Grandview High School - Bulldog Yearbook (Grandview, MO)

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Things looked good in Mudville . . didn't trike out Play-by-play descriptions chattered from the Sony portable while fans watched the gridiron action and cheered the team. As the cool, nose-numbing, night air descended upon the stadium, radio tun- ing dials rapidly scanned the frequency bands on both sides of the field in ef- forts to find the radio station broad- casting the game. But Raytown's homecoming game against Grandview was not what the fans were so intensely waiting for. Over 1,200 miles to the east at Yan- kee Stadium in New York City, the Kansas City Royals were preparing to make a three-game sweep of the American League playoff series, an event that would spin a city into elev- en days of baseball festivities. Immediately following the final victory, Kansas City recognized the significance of the win. After losing three consecutive playoffs to the New York boys, the Royals were finally the American League champions and the cowtown broke into celebration. Slow, time-consuming Westport traffic blossomed into a symphony of trumpet- ing car horns, accompanied by chants of 22 Royals I KF We're ffl. The jubilant fracas rendered the air in high spirit. Further north, thousands of people af- flicted with Royalmania flocked to Crown Center Square, according to Tom Hall, senior. Bumper-to-bumper cars herded through the square to the under- ground corrals. Royals banners were hitched to nearly every post and rail in the square. The highlight of the win was the gathering at Crown Center afterwards. Everyone was singing 'Royals number one,' and I didn't leave until two, Hall said. But realization of the next week's events were only temporarily delayed. The confrontation with the Philadelphia Phillies at Veteran's Stadium in base- ball's national showcase, the World Se- ries, was only three short days away. After losing the first two games to the Phillies, the Royals brought the Series to Kansas City on October 24, being the first major sporting event the city had ever hosted. Only once before, when the Chiefs played at the New Orleans Tulane Sta- dium in 1970, had the city participated in a match of such scope. The Royals, along with third base- man George Brett, finally came home to the open arms of Kansas City, Suf- fering from a two-game deficit, the Royals also had to contend with a medical ailment that troubled Brett, whose .400 batting average brought him and the Royals national recogni- tion. Despite the early problems, the Royals routed the phantastic Phillies on Friday night and Saturday afternoon to even the record. Though the Royals made a striking comeback, they fell to the Phillies on Sunday at home and again on Tuesday in Philadelphia, giving the Series to Philadelphia, having been to the World Series only three times in their 97-year club history, But there was no bitter anguish felt towards Philadelphia. Brett summed up the final game as a little bit of frus- trationg the frustration of being so close. Beating the Yankees in three straight was the greatest thing in my life, ln addition to sweeping the Yankees, the Royals finished 14 games ahead of the Oakland in the American League

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West, being the only major league team to run away with a division. And Royalmania reached epidemic proportions the day the Royals re- turned home from Philadelphia. After a reception of several hundred fans at the Kansas City International Airport, a morning Downtown parade and rally were in the planning. March- ing up Grand Avenue towards the Li- berty Memorial, the parade welcomed home the American League champions. As confetti poured down from the royal blue sky, the procession crept to the Memorial where a crowd of over 85,000 fans were gathered. Tagging out Willie Randolph in the top of the eigth inning during the second playoff game, catcher Darrel Porter prevents the Yankees from scoring. Setting a Kansas City major-league record, re- lief pitcher Dan Quisenberry gets his 33rd save as the Royals edge Oakland 4-3 on September 14. lt was a gathering that dwarfed the late-night Crown Center Square party two weeks before where fans huddled together in the cold evening, listening to a distant voice on their pocket ra- dios. -Doug Larsen After hitting four for four against Toronto, third baseman George Brett recognizes his ,401 batting average, August 17,