The old minor league baseball team in Kansas City had been called the Blues. There was also a famous Negro league baseball team called the Kansas City Monarchs. The Royals name and their team color blue are at least partly in honor of those older teams. The Kansas City Royals returned to the World Series in 2014 but lost to the San Francisco Giants. However, they won their second World Series championship in 2015, defeating the New York Mets 4 games to 1.