The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team was founded as an expansion franchise in 1969, and have made four World Series trips, winning in 1985 and 2015, and losing in 1980 and 2014. Outside of a dominant 10-year stretch between 1976 and 1985, and a brief, albeit dominant, resurgence from 2013 to 2015, the Royals have combined for a bottom-ten all time winning percentage in MLB history.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada. One of the big four major leagues, MLB comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.