Even in the old days you had rich teams and poor teams. The poor teams sold players to rich teams to make payroll
Remember the Kansas City A's and the Yankees?
Yeah I bet Yankees fans alive today arent even aware that Mickey Mantle,****** ford and Reggie Jackson arent true Yankees like Derek Jeter,Andy Pettie or Mariano Rivera.
It was the good old Kansas city organization that gave the yanks so many good teams over the years.Those days even contiuned on when they were the royals trading away Lou Pinella for some player that turned out to be a bust.That was my most painful moment as a royals fan.
thank god they at least held on to George Brett and never traded him to them.The Royals will never again find a player anything like Brett ever again.
I was a little youngster when they made it to their first playoff game against the yankees in 76.When Chris Chambliss hit that monster homerun off the royals Mark Littel in the 9th inning,i went to bed crying that night.that was so heartbreaking.What many people forget about that game was Brett tied the game up in the top of the 9th inning with a 3 run homer that made it 6 to 6. The Royals still made us all proud here in Kansas city the fact they had to win the game late in the 9th and they took them to five games.
Everybody here in kansas city was elated when Ewing Kauffman fired ****** Herzog a few years later when he wasnt able to win the division.Kaufmann wanted to fire Herzog the next year if they did not win the division but since they won the divison two more years again after that,he could not fire him til the 79 season when they finished second.
Kauffman was hoping they would only finish in second place the next year so he could fire Herzog because Herzog cost them that game in 76 and would ALWAYS make stupid changes that would cost the royals the pennant against the yanks.
after that playoff lost to the yanks in 76,Kauffman approached him and said-You just cost us a chance to go to the world series.a chance that we may never have again.we may never have another chance to get to the world series like we did this year.
Herzog would always cost the royals the game in late innings because Paul Splittorf would be mowing them down making the hitters looks silly and Herzog being stuck on pitch counts,would bring him out of the game only to watch his bullpen blow the games for them.
It was no mere coincidence that after the royals got rid of Herzog and got a new manager,they finally beat the yankees in 3 straight games.that was bitter sweet finally beating the yanks,not only beating them but doing it in 3 straight games.
That year they made it to the world series in 80,they were just happy to be there.beating the yankees was THEIR or i should say Our world series victory.I will never forget that classic moment of King George in classic style coming up against Gossage late in the game and hitting a three run homer to put them ahead for good and win the final game of the series in new york no less.
All the pressure in the world was on Brett and it was like nothing to him.He was always so relaxed at the plate. Herzog cost the royals so many playoff losses aginst them,everybody here in kc was glad when he was finally gone.
It was REALLY bittersweet though when the royals and cardinals faced each other in their second world series though.It was bittersweet not just winning it,but the fact they beat Herzog as well made it all the more sweet.
Herzog in typical fashion,just like he did in the playoffs against the yankees,he cost the cardinals that world series loss with a studid decison that cost them the game,sending in a relief pitcher that Dane Org knew how to hit very well instead of another one he had available to send in that Org had not had a history of hitting well against.
and then in the world series against the twins,he lost that series for them as well.
there was this relief pitcher that kept walking in all these hitters and herzog just left him in there and did not take him out as though he was trying to lose it on purpuse or something.who knows,maybe he was.
seems like they would have broke the curse by now like the sox did if they werent.
