Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri.
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54 Facts About Kansas City Royals
2.
The Royals compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League Central division.
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3.
Outside of a dominant 10 year stretch between 1976 to 1985, and a brief, albeit dominant resurgence from 2014 to 2015, the Kansas City Royals have been one of the worst franchises in baseball, missing the playoffs 34 of the previous 36 years.
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4.
Since April 10,1973, the Kansas City Royals have played at Kauffman Stadium, formerly known as Kansas City Royals Stadium.
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5.
For 28 consecutive seasons, the Kansas City Royals did not qualify to play in the MLB postseason, one of the longest postseason droughts during baseball's current wild-card era.
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6.
The Kansas City Royals followed this up by winning the team's first AL Central division title in 2015 and defeating the New York Mets in five games in the 2015 World Series to win their second World Series championship.
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7.
An enraged Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri threatened to introduce legislation removing baseball's antitrust exemption unless Kansas City was granted a team in the next round of expansion.
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8.
Kansas City was awarded one of four teams to begin play in 1971.
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9.
However, Symington was not satisfied with having Kansas City wait three years for baseball to return, and pressured MLB to allow the new teams to start play in 1969.
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10.
Kansas City Royals conducted a contest to determine the best and most appropriate name for the new franchise.
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11.
Sanford Porte from Overland Park, Kansas submitted the name Royals, in recognition of Missouri's billion-dollar livestock industry.
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12.
Kansas City Royals's suggestion was that the American Royal best exemplified Kansas City through its pageantry and parade, so the new team should be named the Royals.
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13.
Kansas City Royals eventually changed his mind after the name grew on him.
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14.
The Kansas City Royals invested in a strong farm system and soon developed such future stars as pitchers Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, and Steve Busby, infielders George Brett and Frank White, and outfielder Al Cowens.
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15.
Under these young players, the Kansas City Royals started to build a young core set up for future success.
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16.
In 1971, the Kansas City Royals had their first winning season, with manager Bob Lemon leading them to a second-place finish.
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17.
In 1973, under manager Jack McKeon, the Kansas City Royals adopted their iconic "powder blue" road uniforms and moved from Municipal Stadium to the brand-new Kansas City Royals Stadium.
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18.
Manager Whitey Herzog replaced McKeon in 1975, and the Kansas City Royals quickly became the dominant franchise in the American League's Western Division.
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19.
However, the Kansas City Royals lost to the New York Yankees in three straight American League Championship Series encounters.
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20.
In July 1983, while the Kansas City Royals were headed for a second-place finish behind the Chicago White Sox another chapter in the team's rivalry with the New York Yankees occurred.
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21.
The homer was later reinstated by AL President Lee MacPhail, and the Kansas City Royals won the game after it was resumed several weeks later.
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22.
Thanks to the sudden and surprising maturation of most of the aforementioned players, the Kansas City Royals won their fifth division championship in 1984, relying on Brett's bat and the young pitching staff of Saberhagen, Gubicza, Charlie Leibrandt, Black and Jackson.
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23.
The Kansas City Royals were then swept by the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series.
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24.
The ball beat Orta to the bag, but umpire Don Denkinger called him safe, and following a dropped popup by Clark and a passed ball, The Kansas City Royals rallied to score two runs, winning on a walk-off single from pinch hitter Dane Iorg to send the series to game seven.
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25.
Kansas City Royals maintained a reputation as one of the American League West's top teams throughout the late 1980s.
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26.
The Kansas City Royals signed starting pitcher Storm Davis, who was coming off a career-high 19-game win season, to a three-year $6 million contract.
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27.
In 1994, the Kansas City Royals moved from the AL West to the newly created AL Central along with the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, joined by the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers from the AL East.
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28.
At the start of the 1990s, the Kansas City Royals had been hit with a double-whammy when General Manager John Schuerholz departed in 1990 and team owner Ewing Kauffman died in 1993.
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29.
In 2002, the Kansas City Royals set a new team record for futility, losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history.
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30.
Kansas City Royals was named the American League Manager of the Year for his efforts and shortstop Angel Berroa was named AL Rookie of the Year.
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31.
The Kansas City Royals did see promising seasons from two rookies, center fielder David DeJesus and starting pitcher Zack Greinke.
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32.
Nevertheless, the Kansas City Royals struggled through another 100-loss season in 2006, becoming just the eleventh team in major league history to lose 100 games in three straight seasons.
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33.
Kansas City entered the 2007 season looking to rebound from four out of five seasons ending with at least 100 losses.
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34.
Kansas City Royals hired Trey Hillman, formerly the manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters and a minor league manager with the New York Yankees, to be the 15th manager in franchise history.
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35.
Almost all of the Kansas City Royals' bullpen was made up of 2011 minor league call ups, in addition to the infielders Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Johnny Giavotella, and catchers Salvador Perez and Manny Pina.
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36.
On December 10,2012, in an attempt to strengthen the pitching staff, the Kansas City Royals traded for Rays pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis, giving Tampa top prospects Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and Patrick Leonard in return.
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37.
On September 22, the Kansas City Royals won their 82nd game of the season to clinch the franchise's first winning season since 2003.
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38.
On July 21,2014, the Kansas City Royals had a losing record and were eight games behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central standings.
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39.
The Kansas City Royals then swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 2014 American League Division Series.
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40.
Kansas City Royals faced the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series.
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41.
In game seven, the Kansas City Royals started Jeremy Guthrie against Giants pitcher Tim Hudson.
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42.
Kansas City Royals was then replaced by Wade Davis, who pitched in two innings.
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43.
The Kansas City Royals went on to win the 2015 World Series – the first championship for the Kansas City Royals since 1985 – beating the New York Mets four games to one.
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44.
The Kansas City Royals defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6, to win the 2015 ALCS and earn a trip to face the New York Mets in the 2015 World Series.
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45.
Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets 4 games to 1 to become the 2015 World Series champions.
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46.
Kansas City Royals followed up their World Series victory with an underachieving, injury-riddled campaign in 2016.
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47.
The 2017 season marked the end of the World Series core: pitcher Yordano Ventura was killed in a car accident on January 22, and the Kansas City Royals wore patches that said 'ACE 30' on their jerseys for the 2017 season to honor him; Wade Davis was traded in the offseason.
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48.
On October 31,2019, the Kansas City Royals announced the hiring of former St Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny to replace Ned Yost.
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49.
Kansas City Royals returned to wearing buttoned uniforms for the 1983 season.
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50.
The Kansas City Royals went with a black alternate uniform, featuring blue piping and "Kansas City Royals" written in blue with white trim.
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51.
In 2006, black was eliminated from the uniforms, and the Kansas City Royals returned to wearing sleeved uniforms with arm piping.
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52.
In 2008, the Kansas City Royals introduced a new powder blue alternate with "Kansas City Royals" in blue with white trim, and letters in white with blue trim; the color lettering scheme in front was reversed starting in 2012.
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53.
From 1976 to 1980, the Kansas City Royals faced the New York Yankees four times in five years in the American League Championship Series.
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54.
Kansas City Royals have retired the numbers of former players George Brett and Frank White.
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