Turbulent Royals-Yankees playoff history has clutch homers, fights, ‘cockroaches’

As ABC was preparing to air the 1980 American League Championship Series, the late director Chet Forte was asked by The Star if the network had special plans.

“I don’t think you have to do much to jazz up a Kansas City-New York series,” Forte replied.

He was right. At that time, the Royals-Yankees rivalry was one of the biggest in baseball, largely because they were about to meet in the American League Championship Series for the fourth time in five years.

Those games are remembered for clutch home runs, on-field fisticuffs and redemption for the Royals.

That rivalry has since faded but a new chapter will be added this week when the Royals and Yankees meet in an American League Division Series.

Here is a look at their playoff history.

1976 ALCS

The Royals made the playoffs for the first time in 1976 and came up just short of the World Series. The Yankees won the best-of-five series thanks to a 7-6 win in Game 5.

Trailing by three in the eighth inning in Yankee Stadium, George Brett tied it with a three-run homer for the Royals. KC then put two on in the ninth inning but failed to take to the lead.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Chris Chambliss hit a walk-off homer to give the Yankees the pennant. Pandemonium ensued.

1977 ALCS

The Royals won 102 games in the regular season, while the Yankees were a 100-game winner.

After taking the opening game of the ALCS, the Royals showed they weren’t going to be pushed around by the Yankees. In Game 2, Hal McRae drew the Yankees’ ire with this “slide” into Willie Randolph.

Lou Piniella, who had played for the Royals earlier in his career, told KC’s Frank White at one point: “You better look out or we’ll break one of your guy’s legs.”

Royals manager Whitey Herzog told reporters the country wanted the Royals to beat the Yankees.

“I personally feel that those cockroaches don’t deserve to win and I refer to the jerks in the front office,” Herzog said. “That used to be a high-class office, the best in baseball. Now it ain’t beans.”

The Yankees ended up winning Game 2 and afterward Yankees manager Billy Martin was asked about the rivalry between the teams.

“Bad blood?” Martin said. “I don’t think there’s any good blood after tonight’s game.”

The series again went to a full five games with the finale in Kansas City. The Royals scored twice in the first inning, which featured a fight. George Brett’s RBI triple opened the scoring and was kicked in the face by the Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles.

The dust eventually settled — without any ejections — and KC led 3-1 after seven innings. The Yankees got a run in the eighth and then stunned the Royals by scoring three times in the ninth inning. The last run scored on an error by Brett.

“What a joke,” White told reporters afterward. “You play hard for six months and eight innings and it all goes up in smoke.”

1978 ALCS

Tempers didn’t flare during this series, and the Yankees didn’t rip out the hearts of the Royals in a winner-take-all game. New York prevailed in four games and Royals players were left to lament another playoff loss to the Yankees.

“I don’t see how anybody can be realistic and earnest and can say we’re better than they are,” McRae told reporters at the time. “They’ve beaten us three years in a row. I wasn’t convinced last year. I’m convinced now.”

Darrell Porter added: “People will call us chokers and that’s not right. I just hope the fans in Kansas City don’t get down on us. We could have won this series ... but we didn’t. We could have won last year ... but we didn’t.”

1980 ALCS

The Royals got their revenge by sweeping the Yankees 3-0. After winning the first two games in Kansas City, the Royals fell behind in Game 3 when Brett delivered one of the biggest hits in team history.

Brett crushed a three-run homer off Goose Gossage in the seventh inning to give the Royals a 4-2 lead.

The Yankees loaded the bases in the eighth inning with no outs, but Dan Quisenberry escaped the jam without allowing a run, and the Royals finally broke through against the Yankees.

“It feels good,” White told The Kansas City Times afterward. “Those three years we lost here we had to go back, drink our beer and sort of drink our tears. Three in a row just makes it sweeter. It’s just an incredible feeling.”

Those feelings of the Royals-Yankees rivalry stayed with the players for decades.

Brett told The Star in 2007: “I don’t hate those individual guys anymore. But I still hate the Yankees. I can’t help it. That’s just inside me.”

A new chapter in the rivalry will be written starting Saturday.