[webrian]

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You are now in the year 1977. And while we’re on the subject of threads, you are now wearing a dark grey leisure suit over a mango-coloured silk shirt with hang-glider collars and the top four buttons undone. Do the hustle!

The Kansas City Royals are about to embark on their 1977 campaign. In real life, they were coming off their first AL West title with 90 wins in 1976, only to lose the ALCS to the Yankees in five games.

In this OOTP-SIM-world, the Royals are coming off an 88-74 season in which they finished third behind the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics. Dennis Leonard went down with a season-ending injury at the end of July, the offense sputtered, first-baseman John Mayberry had a terrible year, and the bullpen floundered in too many key situations.

And … I’ll admit it; I failed as manager. I left starters in for *one last out* too many times. I never settled on an everyday lineup. I had a hard time utilizing all the speed the 1976 Royals had. And every time I thought I had my bullpen figured out, it blew up in my face.

I felt I was at the controls of a powerful machine I couldn’t quite operate.
Fortunately for me — if not for the fans — the owner is a nice guy and wants to give me another shot. For all my failures, I did increase revenue and put butts in the seats in 1976 — but how hard could it have been? It’s not like people had the Internet, video games, or an abundance of superhero movies to go see.

The poor folks in OOTP SIM world don’t know they were supposed to win the AL West in 1976. They expected to compete — and my 88-win Royals accomplished that much. But now it’s 1977 and Kansas City fans are tired of being teased. The talent has always been here. Now it has matured, ripened not only by experience but bitter disappointment. Expectations have never been higher for this organization than they are today, April 7, 1977.

Opening Day!

The top 5 songs in the USA on Opening Day, 1977 are:
1. Dancing Queen — ABBA
2. Don’t Give Up On Us — David Soul
3. Don’t Leave Me This Way — Thelma Houston
4. Rich Girl — Daryl Hall & John Oates
5. Southern Nights — Glen Campbell

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During spring training, I traded reserve outfielder Joe Lahoud to Cleveland for 37 year-old first baseman Rico Carty. Now I have some right-handed pop to complement left-hitting John Mayberry. For now, I will keep Carty on the bench as a right-handed pinch hitter, but if Mayberry struggles, I can slide Carty in against left-handed starters.

I also sent down RHP Steve Busby, whose ratings took a shocking hit from 1976 to 1977. That leaves me with a 5-man bullpen of RHP Mark Littell (CL), LHP Steve Mingori, RHP Doug Bird, LHP Larry Gura and RHP Marty Pattin.

My rotation consists of RHP Dennis Leonard, LHP Paul Splittorff, RHP Jim Colborn, LHP Andy Hassler & RHP Greg Shanahan. I’ve never heard of Greg Shanahan, nor is there any record of such a person ever pitching for the Royals, but I could use the extra arm right now.

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ONE LAST NOTE: This thread is heavily inspired by so49as' Dick Howser Challenge. I like his succinct, diary-style format and will try to stick to that as I play each and every individual game on the schedule. So if you're checking this out, please also check out so49as' excellent thread(s) as well. He has taken on a much tougher challenge than I have. Though the 1985 Royals won the World Series, they're a difficult ship to navigate in OOTP. The 1977 Royals were one of the most talented teams of the entire decade. They had a solid, if unspectacular rotation, a decent bullpen and a first-class lineup chock-full nicely balanced between speed, power and gap-power hitters.

The challenge here is, as good as the 1977 Royals were, they're playing in a difficult American League where six teams won at least 90 games in real life. Two of those teams, the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox, were in the Royals' own division. Minnesota led the AL West for much of the 1977 season, but faded late and finished with 88 victories.

The real-life 1977 Royals seized control of the AL West by winning 25 out of 26 games from mid-August to mid-September, including a 17-game winning streak.

Anything can happen in OOTP. So let's see what happens!

*****