This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: The Wrapup

Recappimg the unlikely AL West champs.

Apologies for the lateness of this post, but life (and a desire to watch the 2024 Royals in the playoffs) got in the way a bit.

The 1984 Royals are often regarded as one of the weakest division champions ever, if not the weakest. It is true that, in the era of four division champions and no wild-card teams (1969-1993, excluding the strike-ravaged 1981 season), only one division winner had a worse record than Kansas City’s 84-78 mark (good job, 1973 Mets!). And it is true that the Royals were brushed aside in the ALCS. And it is also true that no one else in the AL West in 1984 finished above .500, so of course the Royals were the best of a bad lot. Heck, Kansas City was outscored on the season.

Of course, there were some extenuating circumstances. For starters, missing Willie Wilson and George Brett for the first 30 or so games of the year was obviously a large blow to the offense. The Royals were 72-56 when Wilson was in the lineup and 56-45 when Brett started. Once those two were back in the lineup (May 18 was the first game both played), the Royals went 71-58, an 89-win pace. 

Two players don’t normally make a lineup, so there must have been a good team in there somewhere! And there was. People didn’t know what OPS+ was then (and if you don’t know now, it’s a measure of a player’s OPS–on-base percentage plus slugging–against the league average) but four other starters besides Wilson and Brett, plus the DH platoon of Hal McRae and Jorge Orta, were better than league average by that measure. It wasn’t a lineup of thumpers, as Kansas City finished 12th in a 14-team league in home runs, but they were second in triples and third in doubles, taking advantage of Royals Stadium’s artificial turf and spacious outfield.

The Royals didn’t have the strongest bench, but Dane Iorg and Greg Pryor both made noteworthy contributions to the cause. Iorg, acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in early May in a cash transaction, hit .255/.287/.404 with some key pinch-hits. Pryor’s line for the season was .263/.301/.356, but while starting at third base in April when Brett was out, he hit .302/.333/.413 to keep the offense afloat. Pryor also hit two walkoff home runs, which is a pretty good ratio when you hit four homers on the season.

But despite an offense that was better than it seemed, the pitching staff led this team to a division title. The amazing thing is that the rotation at the beginning of the season was almost completely rebuilt on the fly during the season. Veterans Paul Splittorff and Larry Gura were jettisoned in favor of Charlie Leibrandt and a combination of Bret Saberhagen, Mike Jones, and Danny Jackson (who did start the season in the rotation but was also sent to Class AAA Omaha later on). Only Bud Black and Mark Gubicza stayed in the starting five all year. Black was the best starter, with a 17-12 mark that probably could have been better, given his 3.12 ERA. Gubicza had a losing record at 10-14, but a 4.05 ERA, essentially league-average. Leibrandt steadied the rotation when he came aboard in May and went 11-7 with a 3.63 ERA. Saberhagen’s emergence was a big boost; the 19-year-old had a 10-11 record but a 3.48 ERA and the fourth-highest innings total on the staff despite making only 18 starts (and 20 relief appearances).

The Royals’ bullpen situation would seem odd to modern fans. Sure, Kansas City had a closer, the great Dan Quisenberry, who led the league in saves for the third straight year, with 44. But essentially, the rest of the relief corps was Joe Beckwith and Mark Huismann, plus whichever starters happened to be out of the rotation at the time. The three pitchers mentioned combined for 301 of the 444 relief innings the Royals had. 

Another mark against this team was the ALCS sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers, but is there really any shame in losing to one of the great teams of all time? Detroit was easily the best team in baseball in 1984, winning 104 games on their way to a World Series title (no other team hit the century mark; in fact, the Tigers were the first team in baseball to do that since 1980). And after a blowout loss in the first game of the series, the Royals did at least make the final two games close.

And as far as the Royals taking advantage of a weak AL West, well…they were 43-41 against the AL East. So they did hold their own against the stronger division.

Manager Dick Howser seemed to push all the right buttons for this team. He missed out on the Manager of the Year award by one point, losing to Detroit’s Sparky Anderson in what, frankly, was a ridiculous vote. Nothing against Sparky, but the Tigers were supposed to be good. Maybe not 104 wins good, but good. And once the Tigers started the season 35-5, Anderson’s main challenge was keeping his players focused so they didn’t fritter away their lead. Meanwhile, Howser had to overcome the absence of two of his best offensive players for the first six weeks and then graft a number of rookies onto a veteran pitching staff. 

Of course, the Royals would eventually reap the rewards of that effort. With a couple of additions (catcher Jim Sundberg and left fielder Lonnie Smith), the Royals would go 91-71 in 1985, then ride that pitching staff to a World Series title. No one knew it at the end of the 1984 season, but the seeds of that title had already been sown throughout the summer of 1984.

Thank you all for accompanying me on this journey, whether you were reading on Opening Day or joined in September. I had one reader ask already, and yes, I plan on looking at the 1985 team next year. In the meantime, I hope to write a few features over the winter, so please stay tuned.