Welcome to my 1976 Royals Replay Blog, For Those Who Are Tired of the Current Royals.

Hi, I have just started a replay using Sherco Baseball and this time I am replaying the 1976 Kansas City Royals. For the 1st time in the franchise's 8-year history the Royals made the postseason, winning the A.L. West crown, ending the Oakland A's 5-year death grip on the division. (Thank you Bowie Kuhn, for introducing free agency, and letting Charlie Finley suffer after that! ;) ) Anyway, Kansas City took on the New York Yankees in the ALCS, and lost in 5 games (remember there were just best-of-5 series back then). Royals fans like me will always remember Chris Chambliss' walk-off homer off Mark Littell in the bottom of the 9th in game 5 at Yankee Stadium that gave New York the victory. Yankees fans were celebrating on the field after Chambliss' homer, and K.C. fans worldwide were shocked. And that started a rivalry between the fighting young boys in blue representing the Heartland and The Best Team Money Can Buy, brought to America by an overweight shipbuilder from Cleveland named G.M.S. III. (Only giving you his initials because you all know who he is!)
Anyway, the Royals had players who would make this team THE TEAM TO BEAT in the A.L. West for 4 out of the next 5 years... George Brett, Hal McRae, Freddie Patek, Al Cowens, Frank White, Amos Otis, Paul Splitorff... this was Royals baseball, the way it was.
Anyway, if you followed my Notre Dame/Milwaukee Bucks replays, you know about 6-foot-11 center Philip Fitzpatrick. But this replay is also about his father, Henry, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound relief pitcher who graduated from Notre Dame in 1972, and is in his rookie year in '76 and reports say that Henry is going to be a dominant pitcher in relief and on of the best specialty pitchers in the American League.
Anyway, Whitey Herzog's boys in blue are predicted to unseat Oakland as the new A.L. West champion, and some say George Brett will become the next big star. Will the Royals live up to expectations in my replay, and even beat the hated Yanks in the ALCS and be world champions? Stay tuned and find out!
By the way, Opening Day is April 9th at (original) Comiskey Park, the Royals are playing the White Sox. Check out the Royals '76 jerseys and the ChiSox '76 uniforms. Then you'll know who was the better team that year! Play Ball!