The Kansas City Royals are a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Central Division. The Royals play their home games at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
History
The Kansas City Royals joined Major League Baseball as a franchise team in 1969. Success came quickly as the Royals recorded their first winning season in 1971. They won the American League Western Division three years in a row from 1976-1978. During this Western division-winning streak, the Royals had by many well-known Major Leaguers, including All Star George Brett, Frank White, Lou Piniella and Al Cowens.
In 1980, after three previous American League Championship Series losses to the New York
Yankees, the Royals defeated the Yankees and won their first ALCS. They made it to their
first World Series, but eventually lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Royals made their second World Series appearance in 1985, known as the I-70 World Series, and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first World Series title. Royals pitcher and Cy Young Award winner Brett Saberhagen was named the 1985 World Series MVP.
After the 1985 World Series Title, the Royals entered an era of poor performance. Despite All Star players such as Bo Jackson, Tom Gordon, David Cone and Brian McCrae, the team failed to reach the postseason. In 2001, they lost 97 games, and in 2002 the Royals lost a franchise record 100 games.
Kansas City Royals of the 2000’s
After a couple of the worst seasons in franchise history, Royals management hired new coach Tony Pena. In 2003, Pena led the team to a winning record and won the American League
Manager of the Year award. Despite the promising 2003 season, the Royals posted a new worst in 2004, losing a franchise record 104 games. This worst record was topped the very next year, as the Royals lost 106 games in 2005. 2006 was another 100+ loss season. Finally in 2007, the Royals finished the season with less than 100 losses.
After falling to last place in the American League Central division in 2007, 2008 was a year of new change for the Royals organization. Trey Hillman was hired as the new manager, and the Royals sported new powder blue uniforms, previously worn during away games from 1973-1971. Although they finished the 2008 season with a sub.500 record, it was their best record since the 2003 season, and marked an end of a miserable few seasons.
In 2009, the Royals went back to their poor performance and finished the season in last place in their division (65-97). The one bright spot on the team was pitcher Zack Greinke, who set a team record for strikeouts in one game, and won the American League Cy Young award.
Active Roster
Pitchers:
Noel Arguelles
Brian Bannister
Henry Barrera
Roman Colon
Aaron Crow
Juan Cruz
Kyle Davies
Kyle Farnsworth
Zack Greinke
Luke Hochevar
Dusty Hughes
Anthony Lerew
Victor Marte
Gil Meche
Edgar Osuna
Joakim Soria
Robinson Tejada
Blake Wood
Catchers:
Jason Kendall
Brayan Pena
Manuel Pina
Infielders:
Mike Aviles
Yuniesky Betancourt
Jeff Bianchi
Willie Bloomquist
Billy Butler
Albert Callaspo
Josh Fields
Chris Getz
Alex Gordon
Kila Ka’aihue
Outfielders:
Brian Anderson
Rick Ankiel
David DeJesus
Jarrod Dyson
Jose Guillen
Mitch Maier
Jordan Parraz
Scott Posednik
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