Kansas City Royals History: 1985 Team Completes ALCS Comeback

On this date in 1985, the Kansas City Royals completed a comeback from down three games to one to win the ALCS. The Game 7 victory over Toronto sent the franchise to its second World Series.

(Editor’s note: This is one of several on-this-date posts that KoK will publish throughout the 2017 postseason. They will highlight the postseason success of the Kansas City Royals over the years with particular emphasis given to 2014 and 2015—given the strong ties to the current squad.)

In hindsight, it’s fair to question whether Toronto got the memo. It sure seemed the Blue Jays thought they were headed to the World Series with their Game 4 win over the Kansas City Royals in the 1985 American League Championship Series.

In every previous edition of the ALCS, they would have been off to the Fall Classic. From 1969 to 1984, the ALCS (and NLCS) was a best-of-five series. Starting in 1985, it became the same as the World Series—a best-of-seven format.

The change couldn’t have come at a better time for the Kansas City Royals—a considerable underdog to a team that won 99 games in the regular season (eight more than the Royals). The switch seems to have worked well for the franchise. Prior to the change, Kansas City won just one out of five ALCS in which it featured. Since the extended format came to fruition, the franchise is 3-0.

Two of those victories (1985 and 2015) have come at the expense of the Blue Jays. We’ll focus on the first meeting now, as Monday marks the 32nd anniversary of the Kansas City Royals completing their historic comeback with a Game 7 victory up north. But don’t worry, we’ll have plenty on the 2015 series, too, which ironically opened with Game 1 exactly two years ago.