Playoff Baseball Returns to Kansas City

Playoff baseball returns to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City tonight for the first time since the fall of 1985 when the Royals bested the St. Louis Cardinals in an exciting 7 game World Series.
That series will always be remembered for the Dan Denkinger missed call at first, in the top of the 9th of the 6th game with the Cards leading 1-0, that allowed Jorge Orta to reach first. Some people forget that Orta was thrown out on a failed sacrifice bunt attempt by the next batter. The Royals would go on to win the game 2-1. What people also forget is that the Cards started their ace, Joaquin Andujar, in game seven and got crushed 11-0.                                                                                      

Let's take a trip back in time to see what was going on in the US in 1985. Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States. Michael Dukakis was Governor of Massachusetts and Bill Clinton was in his third term as Governor of Arkansas.

The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in the 1985 Super Bowl. Mike Tyson made his professional boxing debut.

The eighth seeded Villanova Wildcats win the first ever 64 team NCAA Basketball Tournament with a 66-64 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas. In August, Rod Carew became the 16th MLB player to record 3,000 hits.

"We Are the World" was recorded by USA for Africa. A 21 year old Whitney Houston released her first album. (Notice I didn't write CD) VH-1 began broadcasting music videos in January of 1985. Route 66 was officially decommissioned as a US Highway. Ford Motor Company introduced the Ford Taurus in '85.

In June of 1985 the Royals drafted both Brian McRae, in the 1st round, and Deion Sanders, in the 6th round, of the MLB amateur draft. Only McRae would sign with the Royals. Brian's dad, Hal McRae was a member of the 1985 KC Royals.

Bud Black, current manager of the San Diego Padres, was on that '85 team and was 10-15 as a starter, with a 4.33 ERA, 122 Ks and 59 walks. John Wathan would play his last professional game on October 6th and come back to manage the Royals from 87-91, albeit with less success than the '85 team had. Dane Iorg drove in the winning run in that controversial 9th inning of game 6.

Current Fox Sports color commentater for the LA Angels, Mark Gubicza, was on that team but didn't get a World Series start because manager Dick Howser decided to go with a four man rotation that left Gubicza on the outside looking in.

You may remember some of the players from that team. How about George Brett, he of the pine tar bat incident in July of 1983 vs the Yankees, had 30 HRs/112 RBIs/.335 AVG. Willie Wilson 4/43/.278/43 SBs, Lonnie Smith 6/41/.257/41, Steve Balboni 36/88/.243 and DH Hal Mcrae 14/70/.259 were the backbone of the offense.

A 21 year old Bret Saberhagen anchored the pitching staff with a 20-6 record and a 2.87 ERA. Charlie Leibrandt was 17-9 to go along with a team leading 2.69 ERA. Danny Jackson, Bud Black and Mark Gubicza rounded out the starters and Dan Quisenberry saved 37 games with a 2.87 ERA for the team.

That was quite a year in KC. The 2014 Royals have their own team. Their own players. It's a new time, a new playoff system and a new baseball world. There is no dynasty to uphold, no long traditions to live up to. Their only concern today is playing a team, in the Oakland Athletics, that backed into a wild card berth on the last day of the season. If the Royals win this one game playoff, they must face arguably the best team in baseball, the LA Angels in LA. Win that series and it's off to play the Orioles or the Tigers in Baltimore or Detroit. Get through all of that and we could have a repeat of the Royals/Cardinals 1985 World Series with KC as the home team again!