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Professional baseball came to Kansas City again in 1969 with the Royals. The team initially played poorly in the first two seasons, but would find their way to the middle of the pack for the four years that followed. The Royals blossomed in 1975 with 91 victories and a second place finish. The club followed with four AL West Division titles in five years. The first three American League Championship Series ended in losses to the Yankees, but the club finally broke through to the next level with a sweep of the Yankees in the ALCS. The George Brett-led team could not overcome the Phillies and lost the World Series in six games.
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The remained competitive and returned to the World Series in 1985. The Royals still had Brett’s bat, but now had great young pitching in Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubcza, Charlie Leibrandt, Bud Black, and Danny Jackson. The team met the intra-state rival Cardinals in the World Series.
The Royals came back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to win their first World Series, winning Game 7 emphatically 11-0.
The Royals slowly fell into a decline that still exists to this day. The Royals started out competitively after the World Series victory, but fell apart after the 1989 season. The team reached the bottom from 2004 to 206 when they lost 100 games in three straight seasons.
The Royals have characteristically developed young players, but has been unable to keep them due to the small market and the small payroll. They have been forced to trade stars like Kevin Appier, Johnny Damon, and Jermaine Dye out of fear of getting almost nothing in return when they leave via free agency.
The Kansas City Royals barely missed the franchise's fourth straight 100-loss season with a 69-93 record last season. The team simply hopes to move forward with the rebuilding process and climb out of last place in a very tough American League Central. The Royal’s first year manager will be Trey Hillman, whose recent resume includes taking the Nippon Ham Fighters to three postseason appearances in five years.
The Royals' pitching staff has three good starting pitchers in the starting rotation and a questionable bullpen. The ace position is more being given to Gil Meche than him earning it. His record last year was not great at 9-13, but his respectable ERA and 200 plus innings pitched won the job for him. The rotation is also depending on Zack Greinke to continue with the confidence he regained last season and is expecting Brian Bannister to keep improving after a rookie year that landed him third in the AL rookie of the year voting. The bullpen should be solid, but the losses of Octavio Dotel and David Riske may be too much. Joakim Soria did a fine job as a closer last year and his setup guys, lefty Jimmy Gobble and right hander Joel Peralta, played well last year.
The offense for the Royals is huge problem. The team’s bets power hitters are left fielder Jose Guillen and catcher Joe Buck, and after them the only threat t hit over ten homers seems to be third baseman Alex Gordon. The best bat on the team should be second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, but Billy Butler has shown promise, approaching .300 last season.
The Royals' schedule pits the young club against a talented division this season. The club hopes to soon bring the kind of glory the Royals used to bring back in the 80s when they competed year in and year out for division crowns and World Series. That team had George Brett though, and his 3,154 career hits were a major part of their success. Since then things have changed, including the name of the ball park, which changed form Royals Stadium to Kauffman Stadium in 1993.