You’d have to be cold-blooded and cold-hearted to not be rooting for the Kansas City Royals in this year’s World Series.

The poor fans of Kansas City have lived through a generation of disappointment for their favorite professional sports teams, the NFL’s Chiefs and MLB’s Royals. The Chiefs won their only Super Bowl in the 1969 season; they haven’t been back since. The Royals won their only World Series in 1985; it took them until 2014 to get back.

From 1995 to 2012, the Royals had 17 losing seasons out of 18. This included four 100-loss seasons in a five-year span starting in 2002 and four straight 90-loss seasons from 2009 to 2012.

On the other side of this World Series, the San Francisco Giants are perennial pennant contenders. They have won two World Series’ in the past four seasons, and fans have had plenty of cheer for.

It’s true, the Royals franchise has made front-office mistakes, but the team also has a smaller margin for error because of its limited payroll. For the entire 21st century, the Royals have been at the bottom of the baseball spending list.

I don’t mind the divide between big and small markets; it is part of the game. But what chance do the Royals have annually against the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels payrolls? It makes the Royals success this season that much more impressive. In their own division, the Tigers outspent the Royals by nearly two to one this year – and that’s with Kansas City having its highest payroll ever. It’s like a street vendor trying to compete with a fast food chain.

The Royals can’t throw money and lucrative contracts at free agents. Rather, they have built their team through the draft, trades, and savvy free agent signings.

This is a relatively unknown Royals roster: Nori Aoki, Billy Butler, Jarrod Dyson, Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon, Omar Infante, Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez and Josh Willingham are the regulars; Danny Duffy, Jeremy Guthrie, James Shields, Jason Vargas and Yordano Ventura are the starting pitchers, with Greg Holland as the closer. It is the epitome of a “no-name” ball club.

They are also very young and inexperienced. 21-year old reliever Brandon Finnegan closed the Wild Card game against the A’s; three months ago, he was pitching in the College World Series for Texas Christian University.

The city has become so engulfed with the Royals that blue is the color of the water in the city’s famed fountains. People are going into work tired from games that stretch to midnight.

Crime may even be down. At 11 p.m. during an extra inning game against the Orioles, the Kansas City police tweeted, “Officers on radio discussing how ridiculously slow tonight is. @Royals seem to be great crime prevention.”

And how can you forget about SungWoo Lee? The 38-year old South Korean superfan has been a Royals fan for 20 years, which any other baseball fan could tell you were trying times for the club until their recent playoff push. Lee saw his first Royals games in person at Kauffman Stadium this season after getting vacation time at work. In the process, he became a sensation because of his earnest appreciation and enthusiasm for a team that plays about 6,500 miles from his home. He watches every game despite the 11 hour time difference.

Although you might not be as loyal of a fan as Lee, I encourage you to root for the Royals. How could you not support these overachievers? There is plenty of room left on the bandwagon.