Revisiting the Royals' Franchise-Altering 2014 Wild Card Game Comeback

The Kansas City Royals' franchise was mired firmly in the doldrums for decades following the 1985 World Series, and had made their bones on broken prospect promises.

Bob Hamelin was supposed to save the franchise, as was Jimmy Gobble, as was Ken Harvey. None of them did much more than flicker.

By 2014, Kansas City had just about had it. The class of prospects that had given them the game's best farm system a few years prior had all reached the majors, done some more developing, and should've theoretically been ready to lead this team to the postseason. We'll say Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and company more than delivered in 2014, starting with this incredible Wild Card battle with Oakland.

It all started down 7-3 in the eighth inning.

With the score sitting at 7-6 in the ninth, and just a few outs remaining on the docket, Jarrod Dyson showed all of Kansas City what, exactly, speed can "do" when given an opportunity.

And when KC fell behind again (again!) in extras, Hosmer delivered on decades of promise with one thwack...

...and Salvador Perez ended things once and for all a few batters later.

This venerated team's run ended in Game 7 of the World Series at the hands of Madison Bumgarner, but they got the title they deserved one year later, at the expense of the New York Mets.

With Patrick Mahomes leading the way, Kansas City is now very much a city of champions. And the change in civic pride all began in the eighth inning on this fateful night.