Revive 1985: Kansas City fans keep the faith

By Troy Foster

Kansas City fans, my heart goes out to you.

When I was a kid, the Royals were king. They won the first World Series I can remember watching with genuine comprehension in 1985 when I was just 7 years old. Ronald Reagan ruled the country, baseball ruled my life and George Brett ruled the universe.

Brett’s likeness can still be found lurking in Kauffman Stadium (peddling credit cards), but the Royals are not the kings of past.

The Royals have suffered a losing record 12 of the last 13 seasons, including four 100-loss seasons between 2002 and 2006. Their fans sigh about their team being one of those “low-payroll clubs,” and a guy next to me in the hotdog line said “things won’t change around here until there’s a salary cap.”

Nevertheless, I feel empathy for this Kansas City organization. We attended their game Wednesday, June 11 — a game that probably epitomizes the team’s fortunes. The Royals jumped out to a strong 5-1 lead going into the seventh inning. Everyone was having a good time, people were enjoying their $1 hot dogs on “buck night” and a surprising 20,840 were in attendance. “We might actually win this one,” someone next to us said.

Then the Royals started playing like, well, the Royals.

I was talking to everyone around me, including second cousins Whitney, Erica and Erica’s husband, Andrew. But I was paying more attention to this game than the previous seven, partially because we had incredible seats on the lower level thanks to our hosts.

I must have blinked or something, because I remember turning away from the game for just a moment and then the Royals were down 8-5. Texas’ David Murphy was rounding the bases after hitting a grand slam. The Rangers would eventually win 11-5.

As we watched this Royal mess unfold, the moans and groans began. Three guys two sections over pulled paper bags over their heads, and the guy right next to us changed his dry-erase board message from “Gordon is the Truth! Franchise ‘EM” to “Why do we suck?“

The fans were disgusted, disheartened and disjointed.

“Not again!” … “Why us?” … “There’s always next year.”

“Will this Royal nightmare ever end?”

Despite their bitterness, the fans I met in Kansas City displayed a trait I hadn’t seen as often during our previous seven stops. 

It’s called loyalty.

Even the most woebegone programs have their little moments of glory. I know this because I’m an Oregon State fan, and my favorite football team once went 28 seasons without a winning record. My favorite baseball team — because of climate, location and regional bias — never really got a fair shake at the post-season before winning it all in 2006 and 2007.

When the Yankees win their next World Series, it will be another yawner. Their fans might have a few more beers than normal that night, and they’ll thump their chests again with that false sense of superiority. The brass in the Yankees front office will go about their business buying next year’s winning team, and people with no real association to New York will brag about No. 27 even though they couldn’t name the starting infield if their lives depended on it.

If you ask me, it’s better to be the guy behind the perpetual underdog than the fair-weather fan cheering for the team in first place.

Before the game, I bought a pouder-blue T-shirt from a guy in the parking lot that read “Revive 1985.” These fans have a lot of things going for them: hope, faith and humility.

The Royals might not be in the pennant race as often as the Yankees, but when 1985 is truly revived, it’ll be that much sweeter.

(There’s more on this and our other adventures at BaseCrawl.com.)