Inductees

Leading with a quiet confidence and professionalism that understated his fierce determination, Dick Howser took the Royals to the top of baseball. He will always be remembered for leading Kansas City to its first World Series Championship in 1985.

In just over five full seasons, he managed the Royals into postseason play three times. Howser compiled a 404-365 record (.525) with the Royals, which ranks as the second-best mark in club history. His last game as a Major League manager was the 1986 American League All-Star victory in Houston. After losing a courageous battle with cancer in 1987, his jersey No. 10 was the first-ever retired by the Royals.

Howser had managed the New York Yankees in 1980.

The next year,  Kansas City, his postseason rival on multiple occasions in previous seasons, hired Howser to manage the last 33 games of the strike-shortened 1981 season. Under Howser, the Royals finished second in 1982 and 1983.

Prior to the 1984 season, the Royals started disassembling their team and starting over.^[Kansas City expected 1984 to be a rebuilding year, but Howser guided the young team to a division title. The Royals were defeated by the eventual World Champion Detroit Tigers in the ALCS.

The following year, Howser guided the Royals to their first World Series title.

The Royals reached the World Series by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS and then rallied to beat the Cardinals in the World Series — both times overcoming 3-1 deficits to take the last three games of each series.

As manager of the defending AL champions, Howser managed the 1986 All-Star Game in Houston. Howser later admitted he felt sick before the game. It was the last game he would manage in the major leagues, as he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent surgery.

Howser guided the AL to a 3–2 victory, starting a 30-year stretch that has seen the junior circuit go 22–6–1 in the Mid-Summer Classic after going 2–21 from 1963 to 1985.