Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals joined MLB as an expansion franchise in 1969, adding to their city’s ledger of blue-blooded sports monikers along with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and short-lived Kansas City Kings of the NBA and Kansas City Monarchs baseball team. Apparently, the name Royals was actually based on how much money Kansas City made from cows along with the American Royal beauty pageant held in the city each year. Make of that combination what you will. Unlike most expansion teams of the era, it did not take long for the Royals to emerge as a new power in the American League West, challenging for first place several times before topping the division three times in a row from 1976-78. They would fall to the New York Yankees in all three postseason ALCS matchups, but extending the heavy hitters from the Big Apple to Game Five deciders on two of those occasions. In 1980, led by the legendary George Brett, the Royals finally went one better, sweeping the Yankees to reach the franchise’s first-ever World Series. They lost in six to the Philadelphia Phillies, but the foundations of the young team’s future success seemed well and truly in place. After two more unsuccessful playoff campaigns, the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, coming from behind to overturn a three games to one margin and advance to the 1985 World Series. Intriguingly, the Royals would face their fellow denizens of the state of Missouri, the St. Louis Cardinals, leading the encounter to be described as the “I-70 Series” after the highway that connects the two cities. Once more, the Royals fell into a three games to one hole, but battled back to win Game Five before testing every nerve fiber of their fans during Game Six in Kansas City when they scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 2-1 and force a Game Seven by the skin of their teeth (that inning is also famous for an umpire’s missed call at first that might have changed the result). In Game Seven, with well over 40,000 fans packing out Royals Stadium, Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Bret Saberhagen blanked the Cardinals en route to an 11-0 blowout and first-ever World Series win for the team and the city. Post-victory, the team stayed competitive in their division for a few years but did not make the playoffs, then began to slump hard, finishing in the basement for several seasons. Fortunes did not improve when they moved to the AL Central in 1994, leading into a 28-year postseason drought that is the longest in MLB history since the introduction of Wild Card qualification. The Royals made their return in style in 2014, sweeping both the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles to  return to the World Series just one year shy of three decades since their 1985 triumph in Kansas City. Up against the San Francisco Giants, things looked promising after a 10-0 Game Six Royals win leveled the series, but it was the Giants who would prevail in the Game Seven decider, with their excellent pitching stymying the Royals for seven straight innings to hold on to a 3-2 lead and win the Series. Bouncing back immediately in the following season, the Royals got things right this time, led by MVP Salvador Perez (still playing for the team to this day), and beat the New York Mets in five to take the franchise’s second World Series. Recent years have not been kind to the Royals, seeing them slip steadily down the rungs of the AL Central each season into the basement, where they recorded their (tied for) worst-ever season in 2023 (56-106). But if there is one thing the Kansas City Royals are known for, it is for coming back stronger after times of adversity, so keep an eye out for a resurgence in the years to come. 

Kansas City Royals Rivalries

The most obvious rivals of the Kansas City Royals are the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom they share the state of Missouri. The two cities are about a 4-hour drive from one another via the Interstate 70 highway, leading to their first real meeting (aside from exhibition matchups) in the 1985 World Series to be known as the I-70 Series, which the Royals won in seven games. The start of interleague play in 1997 has meant that the teams meet more regularly, adding some zest to this mostly friendly intrastate rivalry. Less cordial is the Royals’ rivalry with the New York Yankees, who bested the Royals three times in a row in the ALCS before the Royals hit back in 1980. The rivalry got nasty in 1983 after the Yankees accused George Brett of using an overly-tarred bat and Brett was ruled out after hitting a home run, losing the Royals the game (an infuriated Brett was also subsequently tossed out by the umpire). The ruling was overturned by the MLB brass and the last four outs of the game replayed in an empty stadium nearly a month later. 

Needless to say, with two such heated rivalries, it can be hard to get tickets to such popular matchups. TicketX is your go-to spot for locating the most affordable tickets to all the most intriguing Kansas City Royals games.