The 1985 MLB season was one of the best ever. Three of major league baseball’s four divisions had races that came down the final week and all three were settled with head-to-head series in an era where there was no wild-card cushion. And the postseason? The playoffs saw both LCS winners lose the first two games and then roar back. The World Series that featured a big geographic rivalry went the full seven games, replete with game-winning hits, disputed calls and a nationally televised meltdown.
TheSportsNotebook.com has a series of articles that cover the following…
*The Kansas City Royals saw a decade of consistent postseason experience finally translate into a World Series title. They won it all, but it was never easy—comebacks in the AL West race, the ALCS and the World Series were all necessary.
*Whitey Herzog’s St. Louis Cardinals were the October foil for the Royals in the all-Missouri I-70 Series. The Cardinals were the best team in baseball during the regular season, winning 101 games and surviving an excellent division race with the New York Mets.
*The Toronto Blue Jays had come into existence in 1977 and after steady improvement they made 1985 their year, with an AL East title. Although a race that looked like it was on the bag on a couple different occasions got very interesting before it was over.
*The Los Angeles Dodgers, after a poor 1984 season, had a comeback year for Tom Lasorda. The Dodgers were the only team to clinch a division title before the final weekend of the season, thanks to a big year from third baseman Pedro Guerrero and the pitching of Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela.
*The California Angels had fallen off the map since their 1982 playoff appearance. The Angels had a veteran lineup and they brought a veteran manager—Gene Mauch—back to manage the team. The results were instantly positive, but the ending was disappointing as the Angels let a division lead slip away in the face of the Kansas City charge.
*And how about the Big Apple? The Mets and Yankees contended to the final Saturday of the season. Dwight Gooden had one of the great pitching seasons of all-time for the Mets. Billy Martin returned to manage the Yanks, what would prove to be his last rodeo in the Bronx.
*Kansas City and St. Louis each dug holes in the ALCS & NLCS respectively, and each rallied. The Royals won three straight, including the last two on the road. The Cardinals relied on consecutive games with big home runs, from Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark to close the pennant.
*And finally we come to the World Series itself. The Royals lost the first two games at home and ultimately fell behind 3-1 in the series. Their ultimate rally to win it all is most remembered by a dramatic Game 6. They got help from an infamous umpire’s call, cashed it in and then the Cardinals came unglued—both on the field and with their tempers—for the national audience.
The following ten articles tell you the stories of the four division winners, the three runner-ups and go game-by-game through all three postseason series. Together, they tell the story of a special baseball season through the eyes of its best teams.
The 1985 World Series was the year the Fall Classic went exclusively prime-time—all games at night for the first time ever, something that has not changed since. And it was a Series that was ready for prime-time as the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals gave America a fun regional rivalry, the Show-Me State Showdown, and a seven-game series, replete with controversy, as the Royals ultimately won their first championship.
You can read more about the paths each team took to their division titles and then their victories in the LCS at the links below. This article will focus exclusively on the games of the 1985 World Series.
The series opened in Kansas City, per the league rotation system that existed prior to 2003. St. Louis had its ace, 21-game winner John Tudor, ready, to face Kansas City’s Danny Jackson, a young lefty with a good hard slider. A pitcher’s duel ensued.
Kansas City picked up an early run in the second when Jim Sundberg drew a one-out walk, followed by base hits by Daryl Motley and Steve Balboni. With runners on the corners, Motley was thrown out trying to steal home to help keep the game 1-0.
What seems at first glance like a foolhardy play, has some logic. Light-hitting shortstop Buddy Biancalana was at the plate and Jackson was due up next. There was no DH in play in the 1985 World Series, as the rules at the time said that whatever league did not have homefield advantage used its rules for the entire series.
St. Louis tied it in the third, when Terry Pendleton and Darrell Porter hit consecutive singles and Willie McGee picked up the RBI with a groundball. In the fourth, Tito Landrum and Cesar Cedeno hit back-to-back doubles for a 2-1 lead.
Tudor settled in and worked seven sharp innings. St. Louis added an insurance run in the ninth and young reliever Todd Worrell closed out the 3-1 win.
Another pitcher’s duel followed in Sunday night’s Game 2, as Danny Cox worked for St. Louis against Kansas City’s Charlie Liebrandt. The Royals grabbed two runs in the fourth, when Willie Wilson singled and George Brett and Frank White each doubled. Liebrandt was locked in and it was still 2-0 in the ninth as he looked to close the complete game.
McGee opened the ninth with a leadoff double, but Liebrandt got the next batters. Even when Jack Clark singled and Landrum doubled, Liebrandt still had the 2-1 lead, with runners on second and third. Showing how much differently games were managed then, Kansas City manager Dick Howser let Liebrandt stay in the game, even with closer Dan Quisenberry available. After an intentional walk, Pendleton lined up a double into the left field corner. The bases cleared and St. Louis had a 4-2 win.
The combination of the heartbreaking loss, along with the fact St. Louis had two straight wins on the road seemed to indicate this Series was already all but over, as the teams traveled I-70 to play the next three games at Busch Stadium. But Kansas City had won the final two games of the 1985 ALCS on the road in Toronto, and they would not fold in the face of the road crowd in St. Louis.
Kansas City ace, and soon-to-be Cy Young Award winner, Bret Saberhagen was on the mound for the must-win Game 3. He was facing Joaquin Andujar, who had won 21 games himself and just three years earlier, won Games 3 & 7 of the 1982 World Series. But Andujar had struggled in his two starts in the 1985 NLCS and that continued here.
After three scoreless innings, the Royals got to Andujar, starting with a light rally. Sundberg drew a walk and Biancalana beat out an infield hit After two were out, Lonnie Smith—ironically traded from St. Louis to Kansas City earlier in the season—ripped a double into the gap for two runs. In the fifth, George Brett singled and Frank White homered. It was 4-0 and Andujar was out.
St. Louis mustered a run in the sixth on consecutive singles from Ozzie Smith, Tom Herr and Jack Clark, but Saberhagen finished off a complete-game six-hitter, the Royals added two runs in the seventh and the 6-1 final made the Series competitive again.
Tudor was on the mound for Game 4, and seemed to just as quickly turn the lights off on this whole Series. He was dominant, throwing a complete-game five-hitter. Landrum and McGee hit early home runs and St. Louis coasted to an easy 3-0 win. Only in the seventh, when the Royals loaded the bases with two outs, did Tudor face trouble. He got Hal McRae to ground to third, ending the threat.
St. Louis was in command, but if you wanted to look for signs of trouble, they weren’t hard to find. The Cardinals weren’t hitting at all. They had 11 runs in four games and four of those runs had come in a single inning, the late rally of Game 2. And with two home games still ahead, if KC could somehow survive Game 5, this Series could be put back in play.
The middle three games at Busch Stadium had been defined by great pitching and that continued in Game 5. Jackson joined Saberhagen and Tudor in throwing a dominant complete game, as he kept Kansas City alive.
KC eased the pressure on themselves with a run right away in the first inning, as Lonnie Smith and Wilson each singled, followed by productive outs from Brett and White for a 1-0 lead. St. Louis was able to tie it with consecutive doubles from Herr and Clark in their own half of the first, but Jackson shut it down from that point forward, throwing five-hitter.
The Royals essentially finished the game in the top of the second. Sundberg doubled and Biancalana singled off St. Louis vet Bob Forsch. After a Lonnie Smith walk, Wilson tripled and the game was 4-1. It stayed that way most of the night, until KC tacked on runs in the eighth and ninth for their second 6-1 win in three games.
Game 6 back in Kansas City on Saturday night would become legendary—or infamous if you lived in St. Louis. Cox and Liebrandt staged a reprise of their Game 2 pitchers’ duel. The Royals missed an earlier opportunity when a Lonnie Smith double resulted in him reaching third with less than one out and Brett at the plate. But in a rare occurrence, Brett failed to come through in October, striking out. The Cards missed a chance in the sixth when Cox was unable to get a bunt down after the inning started with consecutive singles.
Not until the eighth did a run score and it was the Cardinals who broke through. With one out, Pendleton singled and Cedeno walked. With two outs, Brian Harper came up to pinch-hit and appeared to make himself a World Series hero with an RBI base hit that put St. Louis six outs from a championship.
Cardinal lefty Ken Dayley handled the eighth, and the righty Worrell came on for the ninth. Jorge Orta was at the plate to start the Royals’ final chance.
Orta hit a bouncer to Clark at first base. The ball was fielded cleanly, tossed to Worrell who beat Orta to the bag by a good couple steps. Don Denkinger called Orta safe. The Cardinals exploded, and rightly so. Replay clearly showed Orta was easily out. Denkinger later said he was watching Orta’s foot, while listening for the sound of the ball hitting Worrell’s glove—a common umpiring practice. But the crowd noise prevented him from hearing it.
Denkinger had committed a big blunder, but it also needs to be said, that from this point forward, the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals ceased to be a functioning baseball team. The next hitter, Steve Balboni, hit a harmless pop-up into foul territory. Clark completely misplayed it, and Balboni followed with a single.
Sundberg tried to bunt, but the Cards got the force out at third. Even now, if Worrell could simply get two outs, Denkinger would be forgotten. Instead, a passed ball ensued, moving both runners up. Dane Iorg came to the plate and singled to right, scoring both runs for a 2-1 win.
Game 7 should have been a baseball delight, as the aces, Tudor and Saberhagen matched up. But Tudor had nothing, and St. Louis was still furious over the Denkinger call. The game was perhaps the worst Game 7 ever played in any sport by any team.
Tudor was gone by the third, the Royals were up 5-0 and in the fifth inning the Cardinal meltdown went on full public display. Kansas City hit six singles, a double and ripped through five St. Louis pitchers in scoring six more runs. One of them was Andujar who got upset at a ball-strike call, and exploded off the mound in a fury—not coincidentally, the home plate umpire was Denkinger. Andujar was suspended for the first ten games of 1986. The Royals won the game 11-0.
The St. Louis interpretation of the 1985 World Series is that if Denkinger makes the correct call, they close it out in Game 6. That’s reasonable—getting the leadoff man aboard in a one-run game isn’t exactly insignificant. But it also has to be said that the Cardinals completely lacked championship toughness in how they responded to the adversity.
Let’s say St. Louis lost because Orta was bunted up, a bloop single tied the game and Kansas City won in, say 11 innings. And then won a tough 4-3 game in Game 7. If that happens I’d be all for blaming the bad call, because you can’t overcome everything. But when you follow a bad call, by blowing a popup that a Little Leaguer would be embarrassed by, allowing a passed ball to move the winning run into scoring position and then completely melting down for a national audience the next night, you’ve demonstrated that your ability to handle adversity is not that of a champion.
Kansas City showed they could handle all the adversity. They had come from behind to win the AL West race, the ALCS and now the World Series. Saberhagen was Series MVP, for his two gems, one in Game 7 and the other a virtual must-win spot on the road in Game 3. That’s the right choice, with honorable mention also going to Brett (10-for-27), Balboni (8-for-25), and Wilson (11-for-30).
The two franchises went in completely opposite directions after this. St. Louis made it back to the World Series two years later and have become the model of a consistent organization in the years since. Kansas City spent nearly thirty years in the wilderness, never making the postseason and only rarely finishing above .500, before they made it back to the Fall Classic in 2014 and then won it in 2015. But the 1985 World Series belonged to the Royals.
The 1985 Kansas City Royalswere the consistent standard-bearer in the old American League West (in the two-division alignment used from 1969-93 that West was KC, Oakland, Texas, the California/Anaheim Angels, Seattle, the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota). The Royals won the division five times in nine years, but only in 1980 were they able to reach the World Series.
A loss to Philadelphia left them still searching for their first-ever championship. Kansas City won the West in 1984, but it was a weak division and they were quickly dismissed from the American League Championship Series by eventual Series winner Detroit.
The Royals were led by future Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, arguably the best hitter in his generation, able to win batting titles and hit for power. Brett would win another batting championship in 1985, hitting .335. On the other side of the infield was Steve Balboni, a hulking first baseman whose 36 home runs led the league.
The everyday lineup was filled with steady veterans of previous division winners like second baseman Frank White, centerfielder Willie Wilson and designated hitter Hal McRae. But those vets mostly performed below career norms in 1985, and the result was the offense was just 13th in the American League in runs scored.
A pitching staff that was second-best in the AL in ERA was the key to success. At the top of the rotation was a 21-year old phenom named Bret Saberhagen who would win 20 games and bring home the Cy Young Award. Behind him was a solid, crafty lefthander in Charlie Leibrandt and Danny Jackson, a young lefty with a great slider. The bullpen was anchored by submarine-style closer Dan Quisenberry, and his league-leading 37 saves. Kansas City wasn’t dominant, but they were a complete team.
It took time for the ’85 Royals to find their rhythm. They had a pedestrian April, but were only two back of California after a month. The mediocrity in KC didn’t stop, and the team was still only 46-44 in July and 7 ½ games back of the Angels. The Royals finally started their pivot into pennant race mode on July 23.
They swept a six-game homestand against a contending New York Yankees team, and the Cleveland Indians. Kansas City took two of three from Detroit and cut the lead to two games by the time August began. The Royals held serve throughout the month, and then ripped off eight straight wins to open September by sweeping a homestand against the White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers.
Three of the wins came in walkoff fashion and Kansas City moved into first place by a game and a half when they went to California for a three-game series starting on September 9.
Saberhagen started the Monday night opener, but did not pitch well, dropping a 7-1 decision. Liebrandt as ready with the answer the next night, with a complete-game three-hit shutout. Lonnie Smith, acquired in early summer from the St. Louis Cardinals, and Frank White each homered in a 6-0 win.
In the finale, Jackson hooked up with Angel started Ron Romanick in a pitchers’ duel that was scoreless in the seventh. White drew a leadoff walk and promptly stole second. Balboni worked a walk and a groundball moved both runners up. Role players then came through, as Jamie Quirk singled and Jorge Orta doubled. The Angels got a run back in the seventh, but Quisenberry came in to close the 2-1 win and Kansas City was up by 2 ½ games.
Just when it seemed the Royals were ready to pull away with the AL West, the race took another turn. They lost 10 of the next, including being inexplicably swept at home by a bad Seattle Mariners team. The bats were quiet in a sweep at Minnesota. Kansas City was one game behind California when the final week began—and it would begin with a four-game showdown between the Royals and Angels in KC.
Saberhagen again started the opener, and again faced California veteran lefty John Candelaria, a key part of the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates team that won the World Series. The game started inauspiciously for the home team, as successive singles went to waste when Brett flied out and McRae hit into a double play. California third baseman Doug DeCinces homered to lead off the second and gave California early momentum.
Brett answered in the fourth with a homer of his own and Saberhagen got settled in. Both teams missed chances, the Royals in the sixth when White was gunned at the plate and the Angels in the seventh when leadoff man Gary Pettis was caught stealing to end the inning.
Kansas City broke through in the seventh when veteran catcher Jim Sundberg, acquired at the start of the season from Milwaukee, hit a home run. Kansas City added an insurance run in the eighth, as Wilson tripled and scored on a sac fly from Brett. The AL West race was even with six days to go.
California sent their top starter, Mike Witt, to the mound on Tuesday night, although with an ERA on the high side of 3.80, he didn’t fit the prototype of “ace.” Second baseman Bobby Grich hit an early home run, and then in the fifth Brian Downing and Rod Carew delivered key hits in a three-run inning. Witt was solid throughout and the Angels won 4-2 to reclaim the division lead.
The pressure shifted back to Kansas City and future San Diego Padres manager Bud Black took the ball and delivered one of the biggest outings of his career. Black threw a three-hit shutout and a first-inning three-run blast from Brett enabled KC to coast to a 4-0 win.
Brett’s presence loomed over the series finale on Thursday, as he walked in the first and then Frank White hit a two-run homer. Brett homered himself in the fifth, while Jackson outdueled yet another future Angel Hall of Fame pitcher, Don Sutton. Kansas City won 4-1 and took a one-game lead into the season’s final weekend.
California lost on Friday night and when Kansas City won both Friday and Saturday the AL West race was over. The Royals were going back to the playoffs.
The 1985 ALCS was a matchup in contrasts. While the Royals were filled with veterans of October, their opponent was the Toronto Blue Jays, in the playoffs for the first time. This was also the first year the LCS round went to a best-of-seven format. It was just in time for Kansas City—they lost three of the first four, but with Brett performing heroically, they won three straight, the final two on the road and took the American League pennant.
All of Missouri was on fire for the 1985 World Series, as the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League flag. Once again, Kansas City made life hard on themselves, dropping three of the first four games. And once again, they fought back. They got some help from a now-infamous umpiring call at the end of Game 6, but they also took full advantage of the break and an ensuing Cardinal meltdown. Kansas City took the World Series in seven games.
No one was under any illusions about the future in Kansas City, as the champagne flowed. While there might have been hopes that perhaps this mini-dynasty could stretch out a little longer, the Royals were an older team and some retooling would definitely have to be ahead. But surely, no one thought that it would be nearly thirty years before postseason baseball—not just the World Series, but a single playoff game—would make it back to Kansas City. Not until 2014 did the Royals make it back to October and not until 2015 did they win it all.
The year in 1985 sports was, top-to-bottom, a year that can make a case for the best sports year ever. You had compelling and memorable championships in four sports, a fifth championship that was keyed by an injury that would stand up as one of history’s most important. And even the one title run that was fairly predictable was part of an emerging dynastic run.
But in this great year, two sports separate themselves and that’s college basketball and major league baseball. The Big East turned in the greatest college basketball performance we’ve seen to date, taking three spots in the Final Four.
Then, after securing both places in Monday night’s championship game, the league gave the nation an NCAA final for the ages. Villanova shocked Georgetown 66-64, denying the Hoyas the chance to be the first repeat titlist of the post-Wooden era and making Rollie Massimino forever a legend in Philadelphia.
The 1985 baseball season produced exciting, winner-take-all races, in three of its four divisions. Pete Rose closed in on Ty Cobb and eventually passed him in September as baseball’s all-time hits leader. The League Championship Series battles were defined by comebacks.
Finally, the Kansas City Royals completed a year of comebacks when the rallied from a 3-1 deficit in games and being three outs from elimination, to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Read more about the 1985 Final Four Read more about the 1985 MLB Season Read more about the 1985 Kansas City Royals
********************
The NFL and the NBA might not have produced the same sort of gripping conclusions we saw in the Final Four and World Series. But both pro football and pro hoops, for different reasons, had champions that stand out in the annals of history.
It’s tough to imagine a team winning a title with more flair than the Chicago Bears. With a dominating defense, a colorful defensive coordinator in Buddy Ryan, a hip quarterback in Jim McMahon and a future TV personality in Mike Ditka himself on the sidelines, the Bears steamrolled to a 15-1 season and an even more overwhelming playoff run. So confident was this team, they even filmed a video “The Super Bowl Shuffle” in the middle of the regular season.
The Los Angeles Lakers had won championships in 1980 and 1982, but still felt there was something to prove. The franchise had never beaten the Boston Celtics in NBA Finals competition, and had suffered through a long offseason over a belief—including one held by the players and coaches themselves—that they gave away the 1984 NBA Finals to these same Celtics. So it was all the sweeter when the Lakers broke the Garden curse and won the 1985 NBA championship on the parquet floor. Read more about the 1985 Chicago Bears Read more about the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers
In the world of college football, the Oklahoma Sooners had ambitious plans for 1985. They were going to change from the wishbone to the pro-style offense and give the keys to sophomore quarterback Troy Aikman. When Aikman’s ankle was broken in an October loss to Miami, it looked like both team and quarterback were done.
But it turned out the injury was just what was necessary. In the short term, the Sooners went back to the wishbone, which they and the coaching staff was more familiar, never lost again and won the national championship. In the long term, Aikman transferred to UCLA, learned the pro-style attack from a coaching staff familiar with it and became a Hall of Fame quarterback in the NFL. He also won three Super Bowls—one of them for his old OU coach, Barry Switzer, when they were both with the Dallas Cowboys. Read more about the 1985 Oklahoma Sooners
********************
The NHL didn’t give us a thrilling finish, or any other intriguing plot twists. What hockey did do was continue to put greatness right in front of everyone. As in “The Great One”, Wayne Gretzky himself. The Edmonton Oilers had broken through in 1984 and won Gretzky’s first championship, and now they went to work on building a dynasty, blasting through the postseason and winning a second straight Stanley Cup. Read more about the 1985 Edmonton Oilers
