Here's another thing I remember: In 1984 the Royals won the American League West with only 84 wins. Detroit won the AL East with 104 wins. The Royals would have finished somewhere around 4th or 5th place in the East. People called the West the AL Worst.
The Royals had fallen on tough times after the 1980 World Series. The 1981 baseball strike and a big drug scandal in 1983 had hit Kansas City hard. Willie Wilson wins the batting title in '82 and then gets busted for cocaine in '83 (1982 batting avg: .332, 1983 avg: .276). That was the first time I had heard of cocaine. That story was the spark for the drug conversation with my parents. Big drug trial in Pittsburgh involving a lot of baseball players including a bunch of Royals. Wow. Crazy times.
1984. It had been THREE YEARS since the Royals had last been in the playoffs. That was considered a terrible drought in KC back then. THREE YEARS! Kansas City had been so good that three years without being in the postseason was unthinkable and completely unacceptable. And remember there were no wildcard teams back then. Only four teams made the playoffs. And yet, Kansas City fans could not BELIEVE it had been three years since the Royals had last made the postseason.
And we didn't call it the ALCS. We called it the playoffs. It was the American or National League Playoffs...then the World Series. Playoffs. No acronyms.
So the Royals beat out the Angels and A's (Texas and Seattle were always at the bottom of the division with the Sox and Twins somewhere in the middle) to win the West. 1984 was the last year of the best of five format for the playoffs (Not ALCS. Playoffs). And the Royals got swept. Got swept bad. Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammel, Sparky Anderson and that crew. It was inevitable. Tigers won the series that year and half the city was burned down in the celebrations. Seriously. They burned that sucker to the ground.
And I was depressed. Eleven years old and I was depressed. I remember after the game seeing Dick Howser leaning against the dugout wall as rain fell in Detroit. He watched the stupid Tigers celebrating in the rain in old Tiger Stadium and he looked so forlorn. I thought we can't get lower than this.
Of course things got better the next year and KC won the whole freaking thing.1985. Nineteen-EightyamazingFive.
And then it went away. The magic. TWENTY-NINE YEARS the magic stayed dead. Kauffman dies. Brett retires. Young stars like Beltran, Damon and Dye traded away for nothing. Small market realities sink in. Teams that most AAA teams could beat.
And to think, I remember when three years was considered a terrible playoff drought.
So EXCUSE ME if I over-celebrate a little bit. I think Kansas City fans have earned it.
