40 years ago on this night (1985): the Kansas City Royals won Game 7 of the World Series at Royals Stadium, crushing the St. Louis Cardinals 11-0.
One night after becoming a father, KC starting pitcher Bret Saberhagen tossed a five-hit shutout, his second win in the series.
The only home run of the game came when KC right fielder Darryl Motley homered to left off St. Louis pitcher John Tudor in the second inning, after a walk to Steve Balboni.
Tudor walked four and was charged with all five runs into the bottom of the third inning; in the dugout, he angrily punched an electrical fan, cutting his pitching hand.
The Royals blew the game open in the bottom of the fifth inning with six more runs, including the final five runs with two outs.
Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog eventually brought in Joaquín Andújar to pitch, normally a starter, but pressed into relief. Andújar allowed an RBI single to Frank White, increasing the Royals lead to 10–0. Andújar twice charged home plate umpire Don Denkinger to disagree with his strike zone; the previous night in Game 6, Denkinger had flubbed a call at first base, that may have cost the Cardinals winning the World Series that night.
First, Denkinger called an Andújar pitch a ball. Herzog, who had been berating Denkinger for most of the game, rushed from the dugout to defend Andújar, and was ejected — reportedly after saying to Denkinger, "We wouldn't even be here if you hadn't missed the f***ing call last night!" According to Denkinger, he replied, "Well, if you guys weren't hitting .120 in this World Series, we wouldn't be here." It was the sixth manager ejection in World Series history.
The next pitch was also called a ball to walk Jim Sundberg, and Denkinger ejected Andújar, who then charged at Denkinger. It took three teammates to restrain him and get him off the field. Andújar was suspended for the first 10 games of the 1986 season for his outburst. Although it's been rumored that Herzog sent in Andújar specifically to bait Denkinger, Herzog himself has said several times that Andújar was the only pitcher who still had anything left in his arm.
The Cardinals' .185 batting average was the lowest for a seven-game World Series until the New York Yankees hit .183 in the 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cardinals also scored only 13 total runs—an all-time low for a seven-game series—scoring only once in the final 26 innings of the series.
This was Kansas City's second major professional sports championship, joining the Chiefs' victory in Super Bowl IV in January 1970.