KC Royals: 2014 Playoff Run Hard To Beat

The KC Royals won the World Series in 2015. It was a long time coming for Royals fans, but the 2014 season, despite not winning the championship, was still more special.

People might think I’m crazy for saying this, but the 2014 Kansas City Royals season was more special to me than the 2015 season.

Yes, the 2015 season ended with the Royals hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy, but 2014 set the pace. It set up the story. It set up the storybook ending that fans got in 2015.

You could even say the journey started near the end of the 2013 season when Justin Maxwell (who hasn’t even been a Royal since mid-May of the 2014 season) hit a walk-off grand slam in the final home game of the year.

More from Kansas City Royals

That brought excitement to Royals baseball that fans my age had yet to experience. We hadn’t experienced an exciting baseball team in our city.

Even though the Royals didn’t make the postseason in the 2013 season, there was just this inkling that the 2014 season would be special.

Special it was, as the Royals went on to clinch their first postseason berth since 1985. It was then that Royals fans got to experience the magic of October baseball.

While the American League Wildcard game was technically played on the last day of September in 2014, Royals fans likely witnessed the best baseball game they’d ever see.

It was the Wildcard game that brought baseball back to Kansas City. That game ignited a love for baseball that this town hadn’t seen since the boys in blues captured the title in 1985, a time before a lot of diehard Royals fans were even born.

Kansas City was ecstatic, but that wasn’t the end of it.

The KC Royals went on to sweep the Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS, a team who had the best record in the American League. The Royals still weren’t done, though, as they then swept the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS to advance to their first World Series since 1985.

Fans couldn’t believe it. Our team was going to the World Series.

It was the Wildcard game that brought baseball back to Kansas City. That game ignited a love for baseball that this town hadn’t seen since the boys in blues captured the title in 1985.

Even though the ending wasn’t right, the 2014 season is something I will never forget.

I’ll never forget that Wildcard game, especially Salvador Perez‘s walk-off single to give the Royals their first postseason win in 29 years.

I’ll never forget Eric Hosmer‘s triple that caused Sam Fulds and Jonny Gomes (who would be a member of the Royals’ World Series winning team the next year) to run into each other and not come down with the baseball due to crowd noise.

I’ll never forget the celebration on the field that night at Kauffman Stadium. I hugged a complete stranger standing next to me because neither of us could believe what we had just witnessed.

I’ll never forget sweeping the Angels and Orioles, and wondering when the Royal magic was going to run out.

2014 was incredible because it was the first time that I, or any Royals fan close to my age, got to experience their favorite baseball team in the playoffs.

We had years and years of disappointing Chiefs playoff losses, but never even saw the Royals make it to the postseason.

It was just an honor to be there in 2014. It was an honor to be getting recognized nationally by sports broadcasters who are used to covering the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the postseason.

For once, the Kansas City Royals were there, and it was an honor just to be nominated, so to speak.

When the Royals went to the World Series that season, it felt like a Cinderella moment waiting to happen. Instead, the San Francisco Giants won their second World Series in just three seasons, and Royals fans felt robbed.

Robbed, but at the same time, rewarded. We were nothing a season ago, and now everyone was afraid of us.

More from KC Kingdom

Again, even though the Kansas City Royals fell short of their goal in 2014, the journey was so much more incredible than 2015.

Winning a championship made 2015 memorable, but 2014 was ultimately what got the Kansas City Royals to that championship victory.

The Royals wouldn’t have done what they did in 2015 without 2014 as a guide. They knew what it felt like to be in the playoffs and the World Series. They had experienced that rush before, and that’s what helped them win it all in 2015.

Same could be said for the Royals fans. 2014 showed us that our team could be a winner. Our team could bring us joy and could bring an entire city together.

Next: Times Sure Have Changed For Royals Fans

That’s exactly what the 2014 season did for Kansas City and KC Royals fans everywhere.

Home/Kansas City Royals