By NICK SLOAN,
NJSloan212@gmail.com
While it’s tough to imagine now, from 1976 to 1990, Kansas City was a baseball city.
The Kansas City Royals organization put together some great teams. From 1976-1985, the Royals had produced eight winning seasons (including a 102-60 season in 1976), won two American League pennants and made seven appearances in the playoffs.
After years of frustration in the postseason – mostly due to the New York Yankees – the Royals won their first and only World Series crown in 1985.
It could have been the first of a few.
George Brett and Bret Saberhagen were either in their primes or about to hit it. On top of that, the Royals boasted one of the best pitching staffs in baseball and one of the youngest. Three of the pitching stars were under the age of 24 – Danny Jackson was 23, Mark Gubicza was 22 and Saberhagen checked in at 21.
Charlie Leibrandt and Bud Black weren’t exactly old Yeller quality either – both were 28 in 1985.
And on top of that, the Royals had a young local product named David Cone in the farm system. Later on, the Royals added Kevin Appier and Tom Gordon in the farm system after drafting them.
Offensively, the Royals of course had Brett, one of the premier players in baseball at the time. He was creeping into the 30’s, but he was still producing at a high level – he won a batting title in 1990. Steve Balboni was also a good source of power.
A few years after the World Series title, the Royals also acquired Bo Jackson, regarded as one of the best pure athletes of all-time and who amazed Royals fans with his arm in left field, his bat and pure strength.
Most importantly, the Royals had Ewing Kauffman, one of the best owners in baseball. They also featured John Schuerholz, a top general manager in baseball.
From top to bottom organization wide, it appeared the Royals were set for a potential dynasty.
Instead, Kansas City fans received a few more good seasons and a steep decline in the franchise – one that the Royals have never recovered from and one baseball fans in Kansas City have never recovered from.
Slowly, the Royals transformed from a great franchise to a laughing-stock in baseball.
Let’s revisit it, as painfully as it is.
1986 All-Star Game: Oddly, we begin in the mid-summer classic. Managing the American League All-Star team was Royals manager Dick Howser. Howser, having won the pennant with the Royals in 1985, was automatically the manager for the AL that season. The game turned out to be his last game as a manager – he was later diagnosed with a brain tumor and died just over a year later. Howser was beloved in Kansas City and the Royals retired his number almost immediately.
September 1986: After the Howser news and after dealing with injuries throughout the season, the Royals finish a disappointing 76-86, third in the American League West. The Royals are unable to adequately defend their World Series championship.
December 10, 1986: The Royals trade Scott Bankhead, Mike Kingery and Steve Shields to the Seattle Mariners for Danny Tartabull. Tartabull has some good years for the Royals, but eventually signs with the New York Yankees for a then mega contract of 5 years and $27 million.
March 27, 1987: A disappointing season is double-downed in the offseason as the Royals trade David Cone to the New York Mets for Ed Hearn, Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo. Between the three players, Hearn, Anderson and Gozzo played a combined 26 games for the Royals at the major league level. Hearn immediately had a career-altering injury and he’s bravely battled several bad medical breaks off the field. Gozzo never saw the major leagues. How about Cone? In the next handful of seasons for the Mets, Cone had a record of 84-51, including a fantastic 20-3 season in 1988 – one year after he was traded by the Royals. Believe it or not, this will be the first of two times the Royals trade Cone. Yes, it’s true.
September 1987: Despite finishing the season with the American League’s second best pitching staff ERA of 3.86 and having four players hit 22 homer-runs or more, the Royals finish 83-79 on the season. Though a Royals offense features the power of Tartabull (34 homers), Balboni (24 homers) and 22 home runs from George Brett and Bo Jackson, the Royals finish dead last in the AL in runs scored.
November 6, 1987: As if trading one future 20-game winner in 1988 wasn’t enough, the Royals do so again in trading Danny Jackson to the Cincinnati Reds for Ted Power and Kurt Stillwell. Power would spend just one year for the Royals, collecting a 5-6 record with a very impressive ERA of 5.94. Stillwell would play multiple seasons for the Royals, hitting .256, slugging home 26 ding-dongs and 209 RBI. Jackson? Like Cone, Jackson would be a Cy Young candidate in the National League in 1988, finishing up 23-8 on the year. While Jackson would never be this good again, he would still file home some respectable seasons for the Reds and later on, the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cone and Jackson trades would be the first of many by different Royals general managers over the years that did not exactly work out.
February 3, 1988: In one of the few lopsided trades in the Royals’ favor, the team acquires Jeff Montgomery from the Cincinnati Reds for Van Snider. Montgomery would be one of the best closers in Royals history, while Snider did not do much at all for the Reds.
July 3, 1988: In another trade that removes a key contributor from the 1985 World Series roster, Bud Black is traded to the Cleveland Indians for Pat Tabler. Though Black doesn’t ever contend for a Cy Young, Black produces a decent 29-26 record over a couple seasons for some bad Cleveland Indians teams. After being traded from the Royals, Black collects a 63-58 record and 3.94 ERA. Again, not great, but better than some of the eventual Royals pitchers down the road. Meanwhile, Tabler’s resume makes Kurt Stillwell’s look like Kurt Gibson’s in his prime – in 287 games, he hits .279, four home-runs and 110 RBI.
September 1988: Behind a breakout season from 25-year-old Mark Gubicza (20-8, 2.70 ERA) and continued production from Brett, Jackson and Tartabul, the Royals have another winning season but no postseason type of year. Kansas City finishes 84-77. Among the weak links – being 12th in homers in the American League, a down year for Bret Saberhagen and the bottom of the rotation. Floyd Bannister was 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA and Ted Power was 5-6 with a 5.94 ERA. A little reminder – David Cone and Danny Jackson could have been in the rotation. Cone and Jackson were a combined 43-11. The Oakland A’s were a powerful baseball team in the late 1980s, so it’s hard to say those two guys would have turned the tide. Yet, you can’t help but wonder if adding Cone, Jackson or both would have given the Royals a divisional title. You can’t help it – 43-11 may not have happened in the division, but both Cone and Jackson were good.
September 1989: In what perhaps was the last truly above average Royals team, Kansas City finishes just short of a division title, earning a 92-70 record behind Saberhagen’s best year as a Royal – 23-6. Also, 21-year-old Tom Gordon has a breakout season, earning 17 wins. From there, a series of events would occur that would help the Royals begin their permanent slide.
December 7, 1989: Appropriately, the Royals begin their trail into disaster on Pearl Harbor Day 1989. The Royals sign Storm Davis, who was 35-14 in his last two seasons with the Oakland A’s. Even with the record, Davis’ career ERA with Oakland was 4.25, validating the idea that Mark McGwire, Ricky Henderson and Jose Canseco played a big role in his success. In two seasons with the Royals, Davis goes 10-19 record-wise and finishes his Royals career with a 4.85 ERA. Bud Black – let alone David Cone or Danny Jackson – would have fit in better on the roster.
December 11, 1989: Resembling the pair of trades that sent two 20-game winners to the National League, the Royals would sign another Davis just four days later. Mark Davis, who had won the Cy Young for his 44 saves and 1.85 ERA a season earlier, signs a three-year, $9.3 million deal with the Kansas City Royals. With the Royals, Davis flops. In three years in Kansas City, Davis earns seven saves. That’s right – SEVEN. He concludes his Royals career with a 9-13 record and 5.31 ERA. Considering the money and how it was in the late 1980s, the Mark Davis signing has to be considered one of the two or three worst free agency signings in Royals history.
December 15, 1989: Just another four days later, the Royals trade Charlie Leibrandt to the Atlanta Braves for first baseman Gerald Perry and Jim Lemasters. Lemasters never makes it to the big leagues, while Perry hits .254, slugs eight home-runs and drives home a whopping 57 RBI. Leibrandt doesn’t light the world on fire in Atlanta, but he’s still a solid contributor to two pennant winning teams in Atlanta. During his Braves run, Leibrandt collects a 39-31 record with a good 3.35 ERA. A 3.35 ERA sounds a lot better than a 5.31 ERA or a 4.85 ERA, right?
September 1990: Strangely enough, after trading David Cone, Danny Jackson, Bud Black and Charlie Leibrandt over the course of three years, the Royals pitching staff comes back to haunt them in 1990. The Royals finish 75-86 and in sixth place in the AL West, its lowest finish in about a decade. After finishing in the top two or three in ERA most of the 1980s, the Royals staff finishes eighth in the American League. A 22-year-old Kevin Appier is the lone bright spot, finishing 12-8 with a 2.76 ERA. Not a bright spot – Storm Davis.
November 5, 1990: Frank White and Willie Wilson are granted free agency, thus ending their careers with the Royals. Both White and Wilson were staples of those great Royals teams. White had bottomed out during the season, while Wilson would play a few more years.
January 13, 1991: In an AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Raiders running back (and most importantly, Kansas City Royals left-fielder) Bo Jackson injures his hip after a great run along the sideline. The hip injury ends Jackson’s football career and severely limits his ability on the diamond. Jackson, after making the All-Star game one season, is released a few months after his injury.
June 1991: Here we begin breaking down the Royals failures in the MLB Draft. The first – selecting outfielder Joe Vitiello with the seventh overall pick of the draft. Another outfielder on the board was Shawn Green, who ended up hitting a career .283 from the plate, with 328 homers and 1,070 RBI. Vitiello, meanwhile, checked in with 21 homers and 83 RBI – over the course of five seasons for the Royals.
September 1991: A rather unremarkable season one way or another, the Royals finish 82-80. Again, the starting rotation is the liability. Outside of Appier’s 13-10 season and Saberhagen’s 13-8 season, the Royals struggle. Tom Gordon has a bad 9-14 season, while Gubicza had a really bad season – 9-12 with a 5.68 ERA.
December 11, 1991: Two years to the day of signing Mark Davis, new Kansas City Royals General Manager Herk Robinson (he took over after Schuerholz resigned in 1990) trades one of the lone remaining assets the Royals have from the ’85 title team – Bret Saberhagen. He trades Sabes to the Mets and receives Greg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds and Keith Miller. In 1,281 combined at-bats for the three new Royals, they produce 39 homers and 210 RBI. While Saberhagen doesn’t produce as much as he did for the Royals, he still wraps up his post Royals career with a 57-39 record.
September 1992: The Royals finish with their worst record since 1970, concluding the year with a 72-90 record. The Royals offense absolutely bottoms out – hitting just 75 homers on the season and finishing 12th in the American League in runs. Still, years later, 72-90 would look good.
December 8, 1992: Looking to rebound after their worst season in 22 years, the Royals are active in the offseason – and some cases, actually cashed in. The Royals sign David Cone to launch their building efforts.
June 1993: The Royals select left-handed pitcher Jeff Granger with the fifth pick in the draft. Billy Wagner and his 422 saves and career 2.31 ERA were on the board at the time as well. If the Royals wanted offense, they could have selected Derrek Lee or Torii Hunter, two players who have combined for over 600 home-runs and over 2,100 RBI.
August 1, 1993: Ewing Kauffman, the man who brought baseball back to Kansas City, dies. The Royals would not have a full-time owner until April 2000.
September 1993: Behind a decent season from Cone – who had a 3.33 ERA despite a 11-14 record – and a great season from Kevin Appier (18-8 and 2.56 ERA), the Royals are 14 games better in 1992. They finish 84-78, good for third in the AL West. George Brett also hangs them up, finishing a great career for the Royals.
Summer 1994: After struggling and playing .500 baseball most of the season, the Royals reel off a franchise record 14-game winning streak to get to within a few games of the division leading Chicago White Sox.
August 12, 1994: Just a matter of days after the winning streak was snapped and with the Royals sitting at 64-51, the players go on strike. The rest of the season – the Royals last good one – is gone. The World Series is gone and a good chunk of the 1995 season was gone. If Bo Jackson’s injury, Ewing Kauffman’s death and the trades during the late 1980s put the Royals on a downward spiral, it was the players strike of 1994 that sent the Royals to the cellar.
Fall 1994: Despite guiding the Royals to their best season in four years and the team’s longest winning streak ever, manager Hal McRae is fired from the Royals. He ends his career with a 286-277 record. McRae is fired due to the Royals beginning a youth movement, the first of roughly 30 youth movements the Royals have begun since then.
April 5, 1995: With the Royals having no permanent ownership, it was time to cut payroll. First the Royals traded center-fielder Brian McRae to the Chicago Cubs for Geno Morones and Derek Wallace. Morones never makes the big leagues – sound familiar? – while Wallace pitches in eight games for the Royals. Eight. McRae doesn’t exactly set the world on fire for Chicago and the Mets later on, but he’s productive. He peaks with a .264-21-79 season in 1998, which also included 20 stolen bases and a .360 OBP.
April 6, 1995: One day later, the Royals trade current AL Cy Young winner David Cone to the Toronto Blue Jays for Chris Stynes, along with a pair of minor leaguers who never made the big show. Stynes had a tremendous 8 RBI in 56 games for the Royals. Cone would finish his career 84-51 with the Blue Jays and later the New York Yankees. He pitched a perfect game for the Yanks and led the 1998 Yankees in wins with 20. That’s right – Cone was the ace of the staff of the team that won 114 games in the regular season.
September 1995: After selling Cone and McRae for a dime on the dollar, the Royals finish a decent 70-74 in the strike-shortened season, playing .500 baseball until a late losing streak sent them below the .500 mark.
September 1996: In a sign of how baseball was turning towards offense, the Royals’ pitching staff’s ERA of 4.55 somehow ranks third in the AL to help the Royals win 75 games in 1996.
December 13, 1996: Looking to improve a bad offense, the Royals ship Jeff Martin, Jeff Granger, Joe Randa and Jeff Wallace to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jay Bell and Jeff King.
June 1997: Continuing our line of great Royals drafts, the Royals select Dan Reichert, who finishes his career with a 21-25 record and career 5.55 ERA. He’s selected over Jon Garland (who’s won 132 career games), Lance Berkman (career .296-358-1,195 line) and Jayson Werth.
Summer 1997: The Royals elect not to join the National League after being the first franchise given the offer. The move continues to haunt the Royals – even in bad years, they do relatively well against NL competition. Business-wise, it’s proven to be a bad decision – the Royals could have 18 games at home each year against the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, two opposing teams that would help pack The K each year.
September 1997: King and Bell do well for the Royals in year one: hitting a combined 49 home-runs and driving home 204 runs. However, a very bad pitching staff (four of the six full-time starters during the season had ERAs well into the 5’s) help the Royals earn one of their worst records in franchise history – 67-94. Included in the season was a managerial change. The Royals fired Bob Boone and replaced him with Tony Muser.
June 1998: The Royals select pitcher Jeff Austin with their first round pick. Austin makes 15 appearances for the Royals, finishing with a career 5.35 ERA. Austin was selected over J.D. Drew (.278, 242 homers, 795 RBI), Carlos Pena (263 career home-runs) and Brad Lidge (225 career saves).
September 1998: Kansas City finishes 72-89 highlighted by Dean Palmer’s 34-homerun season. Terry Pendleton also made a nice cameo during the year. You know it’s getting bad as a Royals fan when Pat Rapp’s 12-13 record is the second best in the rotation.
June 1999: The Royals take Kyle Snyder with the seventh overall pick in the 1999 draft, over fellow pitchers Barry Zito (146 career wins) and Ben Sheets (90 wins, career 3.79 ERA). Snyder’s numbers in Kansas City: a 2-9 record and 5.91 ERA in three seasons
September 1999: The Royals close out the season with a 64-97 record despite scoring 856 runs.
June 2000: With the fourth overall pick in the 2000 MLB Draft, the Royals select Mike Stodolka. Stodolka, also a pitcher, never makes the majors. Later on in his minor league career, he converts to a position player. No matter how bad this pick ended up, the draft was still weak. The only huge miss was Adam Wainwright, who has a career 3.09 ERA and a 67-38 record.
September 2000: In what might have been the most entertaining Royals team since 1989, Kansas City ends the year 77-85, but displays some young talent led by Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye and Mike Sweeney. All four players, under the age of 26, help the Royals build the fifth best AL lineup according to the runs statistic. Each player had at least 16 homers and each drove in at least 78 RBI. Joe Randa, meanwhile, breaks out with 106 RBI. Sweeney leads to the team with 144 RBI, while Dye has 118 RBI. Unfortunately, the Royals pitching staff was downright brutal that season. Mac Suzuki’s 4.34 ERA was the lowest from the rotation. Chad Durbin’s 16 starts culminated in an 8.21 ERA. The lowest ERA out of everyone on the team – including relievers – was Jose Santiago’s 3.91 ERA.
January 8, 2001: The Royals begin ripping apart their nice young nucleus by trading Johnny Damon to the Oakland Athletics, receiving Angel Berroa, Roberto Hernandez and A.J. Hinch in return. Hinch offers little with a stat-line of .214-13-42 in 117 games for the Royals. Hernandez earns 54 saves for the Royals, while Berroa is the bright spot. Berroa ends up winning the 2003 AL Rookie of the Year award, but dramatically drops off a cliff within two years. Damon helps the 2001 A’s win the AL West and was a big-time player for Boston when they won the 2004 World Series.
June 2001: The Royals select Colt Griffin, who doesn’t make an appearance for the Royals’ major league team.
Sometime before July 25, 2001: Former Kansas City Royals general manager (and later on, scapegoat) Allard Baird agrees to trade Jermaine Dye to the Toronto Blue Jays for three prospects, one of which was Vernon Wells. The deal is vetoed by the Glass Family. Wells, with Toronto and Anaheim, would develop into a good player, averaging .293-26-93 in a 162-game season.
July 25, 2001: The Royals trade Jermaine Dye for Neifi Perez in a three-way trade involving Colorado and Oakland, the first true heartbreaking Royals moment for a 16-year-old Nick Sloan who considered Dye his favorite Royal ever up to that point. Dye would peak with the Chicago White Sox, having a 44-homerun season and winning the 2005 World Series MVP. That’s right – Damon and Dye won the World Series in back-to-back seasons with different teams. It was
their time. It’s not worth repeating Perez’ numbers, but here’s a hint: They weren’t exactly Jermaine Dye type statistics. Or Kurt Stillwell type of statistics.
September 2001: It turns out trading two good players in Jermaine Dye and Johnny Damon without receiving adequate players doesn’t exactly help the win-loss record. Who knew? The Royals finish 65-97.
June 2002: The Royals end their jinx of pitcher draft picks after landing Zack Greinke. Though Greinke battles depression and social anxiety – to the point of almost quitting – he regroups and eventually wins a Cy Young with the Royals.
September 2002: For the first time in franchise history, the Royals lose 100 games – wrapping up the season 62-100. It’s also one of the rare seasons when the Royals had three managers at one point. Tony Muser was fired 23 games into the season, John Mizerock was the interim manager and Tony Pena was brought in.
April 2003: The Royals begin the season 9-0, boosting hopes that the franchise has finally turned it around.
June 2003: Ah, two straight good first round picks were too much to ask for. With two first round picks, the Royals select Chris Lubanski and Mitch Maier. Lubanski remains stuck in the minors for his career, while Maier has a career .251 average and 9 home-runs. On the board: the Royals bypassed Adam Jones twice (.277, 83 career home-runs), Nick Markakis (.293, 107 homers) and Chad Billingsley (72 career wins and a 3.66 career ERA).
July 2003: The Royals would take a 10-game above .500 record into the All-Star break, along with a size-able division lead. Slowly, the Royals lack of pitching caught up to them. Both the White Sox and Twins begin gaining ground and a three-game sweep by the White Sox at The K was really the first sign of big-time issues. Darrell May’s 10-8 record and 3.77 ERA were the shining stats from the starting rotation – and that should be a big hint. Chris George’s 7.11 ERA was somehow earned despite pitching nearly 100 innings and after starting 16 games.
September 2003: After losing 100 games in 2002, the Royals clinch their first winning season since 1994. Kansas City finishes 83-79 on the year. Tony Pena receives the 2003 Manager of the Year award, while Berroa wins the top rookie award.
April 2004: After a fun and unexpected year that was doomed by pitching ended on a sour note, the Royals front office decided the best way to capitalize on it and go for the division was signing 34-year-old Juan Gonzales and 39-year-old Benito Santiago. The Royals pitching would remain bad and an early six-game losing streak dooms the Royals.
June 2004: After a horrible decade of drafting, the Royals select Billy Butler in a pick that begins a decent string of solid draft picks in the first round.
June 24, 2004: In a three-team trade involving the Royals, Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics, the Royals trade the third young star that made 2000 a fun season – Carlos Beltran. In return, the Royals receive Mark Teahan, Mike Wood and John Buck. Beltran hits eight home-runs in the 2004 postseason alone. Teahan is bounced back and forth from the outfield to the infield and never got into a grove. Mike Wood finished his Royals career 11-19 with a 5.28 ERA. For his Royals career, Buck would hit .235, 70 homers and 259 RBI.
September 2004: The Royals finish a franchise-worst 58-104. Somehow, someway, it gets worse. Trust me.
THE 2005 SEASON
I’m going to switch-up the format here from the timeline format to a bullet point format simply because the 2005 season deserves a lot of attention and one little timeline entry doesn’t do it justice.
- The Royals began the season 7-23 through their first 30 games and 11-29 through their first 40 games.
- By the 50th game of the season, the Royals would have three managers. Pena quit after the 8-25 start, Bob Schaefer filled in admirably for a 5-12 record and Buddy Bell took over full-time, wrapping up the season 43-69.
- In what appears to be a good draft pick in Alex Gordon, it could have been a great draft pick. The Royals selected Gordon over future National League MVP Ryan Braun and Ryan Zimmerman. While Gordon is on the upswing, Braun’s a career .311 hitter and has 169 homers. Zimmerman has also played well. That’s the Royals – even a good draft pick is not enough!
- As a pitching staff, the Royals earn a 5.49 ERA, easily the worst in the American League. The Royals rotation had three 14-game losers, with Jose Lima checking in with a 5-16 record and 5.99 ERA. Greinke was also in the midst of his depression, dipping to 5-17.
- From July 28 to August 20, the Royals do not win a game. Kansas City suffers a franchise-record 19-game losing streak, climaxed by a three-game sweep by Oakland in which the Athletics outscored Kansas City 32-5.
- The Royals finish with a 56-106 record, their worst ever - and third straight year of setting the record in futility.
April 2006: Leading up to the season beginning, the Royals continue their 15th youth movement since 1990 by signing five players over the age of 30 – Doug Mientkiewicz (32), Mark Grudzielanek (36), Joe Mays (30), Scott Elarton (30) and Mark Redman (32).
May 30, 2006: After a brutal 13-37 start to the season, the Royals fire Allard Baird after disgracefully letting him hang out to dry for a full month. As a response to the firing, David Glass and the Royals revoke press credentials for two reporters who had the gall to ask questions about why Baird was scapegoated and kept on a month after he pretty much knew he was gone.
May 31, 2006: Dayton Moore is hired as the new general manager of the Royals. Despite the much improved drafting and scouting, Moore is still looking to tie Baird in terms of winning seasons with one.
June 2006: After spurning the Dodgers a year earlier, Luke Hochevar is drafted by the Royals with the first overall pick in the draft. Hochevar was selected over everyone in the draft, but here are just a few examples in the Top 15: Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw and Tim Lincecum.
Kill me.
July 2006: In one of the most humiliating moments ever, Mark Redman is named to the AL All-Star team due to the “every team must have an All-Star” rule. Redman finishes the year 11-10 with a 5.71 ERA. Nothing says All-Star like that line. Still, he looks like an All-Star compared to Scott Elarton (6-13, 6.59 ERA) and Joe Mays (0-4, 10.27 ERA).
September 2006: The Royals rally somewhat and perform better in September, yet still lose 100 games for the third year in a row and for the fourth time in five years.
December 6, 2006: In one of Moore’s most savvy trades, he would ship off future convicted wife-beater Ambiorix Burgos in return for Brian Bannister.
December 7, 2006: To follow up on that trade, Moore would select Joakim Soria in the Rule 5 draft from San Diego. Soria’s rise in becoming one of the five best closers in baseball would help the Royals in one aspect – our All-Stars wouldn’t be as embarrassing any more.
December 13, 2006: In looking to build on its pitiful starting rotation, Moore signs Gil Meche to a $55 million deal that actually was a decent signing for two years – Meche had a sub-4 ERA the first two seasons. However, Trey Hillman assassinating Meche’s pitching arm ended any hope for a long-term solution.
September 2007: The Royals show some improvement and snap their three-year streak of 100-loss seasons by finishing 69-93.
December 4, 2007: Kansas City looks to add some pop to the lineup by signing Jose Guillen to a long-term deal. Guillen has both up and downs for the Royals, but became too much of a club-house case and was traded a few years later.
September 2008: The Royals use a great September and win 75 games, their most since the 2000 season. With Greinke bouncing back to have a good season and with Billy Butler, Soria and David DeJesus coming into form, there’s some optimism that a turnaround is possible.
November 18, 2008: The Royals trade Ramon Ramirez to the Boston Red Sox for Coco Crisp. Ramirez would also later be an instrumental part of San Francisco’s bullpen in their 2010 World Series season. Crisp was instrumental in a 65-97 season for the Royals.
September 2009: After a good start by the Royals and a great season by Zack Grienke, the Kansas City Royals finish 65-97 and a winning streak in early September eliminates the possibility of a 100-loss season. Greinke would win a Cy Young in the offseason.
May 2010: After a 12-23 start, Trey Hillman is fired as manager of the Royals. Ned Yost is hired as manager.
September 2010: Hey, a two game improvement! The Royals finish the season 67-95.
And there we have it.
I could go into 2011 and early 2012, but it’s too soon to sit back and reflect on it. However, it’s no accident the Royals have been this bad after a great run in the 1980s.
Some statistics to summarize this 26 years of misery:
- Since 1994, the Royals have had two winning seasons – and one of them was in a strike-shortened season.
- The Royals were 672-948 as a franchise from 2000-2009. They had four 100-loss seasons in the decade.
- The Kansas City Royals haven’t had a position player drive home 100 runs since Carlos Beltran – in 2003!
- From 1997 to 2001, the Royals drafted five pitchers in the first round. They combined for 23 wins at the major league level.
- David Cone and Danny Jackson, two pitchers the Royals traded between 1986 and 1987 (and Cone again in 1995), won a combined six World Series rings after they were traded. In addition to that, Cone, Jackson, Greinke, Saberhagen and Leibrandt have combined for 13 14-win seasons since being traded by the Royals. All of them pitched in the postseason at some point after being traded by the Royals.
- After being traded by the Royals, Beltran, Dye and Damon combined for 580 home-runs and 2,166 RBI. The players the Royals received in return combined for 191 homers and 878 RBI – and the Royals received a good amount of players in return.
- Since Hal McRae and his 286-277 record was fired during the 1994 strike, his replacements have earned a combined record of 985-1386
I remember my parents telling me about the great Royals teams of the 1970s and 1980s. Being born in 1985, the words “winning baseball” cannot be associated with the Royals.
Kansas City used to be a glory city when it came to baseball.
Now, it’s a joke.
For many Royals fans who are confident about the Royals turning around, we’ve seen it before. And we’ve heard about it before.
The history above is one reason why I – and I imagine thousands of others – will always be jaded and skeptical of the Royals until they win. It’s unfair, but it’s tough in Kansas City for baseball right now.
Royals fans have good reason to demand better and have good reason to always be skeptical.
The last 26 years have left us that way.
Dan Streit, the lead assistant head coach for former Braves head coach Andy Price, has been named the new coach.
