In a 13 year stretch, Major League Baseball saw the sales/purchases of 17 franchises from 1999–2012, including cornerstone franchises like the Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, Braves, and Indians.

One of the teams sold and purchased during that era was the Kansas City Royals, who were sold to David Glass in 2002. The Royals, since the retirement of George Brett, have been a mostly irrelevant franchise. During that time period since Brett has retired, they’ve seen players like Carlos Beltran, David Cone, Zack Greinke, and Johnny Damon stay for brief periods.

And even under Glass’s watch, the Royals have mostly been terrible, with the exception of a three year period where they twice reached the World Series in 2014 and 2015 and eventually won it all in 2015. They took the San Francisco Giants to Game 7 in 2014 and were an out away from getting Alex Gordon in to score the tying run.

The Royals, in 2007, began their long term plan for success when they brought up Gordon to the majors, becoming the bedrock of the Royals second most successful era. There are only three players remain on the Royals from that 2015 team: Gordon, World Series MVP Salvador Perez, and relief pitcher Danny Duffy along with manager Ned Yost. The other core pieces of that team were Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Ben Zobrist, Edinson Volquez, and Wade Davis have all left the team or retired from baseball.

After a 2016 season that saw the Royals suffer from a World Series hangover, the 2017 season was sadly doomed from the start when Yordano Ventura, a promising pitcher and the future ace of the team, died in a car crash in his home country of the Dominican Republic. By the end of the season, Glass and Royals were emotionally worn down and three of the big four, Cain, Hosmer, and Moustakas left the team in free agency.

Sadly, Glass’s legacy will be losing and either an inability or dislike of spending on free agents.

When the Royals were on their Championship run in 2015 and dominating the American League, Glass instructed that the team not make trades that could put a dent into the team salary, which explains how they got guys like Johnny Cueto, of the Cincinnati Reds and Ben Zobrist from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Baseball fandoms can be arduous experiences and Royals fans experienced that for over 20 years until 2014 and only four years later would they retreat back to misery they grew to know.

What Royal fans showed is that when the team is good and management and ownership is competent, they will show up to the Kauffman Stadium in droves. No, they are not adored like their neighbors, the Chiefs, but if we’re counting championships, they’ve proven to be winners more so than the Chiefs (although, I will guarantee the Chiefs win a Super Bowl or two with Mahomes).

More importantly, the Royals made the blueprint for small markets to win championships in baseball. When Dayton Moore took over in 2006, he drafted Hosmer, signing Perez and Ventura as international free agents, and landing Cain in the Zack Geinke trade. He knows what he’s doing and knows how to build a winner.

But, Royals fans will be trepidatious with new ownership. I’m sure they’re happy that Glass is selling the team. John Sherman is a Kansas City native and will do his best to keep the team in Kansas City through 2030 when their stadium lease is up and he will be the one to negotiate a new TV contract, which could land them around $50 million.

“But what if he’s the same as Glass? What if he refuses to sign any big free agents in the future? Will I have to wait another 30 years for a World Series?”

Those are reasonable questions Royals fans must be asking themselves and honestly, it’s the risk that has to be taken. You either end up with Jeff Loria or George Steinbrenner.

At the end of the day, this will be a new beginning and a fresh one that can only lead to optimism. Baseball is better when October games take place at The K.