Prior to Tuesday, Kansas City sports fans long had suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

That all changed as fans of the football Chiefs were still glowing after that big "Monday Night Football" win over the New England Patriots. The prime-time dismantling of the vaunted Pats in a 41-14 blow-out at Arrowhead Stadium gave fans hopes of a playoff berth this winter.

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Jamaal Charles, Alex Smith and coach Andy Reid put the Pats coach Bill Belichick, star quarterback Tom Brady and company to shame. The Chiefs put a hurt for the ages on the once-proud Patriots leaving them reeling.

The best was yet to come, though, with the Kansas City Royals taking the playoff field against the Oakland A's at Kauffman Stadium ending 29 years of playoff-less frustration. The team hasn't been to the post-season since 1985 when the Royals beat cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

That 29 year hiatus from the playoffs represented the longest sports drought in North American professional sports. Generations of Royals fans are about to experience something unique and they were getting ready to go nuts, said Alex Gordon, their all-star outfielder.

"People have been waiting a long time for this day," Gordon said during a Monday team workout that attracted more than 5,000 cheering fans. The workout was followed by the type of pep rally usually reserved for high school or college football games.

Tickets for the big game were going at sky high prices. Standing room tickets were being sold for $120. Box seats were going for upwards of $5,000. Royals flags were flying everywhere from working class Raytown to the swank Country Club Plaza.

The Royals once were one of MLB's best teams. They won two pennants and six divisional championships to go along with a World Series in a 10-year span. Those days, however, were almost three decades in the past.

The team Tuesday was taking the field with a lineup of players, many of whom, along with their fans, weren't even born when the Royals last were championship material.

Tagsmlb, Baseball, baseball playoffs, wild card, kansas city royals, oakland A's, new england patriots, Kansas City /chiefs, NFL, tom brady