The Kansas City Chiefs open their season next weekend, and expectations couldn’t be much higher. With Patrick Mahomes set for a an encore and what appears to be an improved defense, the Chiefs were installed as 6-1 favorites (tied with New England) to win the Super Bowl.

Should the Chiefs win the ultimate prize, it would certainly make 2019 one of the greatest years in Kansas City sports history. But not the greatest. The dismal season of the Royals has already eliminated that possibility.

It hasn’t happened often that both the Royals and Chiefs (and others in Kansas City) have simultaneously achieved at a high level. With the Chiefs entering 2019 with such lofty expectations, and another forgettable season winding down for the Royals, now is a good time to look back at the greatest years in sports in Kansas City.

The Best Season Ever: 2015, or 1969?

1) 2015 narrowly takes the prize as the best year of sports in Kansas City, and it’s because of the cumulative achievements of all the city’s teams. The Royals reached the pinnacle after a quick and enjoyable climb. Fans fell in love with the players. And the players embraced the fan base in a manner rarely seen. They won the World Series in thrilling fashion, and then capped it off with an unforgettable parade through downtown.

Remarkably, 2015 is the only time that both the Royals and Chiefs reached the playoffs in the same year. The Chiefs finished 11-5, and won their first playoff game in 22 years.

As if 2015 could have been any more special, Sporting KC claimed the U.S. Open Cup.

2) 1969 comes in a close second, but saw perhaps the most historically significant event in Kansas City sports history. The American Football League (AFL) – the product of years of labor and sacrifice by Lamar Hunt – had succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. The league had proved the equivalent of the NFL and forced a merger that would be fully realized in 1970. So 1969 would be the last year of Hunt’s creation. Fittingly, his Chiefs emerged as the champions of the AFL to face the vaunted Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Some still doubted the AFL could match the older league. Those doubts were finally put to rest. The Chiefs beat the NFL champion in convincing fashion to win the last game played by an AFL team. Hunt’s dream was fully realized. Nine members of that 1969 team, including Hunt and coach Hank Stram, are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 1969 still stands as the Chiefs’ lone Super Bowl victory.

Earlier that summer, the Royals were birthed to replace the despised Kansas City A’s, who moved to Oakland after the 1967 season. Though the Royals won just 69 games, they were the best of the year’s four expansion teams and proved to be a scrappy and respectable bunch that reinvigorated enthusiasm for baseball in the city.

The Other Major Championships: 1985 and 1966

3) 1985 brought the Royals’ first World Series victory. After years of near misses by better iterations of the club, the 1985 Royals finally broke through. An aging team featuring George Brett, Willie Wilson, Frank White and Hal McRae was bolstered just in time by a youthful pitching staff featuring Bret Saberhagen. They won the American League West, slipped past the Toronto Blue Jays, and then shocked the St. Louis Cardinals in the championship. 1985 finishes a distant third behind 2015 and 1969 not just because the Chiefs were 6-10 that year, but because the Kansas City Kings basketball team abandoned the city for Sacramento earlier that spring.

4) 1966 isn’t remembered prominently by Kansas Citians, but it saw the Chiefs win their other AFL championship. (The club also technically won a championship 1962 as the Dallas Texans.) It ranks a distant fourth because the Chiefs were whipped in the first Super Bowl by the NFL powerhouse Green Bay Packers. An above-average season by the moribund A’s made the summer tolerable for baseball fans.

The Near Misses:

5) 1980 saw the Royals reach the Fall Classic and thrilled fans with one of the greatest individual performances in the history of the city. Brett’s historic pursuit of a .400 batting average gave fans something to follow daily. The team recorded its second highest win total in history, only to suffer a bitter loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.

In one of the best all-around years in Kansas City sports, the Kings reached the playoffs by notching their second best record while based in Kansas City, and the Chiefs finished a respectable 8-8 after six straight losing seasons.

6) 2014 animated a new generation of Royals fans. For anyone under about 35 years of age, playoff baseball in Kansas City was unknown. That year the nation was introduced to a lovable cast that included names like Perez, Hosmer, Cain, Moustakas and Gordon. An unforgettable Wild Card upset epitomized the spirit of the team. The team battled to the last out of the seventh game of a thrilling World Series.

Sadly, the Chiefs took a step back after a strong 2013 season, missing the playoffs.

7) 1971 was the last hurrah for the Chiefs that emerged from the AFL. Led by Len Dawson, Otis Taylor and a legendary defense, the Chiefs lost an unforgettable home playoff game against the Miami Dolphins on Christmas Day that was the NFL’s first ever double-overtime. It is still known as the NFL’s longest game. Hunt and Stram’s Chiefs wouldn’t be the same after that devastation.

But with one team fading, the city’s other team was rocketing to the top. In just their third season, the Royals went 85-76 and promised that greatness was to come. No one expected an expansion team to be this good this soon.

8) 1993 will always be remembered as the year of Montana Magic. Joe Montana, shockingly ushered out of San Francisco, where he had been the best quarterback in the game for more than a decade, rode into Kansas City to try to work his magic one more time. The Chiefs had been knocking at the door for several years, but needed something to put them over the top. Montana nearly did the trick. The Chiefs won a division title for the first time in 22 years, won two playoff games, and fell just one loss short of the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the 1993 Royals went 84-78. It was the last good Royals team before they fell off the cliff for the next couple of decades.

9) 2013 saw Sporting KC win the MLS Cup Championship, while the Royals learned to win again. The Royals improved by a surprising 14 games in the standings to finish 86-76 – their first winning season in a decade. They stayed in the playoff hunt until the final weekend of the season. Perhaps not a lot of people were watching, but the foundation was laid for back-to-back World Series runs.

The Chiefs also learned to win again under the guidance of first-year coach Andy Reid. The Chiefs rocketed from last in the league at 2-14 to the playoffs with an 11-5 record.

10) 1984 saw the Royals come just one series away from the World Series, continuing their run as one of the best teams in baseball. The Kings also made the playoffs, although they were just 38-44 in the regular season. The Chiefs went 8-8.

Honorable Mention:

The 1942 Negro League Monarchs were perhaps the best team to ever make Kansas City home. But with World War II underway, and with white fans and media largely indifferent, unfortunately not a lot of people saw it. The Monarchs, who whipped the Homestead Grays in the Negro World Series, featured Baseball Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Hilton Smith and Willard Brown, plus Buck O’Neil and numerous other Negro League legends. With no major football or basketball teams in the city at the time, Kansas City was considered a baseball town. And with only the white minor league Kansas City Blues for competition, the Monarchs ruled Kansas City and the entire Midwest.

It’s huge to be able to look back at (the great history of Negro League pitching) left by Satchel Paige and those other great pitchers to know the legacy that we have.

It’s huge to be able to look back and remember what they did not just on the baseball field but also how tough it was off the field and how they changed the entire game, and they changed their communities, and they changed people’s lives. For them to go through the struggles they went through definitely sheds a different light on the struggles we have today. If they saw the struggles that we have now, they would probably just laugh at us. So if we get down or go through a rough patch, if you look back on that history, it helps.

He discussed Satchel Paige’s first season in the major leagues, in which he drew enormous crowds and helped Cleveland win the 1948 World Series:

That’s crazy. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. He was able to step up on the biggest stage after spending his whole life waiting for that moment, and to not shy away from that moment, but to shine in that moment.

But he knew the powers that he possessed. He knew his arm, and he knew his whole bag of tricks, and after all he’d been through, he wasn’t scared of anybody.

I’m sure it was a real good feeling, but also probably pretty frustrating, to know that all your life you could have done this. You could have pitched at the highest level and made your family much more money. For him to get that opportunity at 42 must have been (bittersweet). But he didn’t have to do it. He could have said, ‘You didn’t want me before. Now I’m not coming here to entertain for you and make you money.’

Excerpts from Legacy: The Enduring Impact of the Negro Leagues on Modern Baseball and American Society

How are those players doing today, and how does the Royals’ replacement plan look? This week, I’m taking a look at each of the five players celebrated on the last day of 2017 and what the Royals are doing at their respective positions:

Read Monday’s look at Eric Hosmer and the Royals’ plan to replace him.

Read Tuesday’s look at Alcides Escobar and the Royals’ plan to replace him.

Read Wednesday’s look at Mike Moustakas and the Royals’ plan to replace him.

Read Thursday’s look at Jason Vargas and the Royals’ plan to replace him.

Friday – Lorenzo Cain, CF: This one hurts.

You could argue that the Royals quickly adjusted to the departure of Hosmer and Vargas, and they brought back Escobar and Moustakas to start 2018. But they let Lorenzo Cain go. And there was just no way they could immediately replace what Cain meant to the team.

Cain was the 2015 Royals best player. His 7.2 WAR total, fourth best among position players in the American League, was by far the highest on the team. Losing him for much of 2016 is a big reason the team dropped off. He was back amongst the best in the game with a 5.3 WAR total in 2017.

The Royals certainly knew they had no one capable of taking up that kind of slack, but there was nothing they could do. Resigning a 32-year-old with a history of injury just didn’t make sense. So they bid Cain farewell and braced for the drop off.

There was a glimmer of misguided hope that minor leaguer Bubba Starling would step up and take some of Cain’s playing time. But Starling doesn’t look like he’ll ever fulfill his immense potential. So the Royals scrambled, playing Alex Gordon and Whit Merrifield some in center while searching for other options.

Playing Abraham Almonte in center was a waste of time. But the short employment of Jon Jay in the outfield did exactly what was intended. Jay played well enough in the first couple of months to be traded for prospects.

Next up, the Royals tried Rosell Herrera and Brian Goodwin, both formerly prized prospects with other teams. And finally, KC acquired Brett Phillips in a trade for Moustakas.

Each of the three has some potential. Herrera has speed, can play numerous positions, and is a switch hitter. Goodwin may have the best bat. And Phillips has an incredible arm to go along with speed. None of the three, however, will ever remind anyone of Cain.

Cain brought the kind of well-rounded performance to the Milwaukee Brewers that led the Royals to two World Series. This year, he was second in the National League in WAR with 6.9, and second in defensive WAR with 2.4. He was the perfect investment for a Brewers team loaded for a postseason run.

He was not, however, the perfect investment for a team in rebuild mode. And the Royals were smart to let him go. He made $14 million in 2018 and will see his salary escalate by a million each of the next four years. He probably won’t be worth $18 million as a 36-year-old in 2022. The Royals will have better ways to spend that kind of money.

The one good thing that came from letting Cain walk was a compensation pick in the 2018 amateur draft – pick 33. The Royals gladly snatched up college pitcher Jackson Kowar. The righty was instantly rated the Royals’ fourth-best prospect and impressed in a half season of A-ball.

The Royals must see Cain as the past, and Kowar as their future. They may not find a centerfielder as productive as Cain for a long time. The search for someone to do the job adequately is underway.

How are those players doing today, and how does the Royals’ replacement plan look? This week, I’m taking a look at each of the five players celebrated on the last day of 2017 and what the Royals are doing at their respective positions:

Read Monday’s look at Eric Hosmer and the Royals’ plan to replace him.

Read Tuesday’s look at Alcides Escobar and the Royals’ plan to replace him.

Wednesday – Mike Moustakas, 3B: Unlike Hosmer, the Royals had no intention of resigning Moustakas after the 2017 season. But in a strange twist of fate, there was so little interest in the free agent third baseman, Moustakas was left dangling until spring training.

One thing seems to be true about Royals General Manager Dayton Moore: he seems to be able capitalize on undervalued assets. While he had Cheslor Cuthbert ready to step into the third base role full time, Moore recognized the potential for a sign and trade with Moustakas. He brought Moose back on what everyone knew was a very temporary basis.

So Moustakas gave the Royals more or less two-thirds of a season. With 20 home runs he further cemented his place in Royals history – he now stands in ninth place in homers with 139. He produced 2.1 WAR in 98 games, heading for one of the best seasons of his career.

But on July 27 he was traded. And that’s where this story begins.

Hunter Dozier had been with the Royals most of the season, and wasn’t producing much at first base. But when Moustakas was dealt, it opened the door for Dozier to play semi-regularly at third for the last two months of the season. He took some positive steps, hitting .254 with 6 homers and 20 RBI the final two months. During that same period, Moose hit .256 with 8 homers and 33 RBI for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Dozier hasn’t figured out how to get on base as regularly as Moose. He probably doesn’t field at third base as well as Moose. But he runs well and is more athletic. There is potential there.

The wild card moving forward in the long-term replacement of Moustakas will be Cuthbert. In 2016, his one opportunity to play every day at third base, Cuthbert hit a respectable .274 with 12 homers as a 23-year-old. He looked like he might be the heir apparent to Moose.

But in the rare periods that he hasn’t been injured since 2016, Cuthbert has been ineffective. The Royals are loath to part with a player of his youth and potential, but roster dynamics have his future in jeopardy.

But the real story here isn’t just how Dozier or Cuthbert serve in Moustakas’ absence. The real story is what KC will get out of outfielder Brett Phillips and pitcher Jorge Lopez, the two players they received from the Brewers in return for Moustakas.

Phillips struggled mightily in his two-month audition. The poor guy just can’t keep from striking out. Phillips went down hacking 50 times in just 112 at bats for Kansas City. His inability to get on base neutralized his speed on the basepaths.

Still, the Royals love his tools, particularly his arm and ability to cover ground in centerfield. For that reason, they will be very patient with him.

They can afford to be patient with Lopez, too. The 25-year-old will get every opportunity to hold a spot in the pitching rotation. In seven starts with KC, Lopez was hot and cold, but showed enough potential for the Royals to give him ample opportunities.

So the Royals got to enjoy four additional months of one of their most popular figures in Moustakas, giving fans something to relish during the bleakest of seasons. And they received two prospects for him at the deadline.

It’s bittersweet to watch Moustakas in the playoffs with Milwaukee. But the Royals will probably be wise to move on from Moustakas from a long-term perspective. He’s 30 years old, and has a body that doesn’t look to age well. Even if he is available at a low price this offseason, the Royals would be better served to invest financially in other places.

But to come out on top in the replacement of Moose, the Royals need for some combination of Dozier, Cuthbert, Phillips and Lopez to be part of the future.

The 2018 Kansas City Royals were a disaster. But you wouldn’t know it by talking to the guys taking the field the past two months.

That’s because a large number of the guys in the clubhouse now weren’t there when the Royals bumbled to a 27-68 record at the All-Star break. Since then, Ryan O’Hearn and Adalberto Mondesi have brought superstar production to Kansas City. Brett Phillips, Rosell Herrera and Brian Goodwin have brought speed and athleticism (and the swagger that comes with it). And Brad Keller, Heath Fillmyer and Jorge Lopez have infused the starting rotation with youth and potential.

Talk to any of the youngsters, and they see this season as an opportunity.

“The new guys, the young guys, have to prove that we belong here, and demonstrate what we can do for the team moving forward,” said Phillips, who, along with Lopez, was acquired in late July in a trade for Mike Moustakas. “So we have a lot of motivation, a lot of energy, to go out there each day regardless of how many games the team has won or lost.”

Pitcher Ian Kennedy said that while the first half of the season was disappointing to the veterans assembled to start the year, the transformation of the roster points to brighter days ahead. After struggling mightily at the start of the season, Kennedy sat out much of the year with injuries. He observed the change from the dugout.

“The group we started with just struggled all around. We couldn’t click,” Kennedy said. “Now as the team starts to transform, the young guys are all hungry because they want a spot next year. They want to prove that they can do something up here. I’m really excited for our future. I watched the transition while I was on the disabled list, and it’s been fun to see.”

Keller, who has been a leader of the youth movement, said that winning at a respectable clip this fall is going to catapult the team into greater success moving forward.

“The vibe around here these days is just awesome,” said the 23-year-old. “How we’re conducting business from then to now is a night and day difference. You can see it on the field, how much fun we’re having. It’s going to give us confidence moving forward. We feel like, give us a full year together and see what can happen.”

As Keller and company wrap up the Royals’ 50^th season, a healthy dose of perspective is in order. While the overall record won’t be much to celebrate, there is a silver lining to the dark cloud of 2018.

The Class of ‘69

There have certainly been some bleak periods for the expansion team awarded to Kansas City at major league baseball’s 1967 winter meetings. But of the four teams created at that meeting – the San Diego Padres, Seattle Pilots and Montreal Expos being the other three – the Royals are unquestionably at the head of the class.

First of all, two of the clubs bolted their original homes for greener pastures. The Pilots barely paused long enough to unpack their bags in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee to become the Brewers in 1970. The Expos were competitive for a time, but couldn’t win over their Canadian hosts and morphed into the Washington Nationals in 2005.

The Royals have played in four World Series, winning two. Of the other three 1969 expansion clubs, the Padres lost in the 1984 and 1998 series, and the Brewers lost in the 1982 series. So the Royals have played in more World Series than the other three combined, and been the only one to win even one championship.

Of the 30 teams in major league baseball, 12 have reached fewer World Series than the Royals, some of which have been around for much longer.

We’ve been here before and felt far worse

The Royals have lost 100 or more games four times previously. With two games left, this Royals team will escape the embarrassment of being worst in team history. They lost 106 in 2005.

It hurt when, after failing to capitalize on building blocks like Mike Sweeney, Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye, the 2002 Royals dropped 100 for the first time in team history.

2004 was dreadful because, after the fool’s gold of 2003 led fans to believe the team was actually competitive, the 104 losses exposed that a quick rebuild was not possible.

Things couldn’t have looked more bleak than they did in 2005, when they lost 106 games and hardly had anyone of real major league caliber. 2006 was only slightly better, when the Royals again lost an even 100.

So with a bunch of young studs playing, and winning, in the second half, 2018 doesn’t seem that bad. With Keller, Mondesi and friends emerging as building blocks, there is hope for next year.

As is often said, a losing season doesn’t have to be a lost season. It doesn’t feel like a lost season in the clubhouse these days.

Kansas City is a baseball town.

The saying sounded pretty ridiculous during the Royals’ 30 years of futility between the 1985 championship and the one earned in 2015. And it sounds silly now as the current edition of the Royals barrels toward its worst record in history. Yet it was often repeated during those bleak years, as though a reminder that if the product at Kauffman Stadium was ever good, the city would demonstrate uncommon passion.

The city’s reputation dates back at least to the birth of the minor league Kansas City Blues in 1888. In the days before TV, when fans eagerly supported local baseball, the Blues were joined in Kansas City by strong black baseball teams, which developed into the Kansas City Monarchs in 1920.

In 1955, major league baseball finally moved west of the Mississippi River when the Philadelphia A’s relocated to Kansas City. The dreadful A’s were replaced in Kansas City by the Royals in 1969, and the city soon had a winner at the highest level.

So the bleak years of the Royals have dampened, but not quenched, the spirit of the city. And one native son is working hard to bring winning back to Kansas City once again.

Rookie Jason Adam, a product of Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, is one of a host of rookies the Royals are experimenting with in this rebuilding season.

Adam took a circuitous path to the major league stadium he grew up going to as a child. Drafted by the Royals out of high school in 2010, Adam seemed destined to pitch in Kauffman Stadium. But trades and injuries delayed that destiny for nearly a decade.

“I loved the Royals growing up,” Adam said. “This stadium was special to me, and I always loved to come to the games, even when they would struggle.”

And struggle they did. From the time Adam was born in 1991 until he graduated high school, the Royals lost nearly 60 percent of their games, lost 90 or more games 11 times, and never once reached the playoffs. Yet Adam remained loyal.

“I always had faith,” the right-handed reliever said. “I understood that is kind of how it works in a small market. You kind of go through ups and downs. So it was really fun seeing when this team finally won the World Series. I wish I could have been a part of it. But it was so much fun just being from Kansas City.”

Ironically, Adam not being “part of it” actually helped bring a pennant to his city. Adam was in the low minors when Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Danny Duffy and other products of the farm system began matriculating to the big leagues. A starting pitcher making his mark in the minors, Adam had to feel he was going to be a part of that much-anticipated core group in Kansas City.

But in 2014, with a playoff berth finally within reach, the Royals traded Adam for major league first baseman/designated hitter Josh Willingham. The late season acquisition of Willingham helped the Royals earn a wild card slot, and eventually reach the World Series. So, in a sense, Adam played a part.

Once with Minnesota, injuries derailed his progress. Numerous surgeries kept him from pitching in 2015 and 2016. The Twins finally gave up on him. The San Diego Padres gave him a brief look in 2017, but cut him loose before the season was up.

The Royals never stopped following their former draft pick, and they brought him into their system. And in May of 2018, the years of rehab ultimately paid off. Adam finally pitched in the stadium he’d come to so many times to watch his beloved Royals.

Being a member of the Royals makes reaching the majors all the more special, Adam said. And he believes it is making the experience more fun for his family and friends as well.

“It definitely adds another element to the excitement of playing for the Royals,” said the 27-year-old. “I always say that I’m playing for an audience of one, and that’s Jesus. But it’s fun to know that I’ve got my family and my friends here every night, and they can enjoy it even more than they used to enjoy it.”

Adam laughed when asked if he notices familiar faces in the crowd during a game at Kauffman Stadium

“I don’t really see people in the stands while I’m on the field. But when I’m down in the bullpen, guys I know will come down and heckle me a little, and it’s really fun to see people down there. But before and after games, for sure, I try to see the people that I know. Sometimes after a game I’ll hear someone yell my name, and I’m like ‘Is that someone I know?’ That’s really fun.”

Out of uniform, Adam frequently bumps into old friends, schoolmates and high school rivals around Kansas City. Those friendships remain unchanged, he said.

“It’s still the same old, same old. They still treat me just like they did before. I’ve got awesome friends here in Kansas City, and I’m thankful for that.”

Polls of major league players often reveal opponents’ appreciation for Kansas City as one of their favorite places to visit. That fact comes as no surprise to the Overland Park native.

“I’m glad to see Kansas City get that recognition,” Adam said. “Growing up in Kansas I was always like ‘I can’t wait to get out and see everything.’ But once I got out I was like ‘I kinda like it back home.’

“Where visiting teams stay, down by The Plaza, is beautiful. There is tons of good shopping, good restaurants. It’s great for visiting teams. But a lot of guys who play here end up staying here because it’s a great community and a great place to raise a family.”

And so Kansas City remains a baseball town. From the minor league Blues and Negro League Monarchs to the Kansas City A’s and Royals, it’s always been a great place to play, according to one native son.

“We have got awesome fans here,” Adam said. “They have been patient through this year, even though it hasn’t gone how anybody wanted it to go. But they are still coming out, still cheering for us. It makes it a lot of fun to play for them. It gives us even more incentive to keep pushing and get back to winning.”

But they might not recall quite so readily the one man who, perhaps more than any other at the time, was credited with bringing winning baseball to Kansas City.

Remember “Big Game” James? Remember “The James Shields Trade?”

Shields was a hard-nosed “gamer” who relied upon guile and tenacity as much as his formidable talent during the short-lived heyday of the Tampa Rays.

Seeing that they had talent, but not a winning culture, the Royals raided their then top-flight farm system to acquire Shields, not realizing at the time that a secondary piece, Davis, would eventually solidify the Kansas City bullpen in the championship season.

But the December 2012 deal is not called “The Wade Davis Trade.” And there is a reason for that.

Forget that Shields was not the pitching star of the 2013 and 2014 Royals. His role was bigger than that. He led the pitching staff like a Pied Piper, showing the likes of Ventura and Danny Duffy how to be professionals. He taught the team to despise losing. He demonstrated what it takes to be a winner.

Now four seasons after the Royals allowed Shields to depart via free agency, Shields recalls his role in Kansas City.

“I just brought energy every day,” Shields recalled. “I brought fun back into baseball over there.”

He recalled that the Royals’ talent was unmistakable. But the team was young, unproven and uncertain of itself when he arrived.

“Losing, obviously, isn’t fun,” he said. “They were stuck in that rut, just trying to figure out who they were. I just tried to keep the guys loose, and tried to help them feel like a unit.”

Shields provided his typically gritty effort against the Royals on Friday. He soldiered through 6.2 innings, throwing 109 pitches, to collect the win.

“It’s baseball,” he said when asked about his feelings for his former team. “I loved my time there, but I’m with the White Sox right now. That’s just the business.”

Valued for his leadership and clubhouse presence, Shields continues to find himself with clubs stuck in rebuilding mode. Since leaving the Royals, he pitched for the San Diego Padres when they went just 74-88. Then he was traded to the White Sox, who are in a prolonged rebuilding process and are currently just a tick better than the moribund Royals. He said his role is the same now with the struggling White Sox pitchers as it was in Kansas City.

“It’s just being able to slow the game down,” said the 13-year veteran. “The game’s a lot faster in the big leagues, and these young guys are just learning that. We all have to slow the game down. Even veterans, sometimes the game speeds up on us.”

Due to his winning pedigree, Shields has found himself a part of a lot of losing lately. So he’s not unsympathetic to the plight of the 2018 Royals. But he said he believes the right ingredients are in place for an effective rebuild.

“Those guys have created a great culture. The organization itself is amazing. I had a lot of fun playing in KC.

“At the end of the day, they’re going to pull it together. They’ve got a good group of guys in there, including (veterans) who have been there and kind of know what’s going on and how to lead those guys.”