About Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals entered the league in 1969. The franchise name originates from the American Royal, a livestock show, championship barbeque competition held in Kansas City every year since 1899.
The Royals’ first appearance in the World Series occurred in 1980 but it wasn’t until 1985, when they won their second AL Pennant that they took it all the way to winning the World Series title against St. Louis. After the success of late seventies until mid-eighties the Royals become a regular absentee from the postseason series all the way until 2014 when they fought out a Wild Card berth. They also won their third AL Pennant but fell short to the Giants in seven games World Series.
The franchise continued on high note a season later and added their first Central Division title to a collection of 7 titles from West Division, won their 4th AL Pennant and won their second championship dispensing the Mets in five game series.
The team’s colours are royal blue, powder blue, metallic gold and white and they’re represented by Sluggerrr, a lion mascot who enjoys shooting hot dogs from an air cannon into the stands.
With the franchise missing on a lot of postseason time due to lack of regular season’s success it’s not a surprise not to see a long list of very accomplished players but it’s not like the franchise has never enjoyed producing an individual success.
George Brett is the most accomplished player in the franchise history. He was three time Batting Champion, first time in 1976 and last time in 1990, he also was the league’s MVP in 1980 when he also won his second batting title.
Bret Saberhagen was two time CY Young award winner for the best pitcher. He won the award in the eighties when the team lack overall success.
The Royals also had some success in drafting ad four of their draft picks went into becoming the Rookie of the Year. Interestingly, no player from the franchise was ever a homerun champion or strikeout champion.
The franchise encountered only one 100 win season, in 1977 they posted 102-60 record, their darkest time came in early years of 21st century when they had team’s only 100 loss season, four times.
The last time, a baseball team won back to back World Series was in 1999 when the Yankees won their second consecutive title out of three. It is going to be a tough challenge for the Royals to try to win a second title in the row but after 95-67 season that they delivered last season, it is expected of the team to reach the playoffs in 2016.
