Kansas City Royals are ’69 Expansion champs

During a replay of Wednesday’s game against the Pads, the Padres local telecast showed a quick stat about the record of the expansion teams from 1969. The stat caught me off guard, and I thought it would be worth sharing!

First let’s look at the teams that all came in together with the class of ’69. The Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots were both added to the American League. The Pilots were a short-lived franchise that soon moved to Milwaukee to replace the Milwaukee Braves who left in 1966. The Pilots were only in existence for one year, before they went bankrupt and were moved.

In the National League we also saw two new teams in the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expositions. The Expos were in existence until 2004 when they were moved to Washington D.C. and became the Nationals. The Padres, while having changed their uniforms 10 times, have never changed cities.

The Stat: The stat I saw that really surprised me was that Kansas City Royals (though barely) own the best winning percentage of these four franchises, with 3,454 wins and a .481% win percentage. Second (and not by much) is the Expos/Nationals franchise at 3,449 wins and a .480% win percentage. Third is the Pilots/Brewers franchise with 3,441 wins and a .479% win percentage. And last is the San Diego Padres with 3,336 wins and a .463% win percentage.

This should tell you how good things really were in the 70′s and 80′s, especially for those of you too young to remember the good ole’ days! I also dug a little deeper and checked out a few other things: during this time the Royals have appeared in two World Series, winning one of them. The Padres have also made it to two World Series, but have never won. The Brewers lost in their only World Series appearance, and neither the Expos nor the Nationals have ever made it (though some would argue the Expos were the best team in 1994).

Playoffs: The Royals have made it to the Playoffs seven times in their history. The Padres have made it to October five times, the Brew Crew have made it to the post season three times, and the Expos/Nationals have made it only twice.

I realize things have been bad in KC for a while, but it is always nice to realize they could be a lot worse!