Panic in K.C.

Nothing like watching the slap-happy Nori Aoki go 4 for 4 and set up the winning run in the bottom of the ninth against the White Sox to bring back oh-so-many unpleasant memories of Kansas City.  In the ‘70s and ‘80s Kauffman Stadium was AstroTurf hell, with the slap-happy Willie Wilson and George Brett leading the way.  Before that there was a different ballpark and a different team and a different year.

On September 27, 1967, the second-place White Sox were one game out of first, with the last five games of the season against the last-place A’s on the road and eighth-place Senators at home.  The team with 89 wins squared off in a doubleheader against the cellar dwellers with 60 wins.  Guess who swept their last two games ever in Kansas City before relocating to Oakland?  Guess which team was managed by Sox Hall-of-Famer Luke Appling?  (Hint: it wasn’t the Sox under Eddie Stanky.)  Guess which team closed out the season by losing all five of those “easy” games and then opened 1968 by dropping their first ten?  Guess who cursed God for abandoning his team in its time of need?

Those are just some of my memories of baseball in Kansas City.