ST. LOUIS – For the first time in nearly three decades, the Kansas City Royals finished with a better regular-season record than their MLB counterpart in Missouri, the St. Louis Cardinals. And this year, the Royals are the only team representing the Show Me State in the MLB postseason.

After an 86-76 regular season, the Royals secured the second Wild Card spot in the American League and just completed a first-round sweep of the young, rising Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday. They now advance to face the top-seeded New York Yankees in the American League Division Series, a best-of-five battle that begins Saturday.

This marks the Royals’ first postseason appearance since the team won it all in 2015. Since then, the franchise has undergone a lengthy rebuild, including a 106-loss season last year.

This year, Kansas City has become something of a Cinderella story, buoyed by rising stars Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, along with a significant upgrade to their starting rotation.

Considering this unlikely success, and sharing the same state and Interstate 70, it might seem logical for some St. Louis Cardinals fans to root for the Royals in October. Should that definitely be the case? It depends who you ask, but generally speaking, it’s not an absolute certainty for St. Louis whether or not to back the Royals.

The Royals have a different relationship with St. Louis than, say, the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, as the Cardinals exist and have a more storied history than the Royals, at least in terms of overall championships and accolades. Traditionally, the Royals played second fiddle to the Cardinals, but this season the story has changed.

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Over the years, several fans and followers of both the Cardinals and Royals have wondered to what extent, if at all, fans from opposing fan bases should support their cross-state rival.

In 2015, a Reddit user identifying as @mattyflex shared a lengthy blog post arguing that Cardinals fans don’t belong on the Royals bandwagon. He cited several past experiences of wearing Royals gear only for an apparent Cardinals fan to note that they were Missouri’s superior team.

“There’s no room for you on the Kansas City Royals bandwagon,” he said @mattyflex. “There is no room for people who have spent decades thinking that I deserved their opinion, or that their criticism of what I love was justified. There is no room for people who call themselves ‘the best fans in baseball’.”

This sentiment isn’t exactly unusual either. That same year, Adam Kilgore, who now works as a national sports reporter for the Washington Post, sparked a debate on Twitter with the following comments: “From that point on during the ALCS and watched last night: Kansas City is the baseball town St. Louis thinks so” , much to the disapproval of Cardinals fans.

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Although there are occasional tensions over Cardinals fans’ support for the Royals and vice versa, perspectives on the interstate rivalry are evolving.

Last August, a Reddit user who identifies as @jamesnollie88 shared his thoughts on a Royals-themed Reddit page. He expressed his gratitude to the Royals fanbase after attending an I-70 series game, praising their friendliness and passion for the game.

“You have always been friendly and welcoming and the trash talk is almost always fun and not over the top,” said the self-proclaimed Cardinals fan @jamesnollie88 to the Royals fan base. “I have loved getting to know the Royals fans in my section and I look forward to continuing to watch games with your fans while I live here.”

Royalty that you get. The Cardinals have reached the highest level a franchise can reach: a generational success. … This is why if you literally go anywhere in Missouri, not Kansas City or St. Louis, you most often encounter the Chiefs and Cardinals fan combo.

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For Cardinals fans considering supporting the Royals, memories of the 1985 World Series may also linger. The Cardinals had a 3-2 series lead and were within five outs of a series victory when referee Don Denkinger made a controversial call. The Royals got a momentum-changing infield single before the days of instant replay and ultimately won Game 6 and secured the championship the next night.

So far, it’s the only head-to-head matchup between the two teams in the postseason, so the Royals have bragging rights over the Cardinals in that regard.

More recently, Cardinals fans may feel compelled to support the Royals, just as many in Kansas City rallied around the NHL’s St. Louis Blues during their 2019 Stanley Cup run. The support continues today with a regional fan club chapter, a hockey-themed bar in Kansas City, and the occasional Blues preseason game out west.

As the Kansas City Royals continue their postseason journey, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to whether St. Louis Cardinals fans should support them in October. Ultimately, the decision may rest on one’s personal experiences and feelings of Missouri’s two baseball teams.

The Royals begin their upcoming ALDS series against the New York Yankees on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Kansas City will host at least one matchup, Game 3, in addition to Game 4 if necessary, on Wednesday, October 9.

One of the Royals, Yankees, Cleveland Guardians or Detroit Tigers will represent the American League in the 2024 World Series, which starts on October 25 and lasts until November 2.

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