In 2005, the KC Royals lost a franchise-worst 106 games. Ten years later, the Royals won a World Series Championship.

With all of the success that the KC Royals have had over the past couple of seasons, it’s kind of hard to remember the dark days. While it’s difficult to remember what it’s like to watch bad baseball in KC, it really wasn’t all that long ago.

For many years, the Royals were the joke of the league. They were looked upon as the little brother that the big teams could push around and impose their will upon.

It seemed as if other teams used the Royals as a way to ‘polish’ young talent, before plucking those players from the team. Royals’ fans watched as young starts like Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, and Jermaine Dye developed into good players only to be scooped up by teams that already seemed spoiled with talent.

2005 was the epitome of the kind of success the Royals had become accustomed too. They were twenty years removed from their last playoff appearance and capped off that twenty year anniversary with the worst season in franchise history.

The 2005 season was the last full season for general manager Allard Baird as he was replaced early into the 2006 season by Dayton Moore. From that day on, Moore carefully made additions, drafted wisely, and maneuvered a tight payroll to construct a winner for Kansas City.

These last ten years have been a journey, and Dayton Moore has turned things around for Kansas City. Let’s celebrate the team’s rebirth by comparing the 2015 playoff lineup to that of the Royals 2005 lineup. To appreciate what we have, we have to remember where we came from and 2005 was truly ‘rock bottom’.