Kansas City Royals: White Sox are biggest rival to Royals

There is nothing better than having a team you consider a rival. We always have to hear in baseball about the Yankees vs Red Sox or Cardinals vs Cubs as the game’s top rivalries. With the 2020 MLB season on hold, it’s time to think about who is the rival of the Kansas City Royals.

In order to have a “rival”, there should be some sort of criteria to justify the title. After spending the time to think about it, there really are three things that make fans consider a team a rival:

There must be:

Something at stake when they play
A defined villain on each team
An overall displeasure between both teams and their fanbase.

Over the years, a rival can change.

During the 70’s, the Kansas City Royals‘ rival was indeed the New York Yankees. The teams faced off four times in five years, between 1976 and 1980, in the ALCS. It can easily be debated that the Yankees prevented the Royals from having a dynasty in the late 70’s.

There was obvious ill feeling between players on each side to include a fracas between George Brett and Craig Nettles in Game 5 of the 1977 ALCS. This rivalry also produced the famous “pine tar” home run, but the rivalry eventually died down in the 1980’s and really hasn’t returned since.

Some fans would claim that the Royals’ rival is the Cardinals.

The two teams met for the first time in the 1985 World Series. The Royals won that I-70 Series four games to three to claim the franchise’s first championship. The teams wouldn’t meet again until MLB introduced interleague play in 1997.

Since then, the teams have played 104 games where the Cardinal have posted a record of 62-42. This had potential to turn into a rivalry had the Cardinals beat the Giants in the 2014 NLCS, but unfortunately the Cardinals didn’t.

Even though this seems like a good team to call a rival, the Cardinals already have one in the Cubs. Just because the two teams are in the same state doesn’t necessarily mean there is a rivalry between the two.

The place to look for a real rival should come from within the AL Central and that team is the Chicago White Sox.

There is plenty of reason to justify and defend this from the criteria outlined above.

Recently, Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller landed on a list of Chicago’s “biggest sport villains“. This label stems from an incident that caused both benches to clear in 2019. Keller received a five-game suspension for intentionally throwing at White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson.

Keller took offense to Anderson violating one of the unwritten rules of baseball when he blatantly flipped his bat, then strutted around the bases after going yard during that same game in the fourth inning.

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For Keller to be a “villain”, that leaves us with Anderson being labelled as the same thing. He instigated the whole situation with his antics (and also was suspended) and it places him on the list of players like Brett Lawrie, who Royals fans don’t have an affinity for.

What some might forget is this sort of exchange has happened in the past between these two teams. Opening Day of 2015 saw Lorenzo Cain get thrown at by then White Sox pitcher Jeff Samardzija.

The teams would eventually end up in a brawl three weeks later where a combined six players would receive suspensions. Chris Sale went so far as to try and get into the Royals clubhouse for a second round after the game.

Don’t misunderstand me that fighting truly means there is a rivalry, but it does display how players on each side might just play a bit harder just to beat the team that they despise. This looks like a rivalry on the outside that has yet to be recognized.

Although it appears the White Sox might be a couple of years ahead of the Royals to compete for the AL Central, both teams are on an upward trend. Look for both of these teams to exchange blows over the next decade. The two teams meet the criteria for being rivals not only today, but for sure in the future.

White Sox fans – It is okay to label Brad Keller as a villain as long as you understand that Royals fans feel the same way about Tim Anderson. It feels great for both fanbases to have a rivalry that isn’t dictated by interleague play.

Here’s to getting these two teams back on the field so we can enjoy this rivalry.

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