The ’95 KC Royals: The last short season revisited

The 2020 major league season won’t start on time, the first time since 1995 that a campaign will begin significantly late. Here’s a look back at the ’95 KC Royals and their short season.

The night of Aug. 10, 1994 was a perfect West Coast baseball evening, warm with a barely perceptible breeze for the KC Royals’ game against the California Angels. It was the rubber game of a three-game series; the Royals were scheduled to fly home after the contest for a day off before hosting Texas to begin a nine-game homestand.

The game was close all the way. The Angels scored first on a Gary Disarcina one-run single in the second inning and Felix Jose‘s RBI single in the Kansas City fourth left it tied going to the bottom of the ninth. Royals’ reliever Billy Brewer, in with one out after starter Tom Gordon loaded the bases, struck out Rex Hudler, then gave way to Rusty Meacham with Disarcina coming to the plate. Disarcina punched a 1-0 pitch into center and the Angels had a 2-1 walk-off.

The Royals flew home as scheduled and took their day off, but didn’t play the Rangers the next night. In fact they, like every other major league team, didn’t play at all the rest of the season–instead, the players went on strike and the entire campaign, including the World Series, was lost to labor strife.

The excruciatingly long strike didn’t end until April 2, 1995, the day before replacement players were scheduled to open the season. (A federal court injunction issued by future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ended the strike, a story deserving of its own telling and one for another day). A hasty “spring training” followed and the ’95 season started for the KC Royals April 26. Opening Day came too late for a 162-game regular season, so the teams played 144.

The ’94 strike was the last baseball work stoppage and caused the last late start to a season, other than an Opening Day or two delayed by weather. Now, 25 years later, when the 2020 season will start is unknown, a necessary consequence of baseball’s prudent decision to cancel spring training and delay the season’s start for at least two weeks as the country and world grapple with the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Some Royals and their fans hadn’t been born, and some were too young to remember, the last time baseball stopped. Let’s take a look back at the 1995 KC Royals, the team that returned from the long strike.

A trade jolted the 1995 KC Royals before the season even began. The deal set a negative tone for the campaign.

Kansas City fans not driven away by the strike were still celebrating the good early April news that baseball was back when the Royals shocked them with bad news. On April 6, just four days after the strike ended, the club traded ace pitcher David Cone to Toronto for Tony Medrano, Dave Sinnes and Chris Stynes. Cone, the strike season Cy Young Award winner with a 16-5, 2.94 ERA record, had been back with the Royals since 1993 after they traded him to the Mets in ’87; the Cone deals were two of the worst trades the club ever made.

The trade dampened Royal spirits and may have been a bad omen. The club plodded through a lackluster 70-74 season and finished second in the AL Central, 30 games behind Cleveland. It was an outcome perhaps predictable by an uninspiring Opening Day lineup, a mixture of young, aging (by baseball standards) and relatively unknown players. Gary Gaetti (36) started at third, Greg Gagne (33) at shortstop, Wally Joyner (32) at first, and Jose Lind (30) at second; the outfield was younger with Michael Tucker in left (23), Tom Goodwin in center (26) and Felix Jose (29) in right.

Catcher Brent Mayne and starting pitcher Kevin Appier were 27. The lineup won the club’s first game, beating Baltimore 5-1; Appier pitched 6.2 hitless and scoreless innings to earn the first of  his eventual club-leading 15 games. Joyner had a double, single and RBI and Gagne added two singles. Closer Jeff Montgomery finished the contest with two strikeouts in the ninth, but wasn’t eligible for a save.

Because it was an Opening Day victory (and a home one at that), the game served as a season highlight. The Royals were tied for first at the end of the day, a position they’d never occupy again. The season and its component parts were unspectacular–the Royals had identical 35-37 home and road records; finished the first half 33-32 and the second 37-42; had three winning months (a 15-10 June was their best and 17 August wins were their most in any month of the season); their longest winning streak was seven, their longest losing streak was six.

Former Royal Bob Boone managed the club (he replaced Hal McRae, who was fired a little over a month after the ’94 strike began).

The end came Oct. 1 in Cleveland. The Indians hammered KC 17-7; starting his last game for the Royals, Gordon gave up 10 runs on nine hits in the first inning. The lopsided loss marked a fitting conclusion to a season that would prove to be the first of eight straight losing campaigns, and the first of an 18-year span in which the club posted 17 losing records.

Four veteran KC Royals pitchers–three starters and a reliever–led the 1995 staff.

Kevin Appier was the ace of the David Cone-less 1995 starting rotation. He was 15-10 with a 3.89 ERA (123 ERA+) in 31 starts; despite the shortened season, he gave the KC Royals over 200 innings for the fourth time in his career. He was better the first half (11-5) than the second (4-5) and his 5-1 July was his best month of the season. He pitched three more seasons and part of a fourth for the club before leaving for stints with the A’s, Mets and Angels, but returned to KC for his final two seasons. He finished his career with a 169-137 record and 3.74 ERA.

Appier ranks fourth all-time among KC pitchers in wins (115), starts (275), and innings pitched (1,843.2); seventh in shutouts (7); and 10th in complete games (32).

Tom Gordon finished 12-12 in his last season with the KC Royals, one of three times he won 12 games in his eight years with the club. (His best season was 1989 when he went 17-9). Gordon fared better on the road (8-5) than at home (4-7) and won three games in each of three months. He opted for free agency after the season and signed with Boston. Gordon won 79 games for the Royals and 138 in his career.

Mark Gubicza, a 14-game winner for the 1985 World Series champions, finished his 12th, and next to last, Royals season with a 12-14, 3.75 ERA record. His 213.1 innings pitched led the club; he started 33 games, finished three and threw two shutouts. Gubicza became a free agent after the campaign, re-signed with the Royals and went 4-12 in 1996, then was traded to the Angels. He appeared in two games for the Halos and never pitched in the majors again. He won 132 games in 14 seasons and is now a broadcaster.

Jeff Montgomery had another good season as the Royals’ closer, a job he won in 1990, saving 31 games in 54 appearances. Montgomery, now a broadcaster on the Royals network, is the club’s all-time saves leader (304), has appeared in more games (686) than any other KC pitcher and has the fourth-best opponents’ batting average against (.239).