Needless to say, going 30 years between division titles – and hopefully World Series titles – is a long time period.
Before Thursday night, the last time “division champion” could be used to describe the Kansas City Royals was in 1985.
Here are some facts about the year 1985 to put the wait in even more perspective.
Cost of living
- A gallon of milk was $2.26 in 1985.
- A dozen eggs cost 80 cents.
- A gallon of regular, unleaded gas cost $1.20.
- The cost of a stamp was just 20 cents.
- What about bacon? Bacon was $1.65 per pound.
- The average monthly rent in the United States was $375
News
- Ronald Reagan was inaugurated a second time coming off a landslide victory against former Vice President Walter Mondale.
- Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, succeeding Konstantin Chernenko, who died.
- TWA Flight 847 was hijacked by the Hezbollah terrorist network.
- The RMS Titanic wreckage site is discovered more than 70 years after it sunk.
- More than 10,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Mexico City.
Sports
- Michael Jordan - yes, that Michael Jordan - won the 1985 NBA Rookie of the Year Award. It would be the first of many awards and accomplishments for Air Jordan.
- Magic Johnson and Larry Bird continued their great rivalry in the NBA Finals, with Johnson’s Lakers coming out on top four games to two.
- While his team lost in the finals, Bird still earned the 1985 NBA’s MVP Award.
- The Chicago Bears dominated the 1985 NFL season, finishing 15-1 and dominating the postseason on their way to the Super Bowl championship. The Chiefs, meanwhile, finished 6-10.
- Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hits record after delivering his 4,192 hit on Sept. 11, 1985.
- Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen won the AL Cy Young, finishing 20-6 that season.
- New York’s Don Mattingly and St. Louis’s Willie McGee won league MVPs in the 1985 season.
- You already know who won the World Series that year, right?
- Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers won another Stanley Cup title that year. “The Great One” won the top individual award that year.
- Villanova pulled one of the greatest upsets in sports, edging out Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA Basketball Tournament final.
- The Oklahoma Sooners won college football’s national title.
Entertainment
- Great Scott! The highest grossing film in 1985 was Back to the Future. It easily claimed the top spot by $60 million.
- Rounding out the Top 10 in film: Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rocky IV, The Color Purple, Out of Africa, Cocoon, The Jewel of the Nile, Witness, The Goonies, Spies Like Us. The cult classic film, The Breakfast Club, also was released in 1985.
- It may not have won the box office battle, but Out of Africa took home the Best Picture Award at that year’s Academy Awards ceremony.
- Sydney Pollack won the Oscar fro Best Director, while William Hurt won for Best Actor and Geraldine Page won the Best Actress Award.
- Remember Blockbuster? The recently closed business launched its first store in Dallas.
- The Nintendo video game system launched.
- The Cosby Show was the most watched TV program in 1985, narrowly edging out Family Ties. Other popular hits included Cheers, Dallas, Dynasty, The Golden Girls, Miami Vice and Who's the Boss.
- The top 5 music hits of 1985: Careless Whisper (Wham!), Like A Virgin (Madonna), Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (Wham!), I Want To Know What Love Is (Foreigner) and I Feel For You (Chaka Khan).
If the facts above were not enough, here are some videos on YouTube that may give you flashbacks about 1985.
TV MONTAGE OF THE YEAR IN REVIEW:
SPORTS YEAR IN REVIEW:
If you're in the mood to watch Game 7 of the 1985 World Series, that's also on YouTube as well:
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