KC Royals: Okay, Who Set The MLB Playoff Clock Back To 1985?

The KC Royals won their first division title since 1985 by taking the American League Central. Is it just coincidence that every other 1985 playoff team also won a division title in 2015? Did Doc Brown leave a flux capacitor lying around major league baseball’s New York office to create some kind of 30-year time portal to 1985?

That Back to the Future (made in 1985) reference might seem a bit forced until you see the KC Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, and Los Angeles Dodgers (plus the Astros, Rangers, Dodgers, and Pirates as add-ons) all playing in the 2015 post-season.

Heck, if we want to go full bore with the Back to the Future nerd-dom, we can also point out that 1989’s Back to the Future II depicted the Chicago Cubs matched up against Miami (who did not then have a MLB team) in the 2015 World Series. That means five out of the six remaining playoff teams have a link to 1985.

Still not convinced some kind of weird temporal convergence is going on?

Then what about the eerie similarity between the legendary tarp accident on Oct. 13, 1985 that kept rookie phenom Vince Coleman from playing in the 1985 World Series, and the #TarpKid incident where a high-school worker got pinned when the Kansas City Royals‘ ground crew unrolled the tarp during the rain delay in game 1 of the 2015 ALDS?

You can see a YouTube video of #TarpKid below:

We’re getting into Abraham Lincoln having a secretary named Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy having a secretary named Lincoln, territory.

With the Toronto Blue Jays losing their first two games to the Texas Rangers, and the Dodgers dropping game 1 of their National League Division Series against the New York Mets, the stars aren’t particularly well-aligned to replicate 1985’s Championship Series match-ups (Royals/Jays and Dodgers/Cardinals).

Even so, with the KC Royals tying up their series against Houston, and the Cardinals taking game 1 against the Cubs, a repeat of the 1985 World Series is still possible. Since the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals each had the best record in their respective leagues in 2015, one might even say such a result is favored—if you believe baseball’s playoff system rewards the strongest teams.

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The team reversal in the tarp incidents might be encouraging to St. Louis Cardinals fans, many of whom still blame umpire Don Denkinger’s blown call for their loss in the 1985 World Series. This KC Royals fan, however, dreads such a retro pairing.  I’m convinced that even if the Kansas City Royals were to sweep the Cardinals in the 2015 World Series with a cumulative score of 40-0, the same fans that have unfairly scapegoated Don Denkinger for 30 years will assert that a blown third strike call in the first inning of game 1 cost them the 2015 World Series.

Then, they’ll find another poor umpire to blame for the NEXT 30 years. Hey, by now, lying about Don Denkinger is a St. Louis tradition.

Please, Doc Brown, don’t allow such a skewed future to come to pass. I don’t think KC Royals fans can take another generation of whining from St. Louis. You can always rebuild the flux capacitor.

Next: Royals Need To Steal Momentum Back From Astros

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