The Kansas City Royals held a fantasy camp this year that reunited many players from their 1985 championship team. That World Series was 30 years ago, but as '85 alumnus Mark Gubcza said, "It was like it was five seconds ago."
"We were still telling the same stories, joking around and busting each others' chops," Gubicza said. "[In 1985], we knew we weren't the best team talent-wise, but we felt we had the right veteran presence in the everyday lineup and just a lot of knucklehead young pitchers."
They aren't young anymore -- Bret Saberhagen is the youngest at age 51 -- which means they probably aren't knuckleheads, either. Where are those '85 Royals now? A look at some of the players on the team who came back from 3-1 deficits to win both the American League Championship Series and the World Series.
Bret Saberhagen
Sabermetrics might be the thing in today's game, but 30 years ago, Saberhagen dominated. In 1985, he went 20-6 with a 2.87 ERA, won the AL Cy Young Award, pitched two complete-game wins in the World Series -- including a Game 7 shutout -- and was named the series MVP. And he only turned 21 that August. To top it all off, his wife gave birth to their son the day of the Denkinger game.
Saberhagen also appeared on the "Tonight Show," where Johnny Carson asked him how he could top the 1985 season. Retired and living in California, Saberhagen told an ESPN interviewer that his reply to Johnny was: "Well, you go out and do the same things I did last year, but have twins instead of just one."
Frank White
White not only grew up a short distance from old Municipal Stadium, where the Royals first played; he actually helped build Kauffman Stadium. Not by hitting home runs, but by working as a union laborer on the mortar and floor sealing when the stadium was constructed. So he left his mark there in that way, then left another by winning eight Gold Gloves and making five All-Star teams while playing his entire 18-year career with the Royals, then working as a coach and broadcaster with the club. While he and the Royals have a somewhat estranged relationship now, White is still prominent in the community. And not just as a former player. He was elected to the Jackson County (Missouri) legislature last fall.
"He would be pretty good at it because of the demeanor he has of dealing with people," said Danny Jackson, who was a teammate of White's in '85. "He's pretty knowledgeable of things. And he grew up around here."
Mark Gubicza
A two-time All-Star, Gubicza was in his second season in 1985 and won Game 6 of the ALCS. He retired after the 1997 season and now works as a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Angels. Asked how he would have described the notorious Don Denkinger call in Game 6 of the World Series as a broadcaster, Gubicza said, "I would say, 'That's the perfect call!'"
Denkinger, of course, ruled Jorge Orta safe at first base in the bottom of the ninth inning, though he was clearly out. Despite all the controversy, here's the thing: Orta was thrown out at third base two batters later, which as Gubicza points out, was the only out the Royals made that inning. So if Orta wound up being out anyway, the argument goes, what difference did the Denkinger call really make? "The way our team was, someone was going to get a hit anyway," Gubicza said.
Buddy Biancalana
In 1985, when Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's all-time hits record, David Letterman introduced the "Buddy Biancalana Hit Counter," which kept track of the Kansas City shortstop's path to tie Rose. Biancalana was the target of Letterman because in 1985 he hit .188 and had a career batting average under the Mendoza Line.
Biancalana, however, had the last laugh.
The shortstop hit .278 with five walks during that World Series, which earned him an appearance on the Letterman show. Biancalana presented the late-night host with a souvenir baseball bat. "This is the bat I used for probably half the season," Biancalana told Letterman. "As you can tell, there are no ball marks on it."
Biancalana says his World Series success was due to being in "the zone," an experience where mind and body work harmoniously. He now has a business, PMPM Sports-Zone Training, which teaches athletes how to get into that zone to improve performance and diminish injuries.
"[Being in the zone] is not an uncommon experience for athletes, however, holding onto it is very uncommon," he said. "Daniel Murphy is experiencing it right now. He's playing tremendous and [said] he doesn't really know what's going on. It's a very common reply from an athlete performing at that level."
Steve Balboni
Balboni led the Royals with a club-record 36 home runs in 1985 and batted .320 in the World Series. The Royals said farewell to "Bye-Bye" in 1988, and he finished up his career in 1993. He's now an advance scout for the San Francisco Giants, which means he helped San Francisco beat the Royals last October.
"We were joking around with him that he has three World Series rings as a scout for the Giants," Gubicza said.
Dan Quisenberry
One of the funniest and most quotable players in baseball history -- "I've seen the future, and it's much like the present, only longer" -- Quisenberry was a submarine-style reliever who led the league in saves five times while often throwing well over 100 innings. He also picked up the win in the Denkinger game.
Quisenberry retired in 1990 and wrote a book of poetry -- yes, poetry -- before developing brain cancer. Sadly, he died in 1998 at age 45.
Hal McRae
McRae played 19 years and made three All-Star teams, but because there was no DH in the 1985 World Series, he had only three plate appearances in the series. He retired after the 1987 season and went on to manage the Royals for four seasons (1991-94). He is retired now.
The 1985 season was significant for McRae in another respect -- his son, Brian, was drafted that summer in the first round by the Royals.
Danny Jackson
The left-hander was 14-12 with a 3.42 ERA in 1985, then 2-1 with a 1.04 ERA during the postseason. "We weren't the pick to win anything, and after starting out 0-2 in both the ALCS and the World Series, pretty much everyone was writing us off completely," he recalled. "But we didn't think we were beaten that badly in those games and we could come back if we pitched well."
They did, with Jackson throwing a crucial complete-game win in Game 5 of the World Series.
Jackson went on to pitch in the 1990 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds, the 1993 World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies and the 1992 and 1996 NLCS with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. He is about to open a pitching clinic in the Kansas City area, where he will teach kids "the proper mechanics and also teach them not to throw breaking ball until 16 or 17."
And, probably, how to pitch yourself into the postseason.
George Brett
How important is Brett to the Royals' history? In addition to winning batting titles in three decades (1976, '80 and '90) and finishing with 3,154 hits, the Hall of Famer led Kansas City to the 1985 World Series by hitting .335 with 30 home runs, 108 runs and a 1.022 OPS during the regular season. He also was the MVP of the ALCS, which the Royals rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays, and batted .370 in the World Series.
Oh, and he also wound up as the inspiration for Lorde's hit song, "Royals."
Despite not having Brett in their lineup in 2014 and '15, the Royals have still done pretty well. Now a vice president of baseball operations with the Royals, Brett joked that he doesn't know what the current team's secret is.
"I don't know if they like each other so much that they don't want to part ways for four months or they just like to drink champagne," he said. "They enjoy their company and they enjoy drinking champagne together and pouring it over each others' heads."