A&E | 1985 | 1075 mins. | Unrated
In the 21st century, the Kansas City Royals can’t be considered much more than flat out bad. They’ve had a revolving door of managers, draft pick flameouts and free agency flops. However, when the 1969 expansion team first came on the scene, they were very good out of the gate. The team challenged for their first division title in 1971, notching their first flag in 1976. Naturally, there was little concern when then the young squad got bounced out of the playoffs in their first appearance—they took the Yankees to five games—but tensions increased when they lost to the Bronx Bombers each of the next two seasons. 1980 saw the Royals finally sweep the Yankees, only to lose to the underdog Phillies in the World Series.
Just when it looked like the greatest team of the era may never win a World Championship, everything came together in 1985. Yeah, maybe their lineup wasn’t exactly full of bashers, but the Royals had mainstay George Brett, who’d had an absolutely monstrous season. He hit .335, 30 HR and had 112 R.B.I. To their credit, there Royals also notched some incredible comebacks during the series.
As for the rest of the lineup? The cleanup hitter was Frank White. A slick fielding second baseman, with occasional home run pop, he was nobody´s idea of a cleanup hitter except, apparently, manager Dick Howser´s. The Royals were playing in the last WS that didn’t use a DH so their regular cleanup hitter, Hal McRae, incapable of even pretending to play the field, was reduced to pinch-hitting. That left them with hacker Steve Balboni as the only other power threat and free-swing speedster Willie Wilson as the only other notable offensive weapon. Jim Sundberg. Daryl Motley. Pat Sheridan. Onix Concepcion. Buddy Biancalana. Not exactly a Hall of Fame Roster… except in Kansas City.
Their best hope was a bomb or two from Brett, a couple of hits from the other guys and some solid pitching. The Royals featured a young rotation lead by 21-year-old Bret Saberhagen, who won the Cy Young that season; southpaw Charlie Leibrandt had a career year; 23-year-old lefty Danny Jackson, in his first full season, had baffled hitters most of the season and closer Dan Quisenberry was capable of pitching as many as three innings at a time.
Down 3 games to 1 in the ALCS, the Royals stormed back to beat the Blue Jays to earn the right to face their home-state Cardinals in the I-70 series. The heavily favored Cards had a batting champion in Willie McGee, Tommy Herr in his monster season, slugger Jack Clark and the great Ozzie Smith at shortstop. And they could counter Saberhagen with ace John Tudor.
The Cards took the first two in Kansas City, with a four run rally in the 9th to win the second game, and soon the Royals found themselves down 3-1 in the postseason yet again and left for dead by the pundits. The next day turned out to be an easy win, but then came Game Six.
Cardinals fans would probably like to forget this one…
Game 6 was a tremendous pitcher´s duel between Liebrandt and the Cards´ Danny Cox. Nobody scored until the Cards plated a two-out run in the 8th. The Royals entered the bottom of the 9th needing a miracle. That’s just what they got.. Leadoff hitter Jorge Orta grounded a ball to Jack Clark at 1B. Clark flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell who was covering for the first out… except according to umpire Don Denkinger who felt Orta was safe. This eventually led to the bases loaded opportunity that would make a legend out … Dane Iorg. Dane Iorg? Does anybody outside of K.C. remember this guy? The 2-1 win set up a laugher in Game 7 and finally gave the Royals a World Championship.
These 1.33:1 transfers capture the games wonderfully. There not what you’d call ‘stunning’, but by their very nature, they were never meant to be. Compression artifacting isn’t much of an issue; colors look just like they must have during the games’ initial broadcast – these transfers appropriate across the board.
The stereo mixes are exactly what you’d expect. Nothing has been upgraded or finessed; everything sounds like it did during its first airing. Announcers sound crisp and clear and the sounds from the fields all come through with fidelity and accuracy.
The featurettes included here are also well worth a look: We get the 1985 Kansas City Royals Highlight Film, George Brett: Hometown Hero, some ALCS highlights, Royals Clinch the ALCS, Royals Looking Back, Bret Saberhagen: Cy Young Award Winner, Royals Clubhouse Celebration and How the Royals Met the Cardinals. All are relatively short, but they make an excellent appendix to the games themselves.
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