The Yankees just eliminated the Royals, three games to one, in the American League Divisional Series.

Despite the Bronx Bombers coming into the series with the best record in the American League, and despite the Royals making the postseason as an 86-win wildcard team, the series was actually pretty intense and included four close matchups.

What a reminder of the past and the hate-filled rivalry between these two franchises that lasted from 1976 to 1983.

Starting in the mid-1970s, the Yankees and Royals met in the American League Championship Series four times in five seasons–including three straight years beginning in 1976. Only four teams made the postseason in those days–two division winners from each league–and the League Championship Series was just a best-of-five matchup.

Talk about intensity.

The Royals were an expansion team in 1969, established in a midwestern city that felt worlds away from the Big Apple where the big, bad Yankees resided. Things hadn’t been great for New York for over a decade. But under a new and aggressive owner, George Steinbrenner, the Bronx Bombers found themselves back in the playoffs.

Actually, the last time New York was in the postseason, the World Series was the only round. Major League Baseball expanded its postseason field in 1969 to include two divisions in each league. Now, the Yankees had to win three games just to make it to the Fall Classic.

Kansas City may have stood in the way of what the Yankees and their fans surely felt was their rightful place in the World Series, but this expansion franchise from the Midwest was determined not to be just a speed bump along the way to another title for the Pinstripes.

The Royals boasted one of the most talented rosters in all of baseball, led by George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson, and Hal McRae.

The Yankees obviously had their share of stars and one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, including starters Ron Guidry and Catfish Hunter.

The teams split the first two games of the 1976 ALCS, but the Yankees had a 6-3 lead in the top of the eighth inning of Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. Just as the home crowd was beginning to feel comfortable counting down the outs to a pennant-clinching victory, Brett smacked a three-run homer to tie the game and send the Bronx Zoo into hibernation.

However, first baseman Chris Chambliss swung at the very first pitch of the bottom of the ninth inning and sent it over the right-field wall to give the Yankees the American League pennant and their first trip to the World Series since 1964. The fans poured out onto the field and swarmed Chambliss as he attempted to round the bases. Things were so insane that he was forced to run into the dugout without touching home plate. According to teammate Willie Randolph, Chambliss later came back out onto an empty field and touched home plate to make things all official. I’m not sure it would have mattered in the end, but it sure added to the lore of what would become a historic rivalry.

The two clubs were back at it the following season, and this time, Reggie Jackson, Mr. October, was in pinstripes after signing with the Yankees as a free agent. But before Jackson could further cement his postseason moniker, he and the Yankees had to get by a Kansas City squad looking for revenge for the previous year. The 1977 ALCS was just as intense as the previous year’s matchup, and it all came down to a Game 5 at Kauffman Stadium. The evening began with a blast when Brett and Graig Nettles, like Brett, one of the game’s best third basemen, started a huge brawl at the hot corner. After things settled down, Kansas City gained control of the game and took a 3-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning. Sadly for them, New York rallied for three runs and went on to capture its second-straight pennant.

The two squads represented their divisions for a third-straight time in the 1978 ALCS. After splitting the first two games at Kauffman Stadium, Brett put on a show at Yankee Stadium in Game 3. Jackson may have become a playoff legend when he hit three home runs the last time New York played at its home venue–Game 6 of the 1977 World Series–but Brett duplicated this feat by hitting three bombs of his own. This kept Kansas City in front, but catcher Thurman Munson stunned everyone by hitting a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to put the Yankees ahead to stay. New York finished off the Royals the next night to capture its third-straight pennant before winning its two-straight world title.

Both teams missed the postseason in 1979, but guess who was back in the ALCS in 1980? That’s right, the Yankees and Royals. Kansas took the first two games at home but trailed by a score of 2-1 in the seventh inning of Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. Would the Yankees come back and sweep KC? Nope. Instead, Brett stepped up to the plate and blasted a three-run home run off of legendary closer, Goose Gossage, to put the Royals ahead; ahead they would stay, as they went on to capture their first American League pennant.

It would be the last time the two teams met in the postseason (until this year). Still, the intensity of the rivalry lasted through the early-’80s and the famous (or infamous) pine-tar incident involving Brett and Yankees manager Billy Martin in 1983. Brett had hit five significant postseason home runs at Yankee Stadium between 1976 and 1980, but the regular-season bomb he struck in the top of the ninth inning in ’83 may have been the most newsworthy for everything it involved. Brett’s home run put the Royals ahead, but Martin immediately asked the umpired to check Brett’s bat to make sure the amount of pine tar complied with baseball rules. The umps measured the bat on home plate before determining that Brett violated the rule and called him out, thus ending the game. Brett charged out of the dugout and may have tackled the umpire if he wasn’t restrained by others. Kansas City appealed the decision, and the game was finished off later in the season, as the Royals went on to win after the two teams played the bottom of the ninth inning. .

The 1980s were a bit of a down period for the Yankees. However, free agency and the growing revenue disparity between large and small market franchises began to create a huge gap between teams in cities like New York and Kansas City.

The Yankees found their footing again by the 1990s, right when teams like the Royals began to slide into the small-market abyss.

But this year’s ALDS was a great reminder of the past and a time when talent, hatred and determination made for great rivalries…and not just market size and an owner’s bank account.