‘Royal in Kansas City’ links the Royals of 1985 to the Royals of 2015

A fresh batch of MLB Network Presents films kicks off on Thursday, and the first of the bunch to premiere is ‘Royal in Kansas City, 30 Years Later’. This film spotlights the 1985 World Champion Kansas City Royals and 2015 Kansas City Royals, drawing parallels between the two teams and recapping each team’s run to the World Championship.

Members of the 1985 and 2015 Kansas City Royals discuss their journeys to a World Series title and the impact it made on an entire city. Narrated by Costas, the one-hour program features Hall of Famer George Brett and teammates Danny Jackson, Darryl Motley, Bret Saberhagen, Frank White and Willie Wilson reliving Kansas City’s first World Series title in 1985, and their joy watching the Royals return to the baseball mountaintop 30 years later. Royals general manager Dayton Moore, manager Ned Yost and players Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas, and Ben Zobrist bring viewers behind-the-scenes of this year’s title run, and the deep connection the team developed with the Kansas City community.

Exclusive footage detailing the bond between the Royals and the Kansas City Fire Department is also featured, following the tragic deaths of two Kansas City firefighters during the Royals’ championship run.

The format of this MLB Network Presents is rather linear, telling the stories of the 1985 and 2015 Royals at the same time and reliving what each team went through on the way to their eventual World Championship. The similarities are actually pretty shocking at times – the 1984 Royals’ season ended on a pop up to third base, just like the 2014 Royals’ season. Each team was one game away from elimination in the early rounds of the Postseason before rallying back to advance. Hell, each team knocked off the Blue Jays in the ALCS, and each team finished their World Championship with an offensive outburst to claim the trophy.

Plenty of interviews are jammed into the hour-long (45 minutes with commercials) film, including not only all of the players and executives mentioned above but also long-time Royals employees and family members of the two Kansas City area firefighters tragically killed during the 2015 Postseason, which added an emotional component to the team’s run through October.

Thankfully, the 1985 team isn’t just a backdrop to this film. There may actually be more airtime given to those players interviewed and recapping that Postseason run than there is for the 2015 players and Postseason run, which is still fresh in many people’s mind. Special attention is also given to Don Denkinger’s legendary blown call in Game 6 of the World Series, which eventually led to a Royals victory.

However, while the call was awful, it wasn’t the only reason the Cardinals lost Game 6 and, eventually, the series – and the film actually explains that. Much like there was a long sequence of misery before Bill Buckner’s error that ended Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, there was a long sequence of ineptitude following Denkinger’s incorrect call that allowed the Cardinals to lose the game.

Brett also tells an interesting story about going to a Kansas City Chiefs game before Game 7, and winding up in the same luxury box as Whitey Herzog…his former Royals manager and the manager of the 1985 Cardinals.

Overall, ‘Royal in Kansas City’ is another worthy installment in the MLB Network Presents series. I’m glad the film didn’t focus too much on pumping up the Royals team that just won the World Series, and instead focused a good chunk of its time on the history of the 1985 team. If there was too much focus on the team that we just saw win the World Series a little over a month ago, I think this film wouldn’t have had the impact that it desired and would have ended up coming off like something that should have been on the official World Series DVD set.

‘Royal in Kansas City, 30 Years Later’ airs on December 10th at 8 PM ET.