With the 2016 baseball season about to get underway, let's take a look at the reigning World Series champions
— the Kansas City Royals.
Starting Up: To understand the history of the Royals, you first have to learn about Kansas City's first foray into Major League Basebal
l, which, needless to say, left a very sour taste in the mouth of KC baseball fans.
The Athletics, which had played in Philadelphia since their inception in 1901, were purchased by Arnold Johnson and moved to Kansas City in 1955. And while attendance was good and moral was high in that inaugural season, it was very quickly eroded.
Johnson had been involved with the Yankees on the business side (he actually owned Yankee Stadium for a few years in the early 50s), and any good, young players that popped up with the A's during his ownership were almost always shipped off elsewhere, and usually to the Yankees (which also helped establish and bolster the 50s Yankees dynasty in the latter portion of the decade and into the next).
Johnson flat-out didn't like to spend any money to help his team win, and the records show this. The best the A's did under Johnson, and their entire stay in Kansas City as a whole, was in 1958 when they went 73-81 and finished 19 games behind the Yankees, seventh in the AL. Again, that was their BEST season in KC in 13 tries.
Johnson died in 1960 and ownership of the team eventually was awarded to Charlie O. Finley. But things didn't improve. Finley did a bunch of weird publicity stunts, like burning a bus, making the team's mascot a mule and buying a real-life one which he named after himself, and changing the team's colors to green and gold. That also distracted people from the fact that Finley, almost immediately after becoming owner, tried his damnedest to move the team.
Finley looked into moving the A's seemingly everywhere but Kansas City, including threatening to move the team to a fucking cow pasture. Also up for relocation destinations were San Diego, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Seattle, New Orleans, Louisville, Atlanta and Milwaukee among others, and also Oakland, where the team would eventually go after the 1967 season.
So let's recap: the A's were brought to Kansas City by a man who didn't want to spend money to make the team immediately better on the field, traded away a bunch of young stars to the Yankees which bolstered them for at least another decade while hurting the A's, and when that owner died the new owner screwed around with the fans by threatening relocation for the better part of seven years while throwing a bunch of tacky, shitty stunts at the wall and seeing what stuck. Needless to say, the people of Kansas City were not happy with the way things went for them in baseball.
One of those unhappy people was Stuart Symington, a very-influential senator from Missouri. He was so pissed at how Finley screwed over Kansas City that he threatened to have MLB's anti-trust exemption overturned and to also try to revoke MLB's reserve clause (which prevented, or severely stymied, the prospect of free agency).
MLB just about shat itself upon hearing these threats and promised to give an expansion team to Kansas City as compensation (and to also grant three other cities expansion teams as well) in time for the 1971 season. Symington said fuck that, and demanded the team be ready by 1969, two years earlier than intended. MLB capitulated once again, and the rest is history (and that speed up irrecoverably screwed up the Seattle Pilots, but that's a story for another time).
Ewing Kauffman, a local pharmaceutical entrepreneur, was named the first owner of this new Kansas City team. They decided on the name Royals as a nod to the American Royal livestock show which has been held in Kansas City since 1899 (the name may also be a nod to the former Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs). The logo, which has gone largely unchanged since its inception, was drawn up by an artist for Hallmark (which is based in Kansas City, for those not in the know).
As for the stadium, the Royals began play in Kansas City's Municipal Stadium (where the A's had played). By 1973, the Royals moved into their new building, then-named Royals Stadium. Aside from renaming the stadium Kauffman Stadium in 1994 (in honor of Ewing Kauffman, who died the previous year), the team has been there ever since.
Greatest Runs
Small Market Powerhouse (1975-1985): Thanks to some shrewd team management and having a bunch of competent people in positions from ownership on down, the Royals were a surprising powerhouse in baseball. The team was constructed to give them a huge advantage at cavernous, artificially-turfed Royals Stadium, featuring a bunch of
speedy players who could all hit line drives.
All of this paid off big time. The Royals won 55.2 percent of their games over these 11 seasons, third-best in the AL behind the Orioles and Yankees (and fourth-best overall, with the Dodgers being the only NL club with a better winning percentage). The Royals also made the playoffs seven times, more than any other ball club in this era. Add in two trips to the Fall Classic, including winning it all in 1985, and it's no wonder why the Royals were considered one of the best-run pro teams not just in baseball, but all sports.
Throwback Team (2013-Present): After literal decades of futility, Kansas City came pretty much out of nowhere to become a World Series-contending and then World Series-winning team.
First, the Royals in 2013 accumulated a record of 86-76, their first winning record since 2003. Still, they missed the playoffs by 5.5 games. The next year, in 2014, they started 50-50, but won an additional 39 to go 89-73. That was their best record since 1989, and it was good enough for the Royals to qualify for the first Wild Card berth in team history, making the playoffs for the first time since they last won the World Series.
In the playoffs, the Royals continued being improbably good by qualifying for the their first World Series berth since 1985. And they did so by winning every single game in the first three rounds of the playoffs (over the Athletics, the Angels, and the Orioles, all while they didn't have home-field advantage in those latter two series). That 8-0 run is the best start in postseason play ever, and the best since (believe it or not) the 2007 Colorado Rockies went 7-0 on their way to the World Series (this was before the advent of the single-game Wild Card series).
Finally, the Royals came within an inning or so of defeating the San Francisco Giants (who had won two titles since the start of the decade already). Still, they had to settle for taking the eventual-World Series champions to the full seven games.
In 2015, the Royals won their first division title since 1985 while going 95-67, their best record since 1980 (they also led the AL Central for pretty much the entire season). In the playoffs, they survived a scare against a good, young Astros team, had a couple of hiccups against, but mostly handled, the Blue Jays, and finally, sadly, pretty much creamed the Mets in the World Series to win their second-ever championship.
The 2015 Royals became the first team to win two-straight pennants since the 2010-2011 Texas Rangers, and became the first team since 1989 Oakland Athletics to win the World Series the year after losing it.
How did the Royals go from perennial cellar dwellers to two-time pennant winners?
Basically, by emphasizing defense, speed, stolen bases, bunting, and advanced scouting. That last part especially, since, even though the Royals are prioritizing aspects of the game that are no longer prioritized league-wide anymore, they still have smart people in their organization evaluating the right players.
Leanest Years
Feeling Out Period (1969-1974): Despite the mandate from up on high to not be a typical expansion team, the Royals still struggled out of the gate. They lost more than 90 games in each of their first two seasons and usually finished more than 10 games out of a playoff spot.
Though they finished in second place in the AL West twice in this era (finishing just six games behind the eventual World Series champion Oakland A's in 1973), and they clearly had a good foundation which would propel them to the stratosphere soon enough, the Royals only had a 47.8 winning percentage through their first six seasons.
Pretty Much Everything Until Recently (1986-2012): The Royals had just one winning season from 1995 to 2012, and won a scant 42.5 percent of their games over that stretch, the worst mark in the majors (the Pittsburgh Pirates, for reference's sake, had no winning season in that time and STILL had a better winning percentage that the Royals). This was helped, of course, by the fact that the Royals lost 100 or more games four times in five seasons from 2002 to 2006 (the Pirates lost 100 or more games just once), bottoming out in 2005 with the worst record in team history, a putrid 56-106.
Why was this? Well, for a lot of reasons, but disorder up top certainly didn't help. Ewing Kauffman died in 1993, and Royals ownership fell to a board of directors, the chairman being David Glass, former CEO of Wal-Mart (Glass became sole owner of the team in 2000).
In his first 12 or so years of ownership or team representation, Glass cut payroll significantly, was one of the most vocal hard-line owners during the 1994 players' strike which ultimately doomed the 1994 World Series, and
generally became loathed for being a miserly dick. He also
cut spending on scouting, while claiming he was just breaking even. And there was also that one time that he
pettily revoked the credentials of two reporters for daring to suggest that he was doing a shit job.
Overall,
Glass has been less of a dick in recent years, mostly since Dayton Moore was hired as GM in 2006. But that first decade plus with Glass at the helm certainly helped send the Royals to mediocrity and worse.
Names You Should Know
Hal McRae: A key transaction that pushed the Royals towards contention in the early 70s. McRae started out with the Reds organization, but came to the Royals, along with Wayne Simpson, in a trade after the 1972 season. McRae spent the final 15 years of his career with the Royals, playing in KC until his age-41 season.
McRae mostly played at the then-relatively-new position of designated hitter for the Royals (when he did play defense, he was almost always in left field). McRae took advantage of his offensive-minded position by getting on base at a pretty good clip (he usually walked a bit less than he struck out, and the most times he ever struck out as a Royal was 64 in 1976).
He's still in top-10 in many single-season and career statistics for the Royals, particularly doubles (he hit 54 doubles in 1977, which is still a team record, and he's only behind George Brett in his career with the team with 449), and played in the fourth-most games in franchise history, 1,837. He also managed the team for a few years in the early 90s, going 286-277 and finishing in third place in the AL West in 1993, and third in the AL Central in 1994. Add in three All Star Games to his resume, and he had a damn good career.
Frank White: One of the Royals' home-grown stars. White spent his entire 18-year career with the Royals, becoming their main second baseman by the mid-70s.
While not particularly inspiring offensively, White mainly cut his teeth with his defense. He won eight Gold Glove Awards as a second basemen, tied with Bill Mazeroski for third-most ever at the position. White made five All Star Games in his career (including four in five years from 1978 to 1982) and was the inaugural ALCS MVP in 1980 (the National League had been handing out MVP awards for the NLCS since 1977).
White is second to only George Brett in team history in games played (2,324) and plate appearances (8,468), and holds the team-record for strikeouts (1,035) mostly because he played for a long time (for comparison's sake, Alex Gordon will likely break White's strikeout record this year, and he's come to the plate nearly 4,000 fewer times than White). White's number 20 jersey was also retired by the team (he's the only Royals player, plus Jackie Robinson, besides, guess who, George Brett, to have their number retired by the team).
Sadly,
White and the Royals are on the outs, due to a variety of factors. Though the divide seems to be thawing, he's still away from the team in any official capacity, which is a shame, no matter how you look at it.
George Brett: The greatest Kansas City Royal and perhaps the best third baseman in history after Mike Schmidt. Here's the long and short Brett's greatness: he spent his entire 21-year career with the Royals, and hit .305/.369/.487 with an OPS of .857, hit 317 home runs, accumulated 3,154 hits, 1,119 extra-base hits, 201 stolen bases, and was worth 88.4 wins above replacement. All of those numbers are either team records, or close to it.
Brett went to the All Star Game every year from 1976 to 1988. He won the AL MVP in 1980 (after coming closer than any AL player since 1941 to hitting .400 in a season, when he hit .390). You could easily argue that he should've won at least two more MVPs in his career. He was also named ALCS MVP in 1985.
In the postseason, he had a batting line of .337/.397/.627 with an OPS of 1.023, 10 home runs and 17 walks in 184 plate appearances. And he was incredibly difficult to strike out in his career, with his highest total being 75 in 1991. He struck out 50 or more times in a season just six times, mostly in the last four years of his career.
And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't share
this moment, probably the most famous moment in his great career.
His number 5 jersey was retired by the team. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, becoming the first (and, to date, only) long-time Royal to be enshrined.
Whitey Herzog: For many years, the winningest manager in Kansas City Royals history. While Herzog is best known for managing the Royals' cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals, he achieved his first big-league success as a manager in KC.
In Herzog's four-full seasons as Royals skipper, he guided the team to three-straight AL West titles. He also guided the Royals to the most wins in franchise history: 102 in 1977. Unfortunately, all that success didn't translate to advancement in the postseason, and the Royals were bounced by the Yankees all three times Herzog managed them to the ALCS.
Still, Herzog won 410 games with the Royals, becoming the first manager to win at least 400 games with the team. He also developed a lot of talent which would carry the Royals to two pennants in six years later on down the road.
Dan Quisenberry: One of the best relief pitchers in the Royals history. Quisenberry was a perennial AL Rolaids Award winner (the modern day Mariano Rivera Award), winning the award for best relief pitcher in the American League five times in six seasons from 1980 to 1985. He was also in the running for a Cy Young Award pretty much every year in that span, though he never won that award.
Quisenberry led the AL in saves four times from 1980 to 1985, saving 244 games in his career, and went to three-straight All Star Games from 1982 to 1984. He's also pretty high in Kansas City history in many pitching categories (earning top marks in ERA, 2.55, and Walks per 9 Innings, 1.36).
Bret Saberhagen: A really good pitcher for the Royals in the late 80s. Saberhagen went to two All Star Games as a Royal and won two Cy Young Awards. At the ripe age of 21, he played out of his mind in the 1985 World Series, fanning ten batters, earning a shutout, and accumulating an ERA of 0.50 in two World Series games. Naturally, he was named MVP of the series.
Saberhagen's best year came in 1989 (one of his Cy Young years), in which he led the majors in wins (23), winning percentage (79.3), ERA (2.16), Fielding Independent Pitching (2.45), WHIP (0.961), and complete games (12) to go along with four shutouts in a MLB-leading 262.1 innings of work.
He remains high up in many pitching categories in Royals history, earning top marks in WHIP (1.134) and FIP (3.10).
Bo Jackson: Probably the best two-sport athlete in modern pro sports history. In addition to his baseball career, Jackson also played running back for the Los Angeles Raiders in the NFL (he always missed the first month or so of the NFL season because he was busy playing baseball). The football aspect of his career wound up derailing both professional commitments, thanks to a hip injury suffered in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. That happened in 1990, which was the end of his football career. His baseball career petered out as well, never racking up more than 308 plate appearances from 1991 to 1994 (he missed the 1992 season entirely).
But while he was healthy, he was one of Kansas City's most electrifying players in the post-1985 years. In the four years where he came to the plate at least 400 times, Jackson hit an average of 26.8 home runs. His slugging percentage while in KC was .480, the sixth-best total in team history. Jackson was also fast (in addition to his baseball and football accomplishments at Auburn, he was also an awesome track and field star). He swiped at least 10 bases from 1987 to 1990, stealing 26 in '88 and 27 in '89, nearly becoming a member of the 30-30 club in the process (in which a player hits at least 30 home runs and steals at least 30 bases). Also, he once did
this in a game.
Jackson's best years in the Majors came as a Royal (if you haven't gathered by now). He went to the All Star Game in 1989, and
hit a lead-off home run in the process (that would be the last lead-off home run in the All Star Game until Mike Trout did it this past year). And while he struck out a lot (he led the Majors with 172 wiffs in 1989, which is also a single-season record for the Royals, and, despite only playing Kansas City for five years, he ranks eighth all-time in team history with 638), his practically unrivaled combination of power and speed more than made up for it.
Kevin Appier: Probably the best player for the Royals in the 90s, just as they were going to bad team hell. Appier pitched parts of 13 seasons for the Royals, including his first eight seasons of big-league work. In that time, he became the Royals' all-time leader in strikeouts (1,458), and was worth more wins above replacement (47.3) than any other Royals pitcher, and all Royals players, period, except George Brett.
He had an ERA under 3.00 in three of his first five seasons, leading the American League with an ERA of 2.56 in 1993 (he finished third in the Cy Young voting that year). He made the only All Star Game of his career in 1995, and struck out 207 batters in 1996, becoming just the third (and fourth Royals pitcher ever as of 2015) to throw at least 200 strikeouts in a season.
Carlos Beltran: While best known for his exploits as a Met, Beltran first made his mark on the Major Leagues as a member of the Kansas City Royals. While Beltran only made one All Star Game as a Royal (after he had already been traded to the Astros in the middle of the 2004 season), he was excellent in Kansas City.
Beltran won the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year Award on the back of 22 home runs, 27 stolen bases, and a triple-slash line of .293/.337/.454. He became a member of the 30-30 club in 2004 (that same year he was traded) by hitting 38 home runs and swiping 42 bases between his two clubs.
Beltran is also a member of the 300-300 club (where a player hits at least 300 home runs and steals at least 300 bases) along with some pretty impressive names, including Barry and Bobby Bonds, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson and Alex Rodriguez, among others (Beltran is the eighth member of the club). Beltran is also the sixth member of the club's subset who's also accumulated at least 2,000 hits (he has 2,454 as of this writing).
And all of that started in KC. 123 of his 392 home runs, 164 of his 311 stolen bases and 899 of his 2,454 hits came as a Royal, and his triple-slash line of .287/.352/.483 with accompanying .835 OPS is slightly higher or lower than his career averages of .280/.355/.490 and .845 OPS. He should be the second long-time Royal to go in the Hall of Fame when it's all said and done.
Zack Greinke: One of the best pitchers in the game today. While his best seasons came in Dodger Blue, Greinke was still very good as a Royal.
Greinke had a good, not great 3.89 ERA in Kansas City, but his Fielding Independent Pitching was significantly lower at 3.59. He also has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in team history, striking out 3.33 batters for every bases on balls allowed.
2009 was his best season in Kansas City, as he led the AL or the Majors in ERA (2.16), Adjusted ERA (205), FIP (2.33), WHIP (1.073) and Home Runs per 9 Innings (0.4). Naturally, he won the AL Cy Young Award and made his only All Star Game as a Royal.
Five Current Guys You Should Know
Alex Gordon: The longest-tenured Royals players, who's been with the team since they were complete ass. Gordon began his Major League career at third base, but switched to left field in 2010, where he's been ever since.
Gordon really began to come into his own in 2011, when he hit .303/.376/.502 with an .879 OPS, 72 extra-base hits (including 23 home runs), stole 17 bases in 25 attempts, and won his first of four-straight Gold Gloves. He's made the last three All-Star Games as well.
All in all, Gordon is fairly high in many offensive categories in Royals history (impressively, his 31.8 wins above replacement are the fifth-most in team history among position players; less impressively, he'll likely have the most strikeouts in team history after this year). While he's not a home run machine, he still has 417 extra-base hits in his career, and, until last year, was a defensive stalwart in left field. Also, oddly enough, he's 18th among active players in getting hit by a pitch (he's been hit 67 times in his career, 25 in the last two seasons alone).
Ned Yost: The Royals current manager, whose style is...
vexing. I guess that's the
best description for it. (
Here's a concise article on the phenomena on Ned Yost, Major League manager.)
Fans and media members aren't the only ones who are perplexed/infuriated by Yost's managerial style. Yost managed the Milwaukee Brewers from 2003 to 2008, and they were pretty competitive, finishing within ten games of a playoff spot in his last three full years on the job. I mention full years, because Yost was fired with 12 games to go in the Brewers' 2008 season. This, in spite of the fact that the Brewers were on pace for their best record since 1992, and they were about to make the playoffs for the first time since their World Series berth in 1982.
They still fired his ass for no reason other than the fact that he drove them up the wall!
To Yost's credit, he has since guided the Royals towards being one of the best franchises in baseball, a position they hadn't held in over 30 years. The Royals have had winning seasons every year since 2013. Yost is the first manager to guide the Royals to three-full-winning seasons since friggin' Whitey Herzog.
To the surprise of, well,
pretty much everyone, Yost also became the winningest manager in Royals history last season. As of this writing, he has 468 wins as Royals skipper, 58 more than Herzog and 64 more than Dick Howser. He's also the only manager in Royals history to guide them to consecutive pennants. Baseball; it's a weird game.
Alcides Escobar: A light-hitting shortstop, Escobar's greatest contributions to the Royals comes with his glove rather than his bat (while he's been very good defensively for a while now, he has just one Gold Glove to his name as of right now) and his speed (he's stolen 20 or more bases four times, including over 30 twice).
But Escobar had the playoff series of his life last year in the ALCS, when he hit .478/.481/.652 with a 1.134 OPS, three extra-base hits (no homers), and only two strikeouts in 27 plate appearances. For that bit of brilliance, he was named ALCS MVP. He also made his first All Star Game last year, and may make more in the future, as he's one of the main reasons the Royals boast perhaps the best defense in the game today.
Salvador Perez: The reigning World Series MVP. Perez has won a Gold Glove and made the All Star Game every year since 2013. He's a very good defensive catcher (he's broken up more than 30+ percent of all stolen base attempts on his watch since 2012, including leading the AL with 42 percent caught stealing in 2012) with a good bit of power (he has 174 extra-base hits in his career, including 65 homers).
He's largely been great in the postseason since the 2014 World Series as well, and won the WSMVP in part because he played great in it (hitting .364/.391/.455 with a .846 OPS, eight hits, two doubles and a walk), but also as a consolation prize for
getting hit in the dick with baseballs so many times. Still just 25 (he turns 26 in May), Perez probably has about a decade or so of stellar play left in him behind the plate.
Wade Davis: The Royals boast one of the best bullpens in the game, and Wade Davis is the crown jewel of it. Aside from a rocky 2013, Davis has been nigh-unhittable.
In the last two seasons, he's pitched 139.1 innings in relief, and has an ERA of 0.97, an FIP of 1.72, a WHIP of 0.818, allows just under five hits for every nine innings pitched, issues just under three walks in the same amount of work, while striking out a bit more than 12 batters. He's also struck out 4.35 batters for every walk issued. In addition to his 20 saves across that same span, he's also accumulated a record of 17-3.
Add in an All Star Game to the mix, and Davis has been the Royals not-so-secret secret weapon.
Most of the statistical data was obtained through baseball-reference.com.
