Baseball is king in Kansas City. Our love for America’s national pastime began in the 1880s, when professional baseball first came to town. Back then, the minor league Blues and Negro League Monarchs dominated. Fans packed the stands to watch them play. Then in 1955, major league baseball arrived in Kansas City. The Athletics, though, lost a lot of games and never had a winning record. When the A’s moved to Oakland in 1967, many feared Kansas City would never get another team.

But then Ewing Kauffman stepped up to the plate. He didn’t know a lot about baseball, but he bought an MLB franchise knowing it would be good for the city. A competitive man by nature, Kauffman invested millions in the team. In the 1970s and ’80s the Royals won a lot of games, including two American League pennants and a World Series. But then the losing began as the Royals failed to make the playoffs for 29 straight years.

In 2014 and 2015, Kansas City finally turned it around. The Royals won two American League pennants and a World Series, bringing an entire city together. Today, as the Royals develop another batch of young, talented players to lead them back to the playoffs, fans hope they might soon witness another World Series win.

While we wait, you can relive all the great moments of this proud franchise in The Kansas City Royals: An Illustrated Timeline. Learn more about the early days of the team, the games that defined them, and how star players like Amos Otis, George Brett, and Salvador Perez inspired the Royals to win. This is the most detailed, informative, and entertaining Royals book ever assembled, and it will inspire you to return to the ballpark so you can shout, “Let’s Go Royals!”