Kansas City Royals

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1969
• Home ballpark: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
• Owner: John Sherman
• Team colors: Royal blue, powder blue, gold, and white

Overview

The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball (MLB) team playing in the Central division of the American League (AL). The Royals were created to fill the gap when the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland after the 1967 season and first took the field in 1969. Over the course of their history, the Royals have won a number of World Series championships, AL pennants, and other accolades. The Royals’ greatest successes were in the 1980s and the mid-2010s when the team excelled in the postseason and even made several World Series appearances. Heading into the 2024 season, the Royals had an all-time record that included 4,122 wins and 4,547 losses for an overall .475 win/loss percentage. Despite struggling through a large part of their history, the Royals are a popular team with many loyal fans.

History

The history of the Kansas City Royals began when a previous team known as the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland, California, after the 1967 season. The Athletics had played in Kansas City since relocating there from Philadelphia in 1955. Their departure just over a decade later left Kansas City without a professional baseball team for the first time since the 1880s. Worse yet, it initially appeared that MLB had no immediate plans of granting the city a new franchise. Determined to ensure that Kansas City would not be left without a team, Senator Stuart Symington publicly threatened to introduce legislation in Congress that would strip MLB of its antitrust exemption unless it gave Kansas City another team. This ultimately led to MLB embarking on a small expansion that would eventually see four new teams—including one in Kansas City—begin play in 1971. Unwilling to wait that long, Symington pressured MLB to move up the timetable so that the expansion teams would start playing in 1969. At his insistence, MLB forged ahead with sped up expansion plans.

The new Kansas City franchise was purchased by pharmaceutical magnate Ewing Kauffman. Kauffman named the team the Royals in honor of the American Royal, a popular livestock, horse, and rodeo show held every year in Kansas City since 1899. The name was also likely a nod to a former local Negro League team called the Kansas City Monarchs. The Royals’ logo, which features a crown sitting atop a shield marked with the letters “KC,” was designed by Shannon Manning, an artist who worked for the Kansas City-based greeting card company Hallmark Cards.

The Royals made their official MLB debut with a 4–3 win over the Minnesota Twins on April 8, 1969. Although their inaugural season was ultimately a losing one, the Royals developed at a quicker pace than most expansion teams. In their first seven seasons, the team finished in second place in its division three times. Some of this early success can be attributed to Kauffman’s creation of the Royals Baseball Academy in 1970. The academy was a Florida-based training facility at which athletic prospects who went overlooked by other teams took part in rigorous training in hopes of developing their baseball skills. While it only lasted four years, the Royals Baseball Academy produced a number of future major leaguers, including Kansas City favorites U.L. Washington and Frank White.

White’s arrival on the Royals’ roster in 1973 marked the beginning of one of the most successful periods in team history. Together with outfielder Hal McRae and future Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, White helped lead the Royals to three straight divisional titles in 1976, 1977, and 1978. On all three occasions, however, the Royals were eliminated by the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The Royals subsequently captured a fourth divisional title and their first AL pennant in 1980 before falling to the Philadelphia Phillies upon making the World Series for the first time. After sitting out of the postseason for several years, the Royals returned to the ALCS in 1984 only to be felled by the Detroit Tigers.

The Royals’ ascendance through the 1970s and early 1980s finally reached its zenith in 1985. After winning ninety-one games and finishing in first place in their division, the Royals embarked on a historic postseason run. Upon dispatching the California Angels in the opening round, the Royals battled back from an early deficit to beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS. In the World Series, the Royals faced off against their state rival, the St. Louis Cardinals. After losing the first two games of what became known as the I-70 World Series, the Royals went on to win four of the next five games to claim the first World Series championship in franchise history.

Following their World Series victory, the Royals entered a precipitous decline as many of the team’s key players and personnel retired or otherwise left. The team’s troubles during this time were also worsened by its inability to make the most of promising young players like Bo Jackson, a budding superstar whose career was cut short by injury. Through the 1990s and 2000s, the Royals had numerous losing seasons, rarely finishing better than third in their division and failing to make the postseason at all. In 2005, the Royals even endured a franchise record of 106 losses.

With a newly rebuilt roster of young players, the Royals finally started showing promise again in 2013. That year, the team finished in third place with an 86–76 regular season record, the best it had done in nearly twenty years. The Royals continued to improve the following season, winning their way into an ALCS matchup with the Baltimore Orioles. After sweeping the Orioles, the Royals went on to meet the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Despite staying alive until the very end, the Royals ultimately lost to the Giants. Undeterred by this defeat, the Royals kept playing strongly in 2015, winning the most games of any team in the AL and beating the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays on their way to a World Series matchup against the New York Mets. In the end, the Royals gave up only a single game before vanquishing the Mets and claiming a second World Series championship. In the years that followed, however, the Royals slipped back into mediocrity.

Notable players

A number of former Kansas City Royals players has been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Chief among these honorees was third baseman and first baseman George Brett. A member of the Royals during his entire twenty-one-year career, Brett distinguished himself as one of the game’s best line drive hitters. By the time of his retirement, Brett amassed a total of 3,154 hits, 1,583 runs, 317 home runs, and 1,596 runs batted in (RBIs.) Perhaps the greatest player in Royals’ history, Brett was also a key contributor on the franchise’s 1985 World Series championship team. First baseman, third baseman, and leftfielder Harmon Killebrew played his final MLB season with the Royals in 1975. One of the most prolific sluggers in AL history, Killebrew had eight career 40-home run seasons. Over the course of his career, he recorded a total of 2,086 hits, 573 home runs, and 1,584 RBIs. Accomplished pitcher Gaylord Perry also played part of his final season with the Royals in 1983. One of the best pitchers of his time, Perry won the Cy Young Award twice during his twenty-two-season career. Over that time, he had 3,534 strikeouts and 314 wins and earned a 3.11 earned run average (ERA). Outfielder, pinch hitter, and first baseman Whitey Herzog played most of three seasons with the Royals between 1958 and 1960. During that time, he had 126 hits, 79 runs, 9 home runs, and 56 RBIs. He later returned to the team as its manager from 1975 to 1979. First baseman and leftfielder Orlando Cepeda played his final MLB season with the Royals in 1974. Over the course of his seventeen-season career, Cepeda accumulated 379 home runs, 1,365 RBI, and a .297 batting average.

There have been many other notable Kansas City Royals as well. Second baseman and shortstop Frank White spent his entire eighteen years with the Royals from 1973 to 1990. One of the team’s best players during that era, White was a five-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Gloves winner who was a pivotal part of the Royals’ 1985 World Series championship squad. Over the course of his career, White had 2,006 hits, 912 runs, 160 home runs, and 886 RBIs. Designated hitter and left fielder Hal McRae spent thirteen of his nineteen professional seasons with the Royals from 1973 to 1987. During that time, he had 1,924 hits, 873 runs, 168 home runs, and 1,012 RBIs. Like White, McRae was also part of the Royals’ 1985 World Series championship team. Outfielder Willie Wilson played fifteen seasons for the Royals from 1976 to 1990. In that span, he was a two-time All-Star, won two Silver Slugger Awards, and helped secure the team’s 1985 World Series win. During his time with the Royals, Wilson had 1,968 hits, 1,060 runs, 40 home runs, and 509 RBIs. Some other notable Royals players included Kevin Appier, Amos Otis, Bret Saberhagen, and Mark Gubicza.

One bright spot during the Royals’ struggles in the late 2010s and early 2020s was the emergence of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who became one of the most dynamic players in baseball upon arriving in the Majors in 2022.

Bibliography

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“Kansas City Royals.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, 2024, baseballhall.org/nine/kansas-city-royals. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

“Kansas City Royals History.” Kansas City Royals, 2024, www.mlb.com/royals/history. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

“Kansas City Royals Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/kansas-city-royals. Accessed 20 May 2020.

“Kansas City Royals Team History & Encyclopedia.” Baseball Reference, 2024, www.baseball-reference.com/teams/KCR/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

“# 27 Kansas City Royals.” Forbes, 2020, www.forbes.com/teams/kansas-city-royals/#b9ebc116ba8f. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

“Royals in the Community.” Kansas City Royals, 2020, www.mlb.com/royals/community. Accessed 20 May 2020.