Keep Your KC Royals Ticket Stub: Willie Wilson runs off the Yanks

Welcome back to Kings of Kauffman's "Keep Your KC Royals Ticket Stub" series, our continuing look at big games and moments in franchise history.

Perhaps it's appropriate for a series that falls under the history banner at Kings of Kauffman, but I'm aware that the title of this series is dated in its own right. "Keep Your KC Royals Ticket Stub" harkens back to a different time, if for no other reason than they don't even give you a physical ticket anymore. Everything is digital, sent directly to your phone, and fans must look elsewhere for an easy souvenir of the game experience.

Taking a piece of the KC Royals experience home with you

I, for one, believe we've lost something special for the sake of convenience. Tickets used to be miniature works of art you could carry around in your pocket. At least, that's what it felt like when I was a kid. Sure, a standard regular season ticket might come off as fairly generic to the non-discerning eye, but nothing could be further from the truth. The colors in the printed logo popped with a unique vibrancy, and otherwise mundane details like start times and seat numbers hummed with the excitement of the shared experience.

How were you supposed to toss that in the garbage on your way out of the stadium?

I understand how some could take it for granted. But when I was a kid, I only got to go to one Royals game a year, maybe two if I was lucky. So I was desperate to cling to whatever memento I could take home. I don't have every ticket stub for every game I saw back then, but I still have quite a few. I keep them in an old candy tin, and I'm grateful the Royals didn't stop printing tickets until after I took my oldest sons to their first game in 2015. Those ticket stubs are treasured possessions.

That said, I don't have a stub for the game I'm going to discuss today. There's a perfectly good reason for that — I wasn't there. In fact, as the Royals were mounting a furious June 9, 1979 comeback against the hated Yankees, I was being born in a hospital 60 miles away. And once I finish recounting the epic game, it may seem like I was destined to be a Royals (and Willie Wilson) fan from day one.

The KC Royals-New York Yankees rivalry: A primer

The basic concept is foreign to baseball fans in the present, at a time when the Royals and, frankly, most midwestern sports teams are regularly overlooked by the media and world-at-large, but there was a time in the late 1970s and early 80s when the Royals and Yankees made up the fiercest rivalry in baseball.

The teams were American League Championship Series opponents four times between 1976 and 1980. Unfortunately, the Yankees came out on top more often than not, winning three straight pennants against the Royals. Chris Chambliss started the fireworks, breaking the Royals' hearts with one of the most chaotic walk-off home runs in major league history to win Game 5 of the '76 ALCS.

Between that and George Brett's iconic home run off Goose Gossage in the '80 ALCS, which finally got the Royals over the hump and allowed all of Kansas City to take a deep breath, the two clubs went back and forth like wrestlers in a cage match.

So many moments etched themselves into baseball history. Hal McRae tried to slide through Willie Randolph. Brett hopped up from a slide and punched Graig Nettles in the mouth, clearing the benches. Three years after the rivalry reached its high-water mark, Brett went ballistic during the Pine Tar Game. The ghost of that animosity could even be sensed by a generation that never experienced any of it when Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano snubbed Billy Butler during the 2012 Home Run Derby at Kauffman Stadium.

By contrast, 1979 was a down year for the rivalry. It was the only time the two teams did not meet in the ALCS between 1976-80. Not that either team was bad: Kansas City finished 85-77, good for second place in the AL West, and the Yankees were 89-71 and finished fourth in the AL East. Neither team knew they wouldn't be seeing each other in the playoffs again when they got together in KC that June, however, but they treated a national television audience to yet another thrilling chapter in their saga.

The Game of the Week lived up to the hype

The Saturday afternoon contest at Royals Stadium was NBC's Game of the Week. Rain had cleared out, leaving behind a wet artificial turf but a beautiful day for baseball. Tommy John took the mound for the Yanks against Larry Gura.

The villain (or hero, depending on your allegiances) of the 1976 ALCS, Chris Chambliss got the scoring started in the top of the second with a two-run homer. Lou Piniella, the former Royal — he was the 1969 AL Rookie of the Year in the Royals' first season — broke the game open in the following inning with a two-run single. Another run scored on a throwing error, and the Yankees led 5-0. This was just the start of a big day for Piniella.

The Royals showed some signs of life in the bottom of the fourth. Al Cowens singled in Amos Otis, and Darrell Porter smacked a two-run homer to cut into New York's lead. In the sixth, John Wathan tripled in two runs, and then scored on Freddie Patek's single, giving the Royals their first lead of the day.

Then both teams took turns trying to give the game away.