How the West was Won (1969-)

The Kansas City Royals made the playoffs for the first time in 1976, only seven years after coming into existence. From 1969 to 1993 both leagues had two divisions, east and west. The Royals were in the American League West along with California, Chicago, Minnesota, Oakland, and Texas (and later Seattle). The KC club was coming off a second place AL West finish in 1975 to Oakland, which was a juggernaut team in the early seventies. The Royals then won the AL West in 1977 and 1978, too, only to be defeated in heartbreak playoff fashion by the Yankees each time. Those 1970s Royals teams were very, very good. The successive playoff runs, of course, corresponded with the arrival of George Brett.

Kansas City had lots of homegrown talent in the 1970s in addition to Brett (who was a second-round draft pick in 1971): Frank White, Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, and (later) Willie Wilson come to mind.

But those Royals teams would never have gone as far as they did, even with Brett, had it not been for a series of shrewd moves made starting in the team’s first year in the league, 1969. Consider these trades orchestrated by Cedric Tallis, the Royals first general manger, in an era before free agency became common:

1969 -- Amos Otis (Mets) for Joe Foy

1971 -- John Mayberry (Astros) for Jim York and Lance Clemons

1972 -- Hal McRae* (Reds) for Roger Nelson and Richie Scheinblum

*The American League adopted the designated hitter in 1973.

Tallis eventually moved on to become GM of the Yankees and was replaced in Kansas City by Joe Burke in 1974. Burke signed Dan Quisenberry, an amateur free agent, in 1975. And he made at least two important trades that helped to ensure that the Royals would have sustained success in the coming years:

1976 -- Larry Gura (Yankees) for Fran Healy

1976 -- Darrell Porter and Jim Colborn* (Brewers) for Jim Wholford, Jamie Quirk, and Bob McClure

* Colborn pitched a no-hitter for Kansas City on May 14, 1977, against the Rangers.

While those 1970s clubs could never quite get past the Yankees, the Royals were definitely one of the best teams in baseball for an extended period of time. Maybe they were just one player away, and that difference maker might have been Steve Busby, who pitched no-hitters for the Royals in 1973 and 1974. He won 22 games in 1974. Then he blew out his shoulder, effectively ending his brilliant and very short career.

Finally, however, the evolving Royals got over the hump in 1980, sweeping New York in the playoffs and making it to the World Series for the first time. And, as we know, Kansas City won its first world championship five years after that.

John Schuerholz took over as GM in 1981, and he often gets a lot of credit for building the Royals. But it was Tallis and to a lesser extent Burke who provided the foundation.