( CNN ) -- We throw around the word `` epic '' so casually that we have to dig deep into our thesaurus to accurately convey what happened at Missouri 's Kauffman Stadium Tuesday night . Historic . Colossal . Monumental . The long-suffering Kansas City Royals finally made it to the MLB playoffs -- and gave the city a postseason to look forward to after 29 dry years . The last time that happened was in 1985 , when we were still rocking Swatches , smoking on planes and hating on New Coke . The dude who held up the sign , `` We have waited our whole lives for this ... literally '' was n't kidding . And what a game it was . What a down-to-the-wire , come-from-behind American League Wild Card win against the Oakland Athletics it was . Every time the Royals fell behind , they rallied . They fell behind , they rallied . For nearly five hours . Everyone was hooked . `` We really need everyone to not commit crimes and drive safely right now , '' the Kansas City police tweeted . The game that began in September went into its 12th innning -- and almost into October -- before the Royals clinched it , 9-8 . The crowd thundered . The drought had ended . `` Trying to process what I just saw . I ca n't , '' tweeted Bob Fescoe , host of a sports radio show in Kansas City . `` This is up there as one of my best sports moments ever . '' The National League Wild Card playoff is Wednesday . Let 's see you bring it , San Francisco Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates . .
The Royals make it to the postseason for the first time in 29 years . - July 10 : In a game against the Chicago White Sox, Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run and becomes only the second player ever with at least 500 homers and 1,000 RBI in one season after The game lasted nearly 5 hours .