When the Kansas City Royals last won the World Series, many college students had not been born yet, the original Nintendo Entertainment System had just been released in the U.S. and people were still talking about the original “Back to the Future.”
Kansas City enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of having the best team in baseball in 1985 after overcoming a 3-1 game deficit to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 in the World Series.
Over the past 30 years, the Royals have been known as a terrible team. Until last season, when the Royals went all the way to the World Series, they had not had a postseason trip in 28 years.
During this trip to the postseason, the Royals featured a walk-off win in a wild card game against the Oakland Athletics, who ironically used to be located in Kansas City, and a Game 7 one-run loss in the World Series to the would-be champion, the San Francisco Giants.
The Royals were 90 feet away from tying Game 7 of that 2014 World Series but could not seal the deal, so in 2015 the team believed there was unfinished business.
Beginning this season with seven straight wins, the Royals have seized a swift lead in the American League Central division.
They would not relinquish this lead, but instead win game after game until the Royals finished the regular season with the best record in the American League, at 95-67 ― the first time since 1989 they had won 90 or more games, according to MLB’s official site.
The Royals insisted regardless of their regular season success, it all was about the playoffs. They were still hungry and would not be denied. The team’s tenacity was on full display during their completion of seven come-from-behind victories, another MLB postseason record.
No victory exemplifies the perseverance of this team more than Game 4 of the American League Division Series against the Houston Astros.
During this game, the Royals were down four runs in the eighth inning and scored five runs to take the lead, all on singles and an error.
Only one team in MLB history has ever come from behind in the eighth inning to win a postseason game after they were down by four or more runs.
The other team to do it was the 2014 Kansas City Royals in the wild card game against the Athletics.
In a two-year span, they accomplished a feat twice in which no team had ever done before.
The Royals are also the only team in MLB history to have three or more wins in a single postseason, when they were trailing in the eighth inning or later, according to ESPN’s official site.
The team’s bullpen catapulted these late victories as they denied the opponent from extending the score time after time.
These late heroic postseason wins led the Royals to the World Series for the second straight season, when the team ultimately beat the New York Mets in five games.
Their “move the line” mentality was the reasoning for their win in that specific series. Hit after hit, no player was trying to play the hero by swinging for a home run.
No one was the hero of this postseason, because this team as a whole carried each other through thick-and-thin and worked together to finish what they started last year.
This team was projected to win only 72 games to start the season and instead they topped last year’s historic run with another to mark in the books. This time, there is no more unfinished business — this season, the Royals are the best team in baseball.