Yankees vs. Royals: Resuming a historical Rivalry

Sometimes it’s heaven, sometimes it’s hell

With the Royals and Yankees squaring off in the playoffs for the first time since 1980 (how is that possible??) I thought it might be fun to take a walk down memory lane. Depending on your age, it could be traumatic.

The first time the two teams met was in the 1976 Championship Series. The Royals, in only their eighth season, held off the Oakland A’s for their first Western division crown. The Royals needed a very clutch pitching performance from Larry Gura to win the division. Fueled by brilliant performances by George Brett, Hal McRae, Amos Otis, Dennis Leonard, and Al Fitzmorris, the Royals built a comfortable lead in the division. On September 21, they were still up by sevn games. Much like the 2024 team, the 1976 club limped to the finish line, only winning 12 of their final 31 games before Gura came to the rescue.

1976

Game one was played in Kansas City on Saturday October 9. A near-record crowd of 41,077 packed into Royals Stadium. It was a beautiful fall day in Kansas City, as I settled onto my parent’s couch to watch. Remember the inning the 2024 Royals had when Vinnie and Lucus Erceg got injured on the same play? Yeah, the 1976 Royals had an inning like that too. Unfortunately, it was in the first inning of this game. It was probably nerves, and who could blame them?

Mickey Rivers led off for New York and hit a bouncer to George Brett. George threw it away which sent Mick the Quick to second. Roy White drew a walk and Thurman Munson followed with a single to center. A hard-charging Amos Otis managed to keep Rivers anchored to third. Dang, bases loaded, no outs. Not good. Royals starter (and former Yankee pitcher) Larry Gura struck out former Royals outfielder Lou Piniella for the first out. Chris Chambliss (more on him later) hit another grounder to George, who wisely stepped on third for the force, then unwisely, threw the ball away trying to get Chambliss. Two errors in the first for George. Rivers and Munson both scored. Gura got Graig Nettles on a flyball to Tom Poquette to get the Royals off the field with minimal damage.

Otis led off for the Royals and laid down a nice bunt, catching Catfish Hunter and the Yankees off guard. Otis and the ball arrived at first base almost simultaneously. Problem was, Amos badly sprained his ankle and had to be helped off the field. He would miss the entire series.

The game stayed 2-0 until the bottom of the eighth when Al Cowens nicked Hunter for a leadoff triple. Poquette brought him home with a groundout.

The Yankees answered in the ninth. With two outs, light-hitting Fred Stanley poked a single off Gura. At this point, Whitey Herzog should have gone to his bullpen. This whole sequence was massively frustrating. Stanley, a career .216 hitter, was the epitome of the good field/no-hit shortstop that ruled the day in the 1960s and ’70s. He had Gura’s number that day as he went 3-for-4 from the #9 hole. Long story short, Rivers hit another single, and Roy White stoked a double scoring Stanley and Rivers. Whitey then brought in Mark Littell to get the final one. As an old cowboy would say, a day late and a dollar short. The Yankees took the first game 4-to-1.

The Royals took Game Two by the score of 7-to-3, but not without some drama. The Royals took a quick 2-0 lead in the first. The Yankees answered with one in the second and two in the third, which sent Dennis Leonard to the showers. Leonard was an amazing pitcher and still holds many Kansas City career pitching records, but his playoff record was spotty. He was the Clayton Kershaw of his day. Paul Splittorff, relegated to the bullpen came on and threw 5 ²⁄₃ shutout innings to save the day. The Royals retook the lead with two in the sixth and put it on ice with three more in the eighth. Kansas City won their first-ever playoff game in front of a raptured sellout crowd.

The best-of-five series shifted to New York with Andy Hassler getting the start against Dock Ellis. The Royals jumped on Ellis early, riding hits from Brett, Mayberry, and Poquette for three quick runs. Chambliss nicked Hassler for a two-run dong in the fourth to make it a game. It all came apart in the sixth with the Yanks scoring three runs off a plethora of Royal pitchers. Hassler started the inning and after two batters gave way to Marty Pattin. Pattin issued an intentional walk to Carlos May (Hassler couldn’t do that?) before Whitey jerked him. Tom Hall gave up a groundout and a single, which plated two runs prompting Whitey to bring in Steve Mingori. Mingo gave up a double to the only batter he faced, Elliott Maddox, which plated another run. Mark Littell came on and got the final two outs. Five pitchers, three hits, three walks, three outs, three runs. Whitey was learning on the job. Game two to New York by a score of 5-to-3.

Remember in 1976, the Championship Series was just a best-of-five affair. Major League Baseball didn’t fool around in those days. Game Four was a rematch of game one, Hunter vs. Gura. Once again, the Royals got off to a good start and after four innings held a 5 to 2 lead. They added single runs in the sixthand the eighth, and weathered two home run game from Graig Nettles, winning by the score of 7-to-4.

This set up a winner-take-all Game Five in New York. Leonard got the start for KC against Ed Figueroa. The Royals got off to a great start with Brett clubbing a two-out double. John Mayberry followed by launching a two-run jack into the right-field seats.

Leonard unfortunately, didn’t make it out of the first inning. Rivers led off with a triple, Roy White singled in Mick, then stole second. Munson stroked a single to left and Whitey had seen enough. Splittorff, probably stinging from his demotion, came on and threw the next 3 ²⁄₃ innings, allowing two runs. Marty Pattin came on in the fourth and threw to one batter, Munson. One batter. Pattin was an effective swingman and had the juice to throw multiple innings, but by this time I think Whitey must have been quietly panicking. He brought on Game Three starter Andy Hassler, who went 2 ¹⁄₃ innings but gave up two runs to make it 6-3 New York. It looked bleak for the Royals. Whitey brought in his closer, Mark Littell in the seventh. I loved Whitey, but looking back on this series, his management of the pitching staff was downright bizarre.

Al Cowens started the Royals eighth with a single, ending Figueroa’s night. In a curious move, Yankee manager Billy Martin left his best reliever Sparky Lyle cooling in the bullpen and called on Grant Jackson. Jim Wohlford greeted Jackson with another single bringing George to the plate. Billy Martin stayed with Jackson and the lefty-lefty matchup. Didn’t matter. George took the first pitch, a high fastball, and deposited it into the upper deck of Yankee Stadium, stunning the crowd and tying the game. The legend of George Brett was born.

Mark Littell mowed down the Yanks in the eighth and the Royals threatened in the ninth against Dick Tidrow but couldn’t capitalize. Prior to the Yankees coming to bat in that inning, the New York fans had to have their moment. They showered the field with debris which delayed the start of the inning. It was a cool night in the Bronx and Littell, known as Country, patiently waited on the mound for order to be restored. After a delay of about five minutes, home plate umpire Art Frantz called “batter up.” Chambliss stepped in and swung at the first pitch, a high fastball from Country. The ball arced high into the night and carried to the short wall in right and just over the glove of a leaping Hal McRae. The Yankees were going to the World Series.

New York fans lost their minds, swarming the field like an invading horde. Chambliss had to fight his way around the bases. Some nutjob had taken second base, so Chambliss hit it with his hand as he ran by. Chambliss had to fight his way to third base, which was already gone. He made like an NFL running back between third and home. He fought his way to the dugout and after the field was cleared, more than an hour later, came out and touched home plate.

I can remember going from despondency to exhilaration to extreme despondency in a period of about 30 minutes. I don’t remember if I got any sleep that night or how I felt at school the next day. Probably numb. In an unforeseen twist, I’d kept that sports page from our local paper, the Salina Journal. I still have it, slightly torn and yellowed. It still hurts to read it. A few years ago, I was fortunate to interview both Chambliss and Littell. Both men were fantastic and easy to talk to. You can read the Chambliss interview here.

I was working on an interview with Country, when he died on the operating table during heart surgery. It felt like 1976 all over again.

1977

The Royals had a chance for redemption in 1977. They had won a still-standing club record 102 games, fueled by a Secretariat-like kick in the last 6 weeks of the season. The Yankees also had a great team, winning 100 in the tough American League East.

Game One went to the Royals 7-2, behind home runs from Hal McRae, John Mayberry and Al Cowens. The Yankees rebounded to take Game Two, 6 to 2, to send things back to Kansas City. Game Two was highlighted by the “Hal McRae” slide. I’m sure you’ve seen it. It wasn’t as much a slide as it was a cross-body block. McRae was a hard-nosed player who brought this style with him when he arrived from Cincinnati prior to the 1973 season. This slide absolutely wiped out Willie Randolph and allowed Freddie Patek to score from second. Mac had delivered a similar slide against Dick Green when the Reds and Athletics played in the 1972 World Series. Baseball was just different in those days.

Royals stadium was filled with 41,285 fans to watch Dennis Leonard redeem himself with nine solid innings, only allowing four hits in a 6-2 Kansas City win. With the Royals only needing one more victory and the next two games in Kansas City, well, you know how we were feeling.

The Yanks jumped on Larry Gura early and often in Game Four, building a 4-0 lead before the Royals fought back. The Royals got within one, before falling by the score of 6-4. Just like 1976, this series was going to a winner-take-all fifth game.

The Royals sent out Paul Splittorff and the Yankees countered with Ron Guidry. The two lefties couldn’t have been more different. Guidry, nicknamed Louisiana Lightning, was slightly built but had a cannon attached to his shoulder. Splitt was tall and solidly built but threw a softer ball with pinpoint precision.

The game got off to a rousing start. In the bottom of the first, Hal McRae hit a one-out single. George followed with a long blow over the head of Yankee centerfielder Mickey Rivers who had taken a curious route to the ball and seemed somewhat indifferent about fielding it. Right fielder Roy White bailed Rivers out with a nice throw to Willie Randolph, who in turn fired a bullet from short right field to Graig Nettles, the third baseman. Brett slid hard into third, safe, and his momentum carried him into Nettles. Brett’s momentum caused his right arm to swing up against Nettles. Nettles responded with a kick to Brett’s chest, and it was on. Oh, was it ever on. Brett came off the bag and greeted Nettles with a solid right to the top of the head. Guidry and Nettles rode Brett to the ground as both teams rushed to join the fracas. Thurman Munson fought his way into the scrum and laid on top of Brett, protecting him from further damage. Major respect to the late Munson.

When order was restored, no one was ejected. You have to love that about old time baseball. Today there’d be ejections, fines, suspensions, public apologies, anger management classes and 24/7 ESPN coverage. God, I miss those days.

Play resumed in front of a now jacked-up crowd. Al Cowens, who had a fantastic season, brought Brett home with a ground ball out. 2-0 Royals.

The Yanks cut it in half courtesy of a Munson single in the third, but Cowens nullified that with a run-scoring single of his own in the bottom half. 3-1 KC. It stayed that way going into the top of the eighth. Needing only six more outs, Splitt gave up a single to Randolph. Whitey called on Doug Bird to close it out. Bird gave up a one-out single to Lou Piniella before giving up a soft single to pinch hitter Reggie Jackson. Jackson, one of the best players in the game, had been in Billy Martin’s doghouse off and on all season, but came through when called on. That’s what superstars do. Whitey, obviously feeling some pressure, replaced Bird with Steve Mingori, who got out of the inning. 3-2 Kansas City.

The Royals threatened in the eighth, with Amos and Pete LaCock drawing two-out walks, before Sparky Lyle got Cookie Rojas swinging. The fact that LaCock was playing was another story. Regular first baseman and Royal legend John Mayberry had reportedly gone out on the town after the Royals Game Three win. He was late getting to the ballpark for Game Four, and again, reportedly hungover. Whitey was furious and had every right to be. After Mayberry started Game Four with two strikeouts and two key errors, Herzog had seen enough, pulling Big John in the fifth inning. Mayberry never played another inning for the Royals. It was a sad and shocking ending to an otherwise marvelous career.

Whitey continued to baffle with his bullpen usage. Instead of turning the game over to his closer Littell, he brought in Dennis Leonard. Leonard had won 20 games in 1977. He was a starter, and a very, very good one. He wasn’t a closer. Paul Blair opened the inning with a single. After Leonard walked Roy White, Whitey went into full panic mode. He pulled Leonard for another starter, Larry Gura. Mickey Rivers stroked a single to right, which scored Blair with the tying run. That was it for Gura.

Littell came on and got Randolph on a line drive to center, which was deep enough to score White. I got a cold pit in my stomach. After getting Munson on a ground out to Freddie Patek, Littell induced a ground ball from Lou Piniella to third. It should have ended the inning, but George’s throw was off, allowing Rivers to score and sending Piniella to second. I thought I might vomit. Country got the dangerous Reggie on a ground out to Frank White, but the damage was done. Royals Stadium was a silent morgue. Yankees 5-3.

Martin didn’t overthink things and brought in Sparky Lyle, his Cy Young-winning relief ace. White stroked a one-out single to give us hope. It was quickly extinguished when Freddie Patek hit a sharp grounder to Nettles, who started a 5-4-3 double play. Patek had played brilliantly, batting .389 for the series, but the image everyone remembers is of him sitting in the dugout with a towel draped over his head, long after the game ended. Jackson redeemed himself in the World Series that year, by hitting three consecutive home runs which launched the whole Mr. October persona. For the Royals, if 1976 was a gut punch, and it was, 1977 was the year that the school bully not only gut punched you, he also took your girlfriend.

1978

The two teams met again in the 1978 ALCS. The Royals-Yankees rivalry was starting to resemble the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier trilogy of fights, the only difference is Frazier managed to win one. The 1978 series opened in Kansas City on October 3. The Royals sent their ace, Dennis Leonard to the mound. The Yankees countered with a rookie named Jim Beattie. We got this, right? Wrong. Leonard, continuing his baffling playoff struggles, gave up nine hits and three runs in just four innings of work. Steve Mingori threw 3 ²⁄₃ innings, giving up another five hits and three runs. Al Hrabosky, the Mad Hungarian, who had been brought over from St. Louis in exchange for Mark Littell, was brought in and gave up a booming three-run home run to Reggie Jackson. The whole game was ugly. 7-1 Yankees.

The Royals righted themselves in Game two, scoring five runs in the first two innings and five runs in their last two innings, with Gura, Pattin, and Hrabosky holding the Yanks in check in a 10-4 Royal win.

The Yankees, winners of 100 games, held the home-field advantage as Game Three shifted to New York. By 1978, I was a college student, and a poor one at that. Televisions were hard to come by, so for Game Three, which was played on a Friday afternoon, I listened to it on the radio on my drive home. The Royals started Paul Splittorff, and the Yanks countered with Catfish Hunter. I’ve always called this the George Brett game. Whitey, desperately trying to find something that worked, inserted Brett into the leadoff spot. It nearly worked. George led off the game with a massive, upper-deck home run. Reggie matched him with his own long ball leading off the second. Two superstars, going at it, mano a mano.

George cranked another home run in the top of the third. 2-1, Kansas City.

Run-scoring singles by Jackson and Lou Piniella gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead after four. Not for long. Brett led off the fifthwith another solo shot. I’ll always remember Denny’s radio call, “At the end of five, it’s New York three, George Brett three”.

Reggie drove in his third run of the day with a 6th-inning sac fly, giving New York a 4 to 3 lead. Kansas City answered in the eighth. Amos stroked a double off Yankee closer Goose Gossage. A Darrell Porter single-plated Amos with the tying run. Clint Hurdle stroked a one-out single to keep the inning alive. Al Cowens hit a sharp grounder to short, which was enough to score Porter with the go-ahead run. 5-4 Royals. Splitt came back out for the eighth and got Paul Blair on a pop-up. Roy White nicked him for a single, which prompted Whitey to bring in Doug Bird to face Thurman Munson.

With the count two balls and no strikes, Bird caught too much of the plate and Munson, a warhorse who was starting to show his age, turned on it and delivered a massive blow over the fence in left-center and into the monuments. Munson would die the next August in a tragic plane crash. This was the last home run he hit in Yankee Stadium and by some accounts was the longest of his career. Of course, we had no way of knowing that at the time. It was just another gut punch for Royals fans. Whitey promptly pulled Bird for Hrabosky, who got the final two outs. Even though it was only 6-to-5, you got the feeling that the game was over. Whitey sent Steve Braun up as a pinch hitter for Frank White against Gossage. Strange move. Braun went down swinging. Gossage got Brett and McRae on fly balls and for the third consecutive year, the Yankees had broken the hearts of Kansas City.

1980

The Royals missed the playoffs in 1979, and life moved on. They rebounded in 1980, under new management. Jim Frey had been brought over from Baltimore to try to get the Royals over the hump. Indeed, the Royals had a fine season, going 97-65. Waiting for them was the Yankees. Who else could it have been? If you were alive then, there was nothing else like the rivalry between these two teams. Game One was played in Royals Stadium in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 42,598. Hard to believe they could pack that many into the old seating arrangement.

Both teams had most of the main characters back from the 1976-78 trilogy. The Yankees got off to a great start, with Rick Cerone and Lou Piniella stroking back-to-back home runs off Larry Gura in the second inning. The Royals answered with a Frank White double off Ron Guidry to tie the score. New first baseman Willie Aikens slammed a bases-loaded triple off Guidry in the third to give the Royals the lead for good. Brett added a solo shot in the seventh and Willie Wilson plated two more in the eighth to turn it into a laugher. The Royals take game one 7-to-2.

Game Two was a tight one. The Royals jumped on Rudy May for three runs in the third inning. New York countered with two in the fifth inning off Dennis Leonard. Both starters went deep, May going eight and Leonard going 8 ¹⁄₃ before giving way to Dan Quisenberry, who worked around a Cerone single in the ninth to get the save. The Royals took a commanding two-game lead, but with the next three games in New York, Royal fans were cautious. We’d seen this show before.

Game Three was played on a Friday night in the Bronx. When these two teams first met in 1976, I was still a boy. Now I was a young man. For this game, I once again drove home to watch with my father. If the Royals were going to the Series, I wanted to see it with him.

Kansas City sent out Paul Splittorff, who over the years had earned a reputation as a Yankee killer. New York countered with Tommy John, a legend in his own right. Kansas City drew first blood on a Frank White fifth inning home run. New York countered with two off Dan Quisenberry in the sixth to take the lead. Think about that for a minute. Jim Frey was asking Quiz to pick up an 11-out save. The game was very different in those days.

John got two quick outs in the seventh before White nicked him for a double. The 1980 Yankees were managed by Dick Howser. Billy Martin was always getting fired and rehired by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and 1980 was one of his fired years. Looking back, I’m amazed at the connections the two teams had. Howser. Piniella. Gura. The Yankees had guys like Mike Torrez, who was from Topeka, and Dick Tidrow, who later lived in Lees Summit and is buried in Mt. Olivet cemetery in Kansas City. Plus, your returning cast of stars like Brett, Gossage, Jackson, Otis, Guidry and Nettles. Gossage had taken the closer role from Sparky Lyle, a year after Lyle had won the Cy Young, which prompted Nettles to quip, “from Cy Young to Sayonara”.

After White’s double, Howser called on Gossage to get the seven-out save. In an inning that went down in Royals lore, UL Washington had perhaps the best at bat of his career and managed to leg out a single that never made it to the outfield. This brought Brett to the plate. George had set the baseball world on fire in 1980 by making a run at the mythical .400 batting average. He almost did it, too.

Gossage’s first pitch was a 100-mph fastball that caught too much of the plate. George took a mighty cut and connected. The ball sailed into the upper deck of Yankee Stadium, giving the Royals a 4-2 lead. Announcer Al Michaels said it was the quickest transition from a loud ruckus to absolute silence that he’s ever experienced at a sporting event. Brett took a leisurely 20 seconds to round the bases, to let the Yankees, Gossage and their fans know who their daddy was. Even though the Royals still had to get nine outs you got the feeling it was over.

Dad and I were celebrating. Brett’s hammer blow felt like deliverance. The Yankees threatened in the eighth. Bob Watson, a fine hitter, led off with a triple. Quiz lost his impeccable control and walked Reggie and Oscar Gamble to load the bases with no outs. I don’t remember any of that. I knew we were going to win and go to the series. Somehow Quiz worked out of the jam. He got Rick Cerone to hit into a line-drive double play, which froze Watson at third. He struck out Jim Spencer to end the inning. Dad and I cracked a beer. The Royals went down meekly in the 9^th. You got the idea that they just wanted to get it over with.

The Yankee ninth went like this: Nettles fly ball to Otis. Bobby Brown flyball to Wilson. Willie Randolph caught looking at strike three. The Royals had knocked the Yankee monkey off their back and were finally going to their first World Series. For one night, all was right with the world.