Yesterday, the Royals became only the second team to have a winning season sandwiched between two 100-loss seasons. The highly disappointing Royals are now 57-102 after finishing a surprising 83-79 season last year. In 2002 Kansas City had a 62-100 record at the tail end of the illustrious Tony Muser administration. The odd thing is that 2002 was their first 100-loss season in the then-thirty-four-year history.

The other team to accomplish this feat was 1985-87 Cleveland Indians. Even if we project the seasons prior to the era of the 162-game schedule, we find that it would only have been done twice:

The worst bookend record for a team with a .500 season sandwiched between them is as follows:

Yep, the 2002/2004 Royals are there, fifth worst.

Here is the biggest difference between the middle year and the bookend years for all teams that fit the criteria:

It's great to see two recent teams that reached the World Series after a sudden one-year improvement (the 1997 Marlins and 1993 Phils).