Frank's nickname was "Academy" because he was the first Royals starter to come out of Ewing Kauffman's baseball academy. That's what the Royals players called him.

Brett's nickname was "Mullet" when he was coming up.
After a few years they all just called him 'Mr. Brett."

LMAO I can't imagine you and your brothers doing something like that.... nah... never... You're usually such well-behaved angels at the ball park... :D

Frey hardly ever gets any credit. He did beat the Yankees in 80 and went to the WS.

Ironically he beat Dick Howser in the 80 playoffs, then was replaced a year or two later by him.

That '80 Royals team was so far superior to the Phillies, it really wasn't close. I remember thinking, after the Phillies beat Houston in the NLCS, that we were going to run away with the series (Hell, we just swept the best team in Baseball - the Yanks). Yeah, not so much.................

Quiz lost 2 games in that Series, and Willie Wilson couldn't hit his ass with either hand - he struck out ( i think) a dozen times. Not to mention, I believe we lost a couple games due to some horrific fielding blunders. Willie Aikens and A.O. played their asses off.

Those teams in 74 and 75 were so much fun to watch.

Having watched all of that, you are correct, I didn't give Frey any credit. He was obviously a better coach than I gave him credit for, but at the time, I felt like they had so much talent, they won in spite of him.

He did well with the Cubs after leaving the Royals, so he must have been better than I gave him credit for.

That still hurts, and the Pete Rose catch is still haunting, even though it should not have come down to that.

Frey was a friggin idiot. Anybody could have managed that team in 80 and beat the Yankees. And won the series. He looked like a moron when Dickie Knowles dusted Brett and he came running out of the dugout screaming "Hey, Hey"!! Pete Rose told him to STFU.

Frey managed to lead a WS team to a losing record in the '81 split season. He was the wrong choice for the job from the get go. Whitey and Joe Burke couldn't get along, because Joe Burke would not go get the power hitter we needed to put us over the top.
We needed a Larry Hisle and he went shopping an got us that washed up fat ass, George Scott.

Jim Frey. Loser.

That 1980 series is one of the worst memories of my childhood. I cant still see Tug McGraw thumping his chest and Pete Rose spiking the ball after an out at first.

Puke...............

The biggest blunders belonged Darryl Porter. Twice in that series he rounded third and, with a close play at the plate looming, stopped and let Bob Boone tag him out. Twice. He should have buried Boone on both. But he had quit drinking then and instead of killing Boone, acted like he sneaking into bed with the gardner's wife (credit Bill James).

Darryl Porter lost that series. Nor Wilson, not Aikens, not Quiz.

I wasn't allowed to be a Royas fan back in the day. My family is from Western Kansas, my dad as a child recieved the St. Louis call on the radio before the Royals were in KC. He grew up a Cardinal fan and hated the Royals. I attribute my love for Death Metal to the sound my dad made when Orta was called safe by Dinkenger in '85. Thanks dad.

ROFL

Don't pretend like you weren't there... sammiched between Matt and I if I remember correctly...

I guess that's left for interpretation, but our inability to protect a lead is what Brett still credit's to that WS loss.

I credit it to a number of things, including the Phillies being aggressive (especially their pitchers), and the Royals playing too passive.

Yes, it's certainly open to debate. However, in that first game we were up and had rallied again. If Porter even makes an attempt to score, we are back in the game. Instead he stops dead 10 feet from the plate let's himself get tagged out. Killed the rally, killed the game.

And I agree our inability to hold leads was atrocious. To this day, I'm stunned that Leo gave up that HR Bake McBride.

Nor will I ever forget the towering HR Mike Schmidt hit in game 5 off Larry Gura. It went straight up. And up. And up. I thought it was just a long out. Watching AO just drift, and drift waiting for it to come down. And AO drifted and drifted some more. Pretty soon, he standing at the 410 sign (old CF) and it landed high on the embankment just right of the scoreboard. A tremendous shot.