Interstate '85: The Royals, The Cardinals, and the Show-Me World Series

by Marshall Garvey

For 40 years now, the 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals has been largely overlooked, save for the enduring notoriety of umpire Don Denkinger’s infamous missed call in Game 6 that helped galvanize a walk-off Royals victory that forced a Game 7, in which the Royals won in a blowout. Seizing upon the imagery of the famed Interstate Highway 70 that connects Kansas City and St. Louis, Interstate ’85 goes beyond “The Call” and recasts the 1985 Series as a unique and deeply compelling chapter in baseball history.

In this blend of baseball and cultural history, Garvey defines the “I-70 Showdown Series” not only by the literal highway that links the two teams’ home cities but the individual and collective roads travelled by the players and others who took part in the event, both before the Series began and well after the last cheers faded.

In addition to gripping human stories and vivid descriptions of on-field action long overshadowed by Denkinger’s monumental blunder, Garvey’s work captures the provincial spectacle of the “Show-Me Series” throughout the state of Missouri. Featuring 27 new interviews conducted by the author, including with George Brett, Ozzie Smith, Don Denkinger, Bud Black, Andy Van Slyke, Ricky Horton, and Mark Gubicza, Interstate ’85 is baseball history writing at its deepest and most captivating.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2025

Reviews

[Tom Gase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books on specific seasons or games in baseball and this book on the 1985 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals was one of those books. I liked this book, because it's nostaglic, has great reporting that covers both teams and cities and talks about not only the games, but what people were listening to on the radio, watching on television, reading about in the news as the series transpired. The author, Marshall Garvey, spent a good time of research on this book, finding out what the players, coaches and a certain umpire did in the events leading up to October of 85, what transpired in October of 85, and what followed for the next 40 years. By page 200 or so, the portion of the series is over, with a chapter dedicated to each game (although one chapter for Games 4 and 5), but the book continues for 60 more pages with what happened with the players and the two teams for the next 30 years, before adding last chapter on how the two teams almost faced each other again in 2014 and 2015. You'll hear great stories about the usuals such as George Brett, Bret Saberhagen, Whitey Herzog, John Tudor, Jack Clark, Ozzie Smith, but also rare stories on Joe Beckwith, Ricky Horton, Dick Howser and his daughter, Vince Coleman, Todd Worrell, Bud Black, Buddy Biancalana, Frank White, Jim Sundberg, Willie Wilson, Willie McGee, Joaquin Andujar, Mark Gubicza, Andy Van Slyke, and many, many, many more. I like how this book doesn't try to do too much. Too often I see a baseball book and it say, "BLAH BLAH BLAH and the team that changed baseballl....forever." Really? The 2007 Colorado Rockies changed baseball forever? You sure about that? (just using that team and year as an example). Garvey just places you in a seat as if you just finished watching the Breakfast Club, played Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers and switched to a series where for once, the state of Missouri was the center of attention. Maybe a certain umpire too.

[Jonathan M. Eisenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

(The University of Missouri Press awarded me a copy of this book for winning an online baseball trivia contest.)

This book was a lot of fun to read and should entertain most fans of baseball and baseball history. The book details the 1985 MLB World Series and surrounding events; follows the participants’ lives through to the present; and provides some history of the two Missouri cities, Kansas City and St. Louis, whose MLB teams competed in that “I-70” World Series, as well as some of the history of the two teams, the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The new information in the book comes from many interviews that the author conducted in recent years. There are no new revelations in the interviews, as far as I could tell.

The book aggregates a lot of information that is already freely available online or already published (e.g., old newspaper articles). To my puzzlement, the book does not address a lot of the existing excellent commentary about the 1985 MLB season, playoffs, and World Series. Baseball guru Bill James, in particular, has delved deeply — and much more incisively — into the same subject matter, but James is barely mentioned in the book. Similarly, there is only a superficial discussion of the evolution of the use of instant-replay technology to confirm or to correct umpire calls, even though the famous “blown call” in the 1985 World Series, that led eventually to the use of instant replay, is discussed in depth in the book.

Overall, again, I found the book to be very fun to read — but it is not great or insightful, and instead more “surface level.” It somewhat surprises me that a university press would publish this book. Still, almost any baseball book lover will enjoy this book.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. Garvey does a great job recreating the games of the 1985 World Series while giving a primer on the rivalry between St. Louis and Kansas City and the cultural moment this contest took place in. The anecdotes Garvey provides on lesser-known personnel from both teams give the story greater depth. Garvey also does an admirable job explaining there was more to the Cardinals' defeat than Denkinger's call in Game 6.

I would have preferred a stronger focus on the 1985 regular season as opposed to the space given to the 2014-15 seasons, as much as I enjoyed those seasons as a Royals fan. Overall, though, this is the best Kansas City Royals book I've read.

[Jdsmith43 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific unbiased account of one of my favorite sporting events. As a Royals fan now living in the St. Louis Metro Area, it's impossible to have a rational conversation about this World Series with those of a certain age who root for the Cards, but this book reminds me that not everyone is a loon.

I've read countless stories about this series, have re-watched all the games, and have studied a great deal of it; however, Garvey's interview subjects have different takes, stories, and perspectives.

Well-researched. Well told.

[David Ostrowsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. Great personal insight from the dozens of interviews the author conducted. This is a World Series that many readers may be too young to remember, but thanks to Garvey’s brilliant work, it comes back to life in vivid detail.

Is it possible to give it six stars ?