KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last time my beloved Royals were part of Major League Baseball’s postseason, I piled into a Volkswagen Rabbit with two brothers, a sister-in-law and all my earthly possessions to drive overnight from New York to Kansas City for Game 7 of the 1985 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Back then, my final destination was Dallas and my first real journalism job, as a police reporter. But my trek got an earlier start, and gained an entourage and a detour, when Umpire Don Denkinger mistakenly called Jorge Orta safe at first in the ninth inning of Game 6, setting up an improbable Royals rally that evened the Series at three games apiece.

So it was Kansas City or bust. We made it in time to take our seats in left field, right where Darryl Motley dinged a two-run homer in the second inning to ignite an 11-0 Royals victory and bring my hometown its first and only World Series title.

That was 29 years ago. The VW Rabbit is long dead. My siblings have grown children of their own, and I have a family now, too. But early this past Friday morning — my birthday, in fact — I was rolling back the years, back home to finally watch the Royals play more baseball in October.