KC Royals: Ten Greatest Moments In Royals History
By John Viril
NUMBER SIX – GEORGE BRETT SHUTS UP NEW YORK
The raw description of the situation was big enough. Fifth game of the 1976 ALCS back when the series was five games. George Brett came up with two men on and no outs in the 8th inning and the KC Royals down 6-3.
Twenty-three year old George Brett parked the ball in the upper deck in left. 6-6 tie.
Take that, New York.
Even so, even those facts don’t do the situation justice. There was a lot more going on.
The Royals franchise was only seven years old in 1976, and had made the post-season faster than any expansion team in major-league history up to that time. 1969 was before free-agency. The Kansas City Royals started out with a roster filled with left-over scrubs.
Of course, the most bombastic sportscaster in history, the legendary Howard Cosell, didn’t seem to recognize this achievement. Instead, Cosell spent the entire series damning the Royals with faint praise while all but leading cheers from the booth for the Yankees.
It was disgusting.
That’s not all. Cosell angered all of Kansas City with his constant condescending attitude toward, not only the team, but the city itself. Apparently, New York’s big city sophistication would somehow shield the mighty Yankees from losing to the hayseeds from Kansas City.
Not only was Cosell condescending, ABC’s camera crews seemed to make a concerted effort to validate every stereotype New Yorkers had about the Midwest during the games in Kansas City.
I must confess, I’d like to watch those games again as an adult. Because I wonder if the bitterness of losing a close series colored my childhood memories. Maybe, just maybe, I was looking for reasons to vilify the Big Apple.
U.S Senator Thomas Eagleton (from Missouri), however, apparently agreed with me. He called Cosell’s coverage “obnoxious” and wrote then ABC Sports president Roone Arledge demanding that he ban Cosell from future baseball broadcasts.
But, George Brett washed all of that away with one swing. With his first of many clutch hits on the big stage, George Brett put fear into the entire city of New York.
Next: August 17, 1980