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I will never forget the 1985 World Series, when the Kansas City Royals won the world title.

I remember thinking the team would win every year. Six-year-olds just don’t know any better.

I never imagined that it would be the Royals last world title for at least another 23 years.

In retrospect, perhaps I took the Al Michaels “Motley for the title” call for granted.

Looking back, for a brief instant, I must have thought I was a Yankees fan.

Since then, it hasn’t been an easy proposition to love the Royals and wear a blue jersey.

On some level, I wonder if this team is the victim of bad karma that goes with winning a title.

You can read novels about the curse of the Red Sox. You will read about the Cubs’ curse all those years ago, which turns 100 this year. So, yeah, the Royals have a long way to go.

But I often wonder if ref Don Denkinger’s call in game six, leading to the Royals’ win, in some strange way has prevented the Royals from being a consistent contender?

Sure, I know it sounds illogical, but the last 18 years have been a complete reversal of the team’s previous fortunes.

The Royals have become more known for losing 100 games than for winning. The franchise has been mired in futility, so bad that if you tell your friends they are going to win the World Series, you look foolish.

The Royals finished above .500 in 2003, which was good enough to get Tony Pena manager of the year.

Before that, the last time Kansas City was in contention was during the 1994 strike, and the season never was completed.

In the post-strike era, at a time where home run records have been shattered at an injection pace, the team’s record for home runs is 36 by Steve Balboni. That just seems highly improbable.

For all the losses and losing, though, fans still go to the ballpark and support the team. In fact, Kansas City fans approved a renovated stadium for a team that hadn’t won much in more than a decade.

In a small market, where the revenues weren’t great and the economics looked skewed for so long, Kansas City managed to hang on to its team.

Now, though, the game is changing. The Internet is giving it a whole new profit stream. The money from Internet revenues is all shared and the economics are looking up.

The team has a crew of young players that looks to be getting better. The Royals are spending more money.

Maybe things will look up this year and the karma will finally come full circle. We can only hope.

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