Kudos to the Kansas City Royals. The only American League team to return to the playoffs this season. No A’s, no Angels, no Orioles and especially no Tigers. I like that!

In the other league, of course, the St. Louis Cardinals are back but they’re a perennial October participant to challenge for the championship.

The Royals enter the playoffs with a little Mojo – 5 straight wins after staggering through most of the schedule in September. The Royals won 95 games this season, the most in 35 years. They also captured their first division title since 1985.

Kudos to David Glass. The team’s 80 year old owner spent a franchise record $113 million on the payroll this season. Only 4 seasons ago, Glass went on the cheap putting a team on the field for $36 million. They lost 91 games, nearly as many as this year’s team won.

The Royals have put together 3 straight winning seasons. Those victories are reflected in the club’s payroll, which has averaged $95 million a season the last 3 years. Glass has been telling us for 23 years how much he wants to bring a championship team back to Kansas City.

For many, Glass was perceived as a tightwad absentee owner from Arkansas. He promised to move to KC after buying the team but never did. He doesn’t like the glare of the bright lights and shies away from publicity. In recent years, that perception has changed. His son, Dan, has taken over more control of the daily operation of the team.

Some still believe Glass is going to sell the team, which could end up in the hands of the Cerner “boys” who own Sporting Kansas City. Should that happen, there would be a strong push for a downtown ball park. It’s coming –it will happen, but that’s a different story for another day.

Glass has been a fixture with the Royals for 2 ½ decades. He was recruited by Ewing Kauffman and joined the franchise in 1993. Seven years later, Glass bought the team. The Royals have had 4 winning seasons in his 16 years as owner.

Glass has maintained a strong relationship with General Manager Dayton Moore. Still, Moore was frustrated at times and made it clear to me 4 years ago when the franchise was struggling that if the Royals didn’t start winning by 2013, he would walk. I guess Moore is somewhat of a prophet. The Royals had their first winning season in 10 years winning 86 games in 2013. They backed that up with 89 victories a year ago. It’s not about the number of victories; it’s all about winning championships.

Moore’s decision to let Billy Butler take the money and run was a brilliant move. Kendrys Morales tied for the team lead in home runs. The Royals are paying their designated hitter about half of what Butler made in Oakland.

The Royals have the pieces to be competitive for at least two more seasons. The time is coming when it will be difficult to keep players like Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez.

It will be interesting to see what Ned Yost does should the Royals make another strong run in October and win it all. Yost’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last year or so. At the same time, he continues to make puzzling moves with the line-up card and his in-game strategies are often questioned. The fact the team keeps winning lets the manager off the hook for many of his blunders which fly under the radar by reporters who cover the team on a regular basis. Yost has his player’s backs and they have his. Bottom line, it’s hard to find fault with a team who won more games than any other team in the American League this year.

Home field advantage throughout October should provide the edge to catapult the Royals to their first World Series win in 30 years.