It’s in the record books. On Friday evening the Kansas City Royals qualified for MLB postseason play for the first time since the 2015 season. One of the franchise’s all-time best, Willie Mays Aikens, is feeling like a proud father.
What a great story for the Royals getting to extend their season into October. With the club going home after the 2023 season with an embarrassing 56–106 record and turning things around to the tune of 85–75, with two games left on the schedule just a season later, this is exhilarating news for all of MLB.
The magic that Kansas City’s skipper Matt Quatraro has overseen this season reinforces that anyone can win at the game’s highest level. For many Royals’ followers, it may seem like an eternity since the light at the end of postseason play has appeared over Kauffman Stadium.
One has to go 10 seasons back to when the franchise collected their second World Series championship. Prior to that, it was in 1985 that the Royals won the Commissioner’s Trophy, after winning a seven-game World Series title over cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals.
Then, there was the first Royals dance in the Fall Classic in 1980. Kansas City and the Philadelphia Phillies were the final two clubs standing for MLB’s grand prize. A main supplier of slugging power that brought the American League pennant to the Royals was delivered by first baseman Willie Mays Aikens.
Now, Aikens is cheering long and loud, just as the over 1.6 million fans that have visited Kauffman Stadium this season, for the Royals to keep winning. Along with seeing several similarities between the Royals of 1980 taking the Phillies to a seventh-game of the World Series, and Quatraro’s crew, Aikens also has a personal connection with many of the players.
Currently on staff with the Royals as a special assistant to baseball operations, Aikens routinely visits the club’s minor league affiliates and offers assistance to coaches and players. Several of the current Royals making contributions to the winning culture experience of 2024, right up until this weekend’s series with the Atlanta Braves, Aikens mentored early in their professional careers.
“I worked with Maikel Garcia (2018) in rookie ball in Arizona,” Aikens remembers during a phone conversation earlier this week with The Epoch Times. “MJ Melendez (2017), I worked with him in the Arizona League, too. When Freddy Fermin (2017) started out, I first met him in the Pioneer League when he was playing in Idaho Falls. They all have come a long way.”
When examining the Royals’ roster, Aikens sees a comparison between himself and Kansas City’s regular first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Prior to Pasquantino suffering a right fractured thumb on Aug. 29 in a game against the Houston Astros, he was enjoying the best offensive season with the Royals since joining the club three years earlier.
“We were both first baseman,” Aikens said. “Offense was primarily why I was in the lineup, and I think the same goes for Vinnie.”
The numbers at the plate, when reviewed, do show both Aikens and Pasquantino similar in the main categories. In 1980, Aikens popped 20 home runs, collected 151 hits, and batted .278. This season, Pasquantino registered 130 hits, clubbed 19 home runs, and hit .262.
When looking at the pitching for the Royals of 1980 and the 2024 staff, it is Aiken’s assessment that both were equally dominant. First-year Royals’ manager in 1980, Jim Frey had starters Dennis Leonard (20–11), Larry Gura (18–10), and Paul Splittorff (14–11) leading the charge to the American League pennant. Plus, Kansas City’s ace in the bullpen was Dan Quisenberry, who recorded 33 saves en route to the championship.
With this season’s Royals’ club that is heading to postseason play, Aikens applauds the trio of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Michael Lorenzen for their steadying the starting rotation. Aikens, who was selected by the then California Angels as the number two overall pick in the January 1975 MLB draft, sees the 2024 Royals’ starters being as threatening to hitters as the 1980 staff.
Just as had Joe Burke, the Royals’ general manager that put the 1980 club together, the front office with this season’s club has been equally clever and aggressive in building a championship caliber atmosphere in Kansas City, Aikens said. “The guys that have brought the ‘cream of the crop’ to Kansas City deserve a lot of credit. You may not know their names but this front office has done a great job.”
The Royals’ “brain trust” that Aikens refers to is J.J. Picollo and Scott Sharp.
Picollo, Kansas City’s executive vice-president and general manager, is in his 19th year with the organization. Coming aboard with the Royals in 2006 in the player development department, Picollo worked his way up the organizational ladder. This is his second full season in the general manager’s chair.
Scott Sharp, like Picollo, is working his 19th season for the Royals. As senior vice-president and assistant general manager, Sharp put in eight years of scouting with three MLB clubs prior to joining the Royals, as he worked his way up baseball operations.
When comparing the success of the 1980 Royals and what is unfolding with this season’s roster, Aikens looks at the season that Bobby Witt Jr. is having, and that of his former teammate George Brett.
In 1980, Brett, who would go on to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989, flirted with hitting .400. The last time such hitting royalty was achieved was by Ted Williams in 1941. Brett won the 1980 American League MVP award.
Witt Jr. is enjoying an equally dominating season from the plate, and on the bases. His statistics are “head-turning”—32 home runs, 210 hits, 109 RBIs, .332 batting average, and the second-generation player has swiped 31 bases.
As the 1980 Royals and the 2024 club are postseason bound, neither would have happened if not without their leaders—Brett and Witt Jr.
Comparing the Royals of 2024 to the pennant-winning club of 1980 brings out smiles easily to Kansas City fans. Winning the pennant, and beyond, in October—or November if World Series Game 6 and 7 are necessary—should take Aikens’ Royals pride to a level not yet felt.
