Festivities, 'HDH' bobbleheads headline big 2014 KC Royals weekend celebration

In some ways, it feels like a lifetime has passed since the KC Royals made their first postseason appearance in nearly three decades, riding a walk-off Wild Card Game win for the ages to Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, where they were ultimately denied the title by San Francisco and Madison Bumgarner, the pitcher who to this day remains "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" to many Royals fans.

Along the way, the Royals won eight American League playoff games in a row, sweeping the top-seeded Angels and the favored Orioles with exciting speed, defense, and one of the most dominant bullpens in major league history. The team started slowly and looked destined to fall well short of high expectations before turning it on in the season's second half and rising far higher than many dared dream. The Royals won the World Series a year later, but many fans still consider their surprise 2014 run as more fun.

The KC Royals are celebrating the 2014 AL champs this weekend

To mark the 10th anniversary of their pennant victory, the Royals have these exciting festivities planned for this weekend, including an on-field reunion of players before Friday night's game and a Thursday evening dinner at Union Station with proceeds earmarked for the Kansas City Royals Foundation.

And don't forget the bobbleheads.

The 2014 Royals had the best back-end of any bullpen in the majors — no club's came close to the "HDH" trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland, a three-headed monster that changed the way teams build bullpens. To pay tribute to them, the Royals are giving away bobbleheads at every game against the A's this weekend — Herrera's Friday night, Davis' Saturday night, and Holland's Sunday. But the bobbleheads, which interlock to form a single awesome display, are only available to the first 15,000 fans through the gate each game.

And just in case you need a reminder of how good those pitchers were, or weren't around to see them in action, here's who they were and what HDH did.

Kelvin Herrera was the first line of defense

Herrera's early path in the big leagues wasn't smooth; he debuted late in 2011 but later bounced back and forth between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha. He had a couple of auditions for the closer role and, while he looked great at times, struggled with the long ball and failed to lock down the position.

His turnaround came in 2014, when manager Ned Yost made him the seventh-inning guy in the HDH trio of dominant late-inning relievers assigned to close out wins. Herrera repaid Yost's trust by going 4-3 with a 1.41 ERA and 1.143 WHIP in 70 games. He didn't slow down in the postseason, appearing in 11 games, giving up only three runs and striking out 16 in 13.6 innings, and winning Game 2 of the World Series.

The Royals carried this successful formula over to 2015 until Holland went down with an elbow injury in September. That forced Herrera to the eighth-inning spot, but thanks to Luke Hochevar, who became the primary seventh-inning man, the club skipped scarcely a beat. It didn't even have to change the initials of the back-end of the bullpen, although HHD didn't have quite the same ring as HDH.

Herrera stuck with the eighth inning through the 2016 season, but after Davis was traded to the Cubs, he moved into the closer role in 2017. He wasn't bad there, converting 26 of 31 save opportunities, but his career-worst 4.25 ERA suggests the Royals were at their strongest when he was in the seventh-inning spot.

Wade Davis was as good as it gets in 2014

Unlike Herrera and Holland, Davis didn't come up through the Royals' system, instead being acquired as part of the controversial (at the time) deal that brought James Shields to Kansas City. Widely seen as a throw-in for that trade, Davis eventually had an even bigger impact on Kansas City's success than Shields. At first, however, things didn't look promising.

Davis had started and relieved and for Tampa Bay, but the Royals were intent on starting him. Unfortunately, Davis was middling, at best, as a starter. He went 6-10 and was back in the bullpen by the end of his first Kansas City season.

Like Herrera, though, he found his groove in 2014.

Handling the eighth inning, Davis posted one of the greatest seasons ever by a relief pitcher — he went 9-2 with a 1.00 ERA in 72 innings, set a team record for most strikeouts by a reliever (109), walked only 23, and finished with a 0.847 WHIP. From June 25 to Sept. 16, he didn't give up an earned run; his Sept. 15 ERA was 0.69. And he didn't give up a home run all season. In the postseason, he was 2-0 with 12 strikeouts and only two walks in 12 appearances.

Davis was almost as good in 2015, although he finally allowed a homer. And when forced to take over closer duties following Holland's injury, he didn't bat an eye. His epic performance in Game 6 of the 2015 ALCS, pitching around an extended rain delay, clinched back-to-back World Series berths for Kansas City, and he recorded the last out of the 2015 World Series.

The Royals traded Davis to the Cubs after the 2016 season, and he had a good year on the North Side before moving to Colorado in 2018 and leading the National League in saves. He returned to Kansas City in 2021 for one last hurrah, but it wasn't the same.