The Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals each had been through their share of trials to get the World Series. The Phils and Royals made the League Championship Series each year from 1976-78, and lost all three times. They both broke through together and it was the Phillies who took the final step in the 1980 World Series.
Bill Virdon took over as manager late in 1975, got them to the .500 level soon after and in 1979, they chased the Cincinnati Reds to the final weekend of the season. The 1980 Houston Astros took the next step and won the old NL West—but not before giving the fan base collective heart failure before it was over.
When you hear “Phillies-Astros” as a playoff matchup, it doesn’t jump off the charts as a marquee possibility. But in the 1980 NLCS, these two teams staged a playoff battle that ranks at or near the top of the greatest postseason series ever played.
Meeting up in the American League Championship Series was becoming old hat for the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals. When they met in the 1980 ALCS it was the fourth time in five years these two teams had squared off for the pennant. This one had a different outcome—while the Yankees had won each of the previous three meetings, the Royals got this one. And while the previous matchups had been thrillers, this one ended in a sweep.
The Royals were the pre-eminent team of the old AL West in the late 1970s. They won the division each year from 1976-78, but lost the League Championship Series to the New York Yankees each time. After a step back in 1979 resulted in a second-place finish, the organization made changes. Whether it was by cause or coincidence, the changes resulted in a breakthrough. The 1980 Kansas City Royals finally made the World Series.
The New York Yankees won three straight American League pennants and two consecutive World Series from 1976-78. The franchise suffered a step back in 1979 on the field, finishing fourth in a competitive AL East, and they lived through tragedy off of it—the death of catcher and team captain Thurman Munson in private plane crash. Nothing could make up for that loss, but the 1980 New York Yankees were able to turn the on-field part of the equation around, winning another AL East title.
Over the period of 1976-78, the club had six managers, all of whom managed a substantial number of games. In the second half of ’78, the team finally got the right guy with Jim Fregosi and the 1979 California Angels rewarded the fans and owner Gene Autry with their first AL West title.
The Cincinnati Reds were in a period of significant transition in 1979. The Big Red Machine, that had won four pennants and two World Series titles from 1970-76, had started to break up in 1977, and two years later that process was accelerated.
The Baltimore Orioles were the AL East’s dominant team, starting with the expansion of 1969 and each league’s split into two divisions. The Orioles won five of the first six AL East titles. The Birds then finished out of the money from 1975-78, though the team remained competitive each year. But “competitive” wasn’t good enough for manager Earl Weaver, and the 1979 Baltimore Orioles put the team back on top of the division and back in the World Series.
In 1971, the Pirates beat the Orioles in seven games. There was a rematch in the 1979 World Series, and one that followed a familiar script—the Pirates fell behind early in the Series and rallied to win a Game 7 on Baltimore’s home field.
For Philadelphia, the losses were always frustration and occasionally heartbreaking, but the Phillie fan base had it easy compared to what Royal fans endured.
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