Royals fan reflects on team's success, 10-year anniversary of her father's death

We've talked so much about how the Royals’ 2024 postseason success comes 10 years after a magical 2014 season ended with a World Series appearance.

The passage of time has given Royals fans a chance to look back at what was going on in their lives during that season.

Some of those memories are bittersweet.

Maggie Hardison reached out to me with her story because 2014 was the year she said goodbye to her dad, the man who taught her to love baseball.

VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Taylor Hemness

Her childhood memories of Kauffman Stadium may be different than yours.

"I just remember looking around and seeing other kids running around, playing," Maggie told me. “I had to sit down, next to my dad, and watch baseball."

Her father, Kenny Criss, loved the game and his team.

She sent me a photo she took of her dad in the stands in 1985. It's one of her favorites.

She even shared a photo album she made of the 1985 season.

Maggie Hardison

It's pretty clear Kenny passed his love down to little Maggie.

"It was something that we had,” Maggie said. “It was the stable, consistent thing that he and I always had to come back to ... we had the Royals. He taught me baseball."

She has decades worth of stories of summers at games with her dad.

Maggie Hardison

But in 2013, things changed. For the second time in his life, Kenny was diagnosed with cancer.

This time, he was given only a year to live, so Maggie knew 2014 would be different.

"We just kind of went ICU to the hospital, to rehab hospital,” Maggie recounted. “We did that cycle for about 2-3 months, starting in the summer. He wasn't super interested in going to the games anymore, but he absolutely never missed a game [on TV or radio]."

As Kenny’s condition worsened, the Royals kept marching to the postseason.

And suddenly, Maggie had a chance to go to the first playoff game at the K in almost 30 years.

"His voice came out more in that moment,” Maggie told me about the conversation with her dad. “He was like, ‘You're gonna go.’"

Yeah, Maggie was there for that electric Wild Card win over Oakland, which she called the best sporting event of her lifetime.

"It was a complete pendulum swing of emotions,” Maggie said. “I mean, excited but freaking out about my dad, excited but sad about my dad. I just wanted him to know I went. Because he would have been mad if I didn't."

Kenny's health declined, and he was no longer responsive by the time the World Series began.

In fact, the last time Maggie spoke with him was when he told her to go to Game 1, so she did. She went to Game 7, too.

The day after the Game 7 loss, she went back to the hospital one more time, realizing her father was just holding on to see how the season would end.

"I said, ‘Dad, I don't know what you're hanging on for, I know I'm going to lose you, and I know that you're worried about me. But the Royals made it to the World Series. We didn't win, Dad, but we did it,'" Maggie said. "And I knew that's all he cared about. He needed to see them compete."

She said she opened a window in the hospital and wasn't gone an hour when she got the call he was gone.

With the Royals finding postseason success once again, Maggie said the 10-year anniversary of his passing touches the family in a special way.

"The fact that it's 10 years later, and we're (Royals) doing this again,” Maggie said with a smile. "This time, every year is reflective for me."

Maggie will be in the stands Wednesday night.

Self-proclaimed as Salvy's biggest fan, Maggie hopes to one day meet him and tell him her dad said back in 2011, when Salvador Perez debuted, that he would lead the team to a World Series championship.

—