Card game against the Oakland Athletics, Salvador Perez hit a walk-off single in the 12th inning after the Royals had rallied from a 7-3 deficit in the 8th. The Royals swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALDS, setting an MLB postseason record with three straight extra-inning wins. They then swept the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS with eight consecutive postseason wins, breaking a major league record previously shared by the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds. The 2014 World Series against the San Francisco Giants ended in Game 7 with Alex Gordon on third base and two outs in the bottom of the 9th, when Salvador Perez fouled out to Pablo Sandoval. They lost 3-2. In 2015, the Royals finished the regular season 95-67, the best record in the American League, and beat the New York Mets four games to one in the World Series. Game 5 of that series went to extra innings; a five-run 12th inning sealed the title, initiated by a Salvador Perez single. Wade Davis, who had not allowed a run yet that entire postseason, closed the game out. Perez was named World Series MVP.

• 8. Stadium and Future

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  Since the 10th of April 1973, the Royals have played at what is now called Kauffman Stadium, named for the team's founder. In November 2022, owner John Sherman announced plans to leave the stadium before their lease expires at the end of the 2030 season. The Crossroads district emerged as the team's chosen site in February 2024. Jackson County voters rejected a ballot initiative to help fund the project in April 2024. The Royals had pledged at least $1 billion of their own money toward a ballpark district costing more than $2 billion. The new stadium would seat roughly 34,000 people, with a target opening for the 2027 or 2028 season. The team's future home remains uncertain entering 2026. On the field, the 2024 club became only the second team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after losing more than 100 games the prior season, sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card round before losing to the New York Yankees in the ALDS. Bobby Witt Jr., selected second overall in the 2019 draft, is regarded as one of the most significant prospects the Royals have developed since Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas.