Kansas City is a world champion, so are we finally OK?

It ended Sunday at 11:34 p.m.

It being the end of Kansas City’s inferiority complex.

Yes. It is over, or at least it should be — this thinking that Kansas City isn’t up to snuff with other big-league metroplexes. Given the Royals’ World Series triumph, no longer should Cowtown and its people question their place among the real cities.

Not even among cities such as New York, the loser in this.

We’re now a happening town and, more startling yet, we think we know it.

Dare we declare with such hubris the demise of our legendary lack of confidence? Frankly, we’re not sure. It’s only baseball.

But the metro area could learn from these Royals. They didn’t tip-toe into the title. They had swagger. They would battle back no matter what.

And for the last year or two some of that self-esteem has rubbed off on Kansas City, according to those who study the place.

“It’s a realistic fact that there is a greater sense of satisfaction and self-confidence here,” said historian William S. Worley, an author and professor in the Metropolitan Community College system.

“A number of things have been building to create this sense that, as a city, we’re all right,” Worley said. “In fact, we’re pretty good. That’s a change from the past.”

In the past, local boosters weren’t comfortable trumpeting their city even when they had the opportunity. Greeting visitors to the 1976 Republican National Convention were some weird downer signs that read: “Welcome to Kansas City: One of the few livable cities left.”

Everybody! Let’s hear it for “livable.”

Or “Heart of America.” That phrase graced municipal letterhead forever — alongside “City of Fountains,” as if nobody could agree which kind of place was better.

In the last several months, however, outsiders have been offering their own slogans for our corner of Flyover Country.

“THE place to be,” the Huffington Post heralded, putting Kansas City atop its list of “it” cities to visit: “The food is amazing, nearly everything is affordable and the people are nice.”

Travel & Leisure magazine chimed in next. “As the No. 1 city for affordability, Kansas City offers serious bang for your cultural buck,” the writer observed, noting that the major museums charge no admission.

Something called the Global Entrepreneurship Congress recently looked at 50 cities around the globe and included Kansas City among the top five “up-and-coming metropolitan areas that are rapidly boosting entrepreneurship.”

The research group swooned over the area being selected to be the first in the nation to boast ultra-speed Google Fiber.

Now could the city’s first World Series triumph in 30 years be the sweetest deliverance? Might we all put to rest this notion that we’re the model of mediocrity?

When the Royals last claimed baseball’s crown in 1985, downtown was on the verge of a building boom that changed the skyline. But residents and retail stores were fleeing the central city, violent crime was spiking and Union Station was a crumbling hulk.

See downtown now. It’s where tens of thousands cheered on this postseason.

Mayor Sly James credited his predecessors for working to revitalize downtown with the Sprint Center, Power & Light District, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and Crossroads art district. He said the future Hyatt convention hotel will further the streak.

“If you can’t love Kansas City right now, you never will,” James said. “We’re not going to stop with these Royals. We’ve got a streetcar system to test out before the end of the year.”

His only worry: “I hope we don’t move too far toward being overly boastful.”

Boastful — here? You’re kidding. Amazing what a cocksure bunch of baseball players can do to help a city feel better about bragging.

“We have in the past had this inferiority complex” dating to the late 1800s, explained Jeremy Drouin, a researcher at the special collections wing of the Kansas City Public Library.

“From a financial standpoint we were doing great” as a railroad and meatpacking center, he said. “But culturally we had this cowtown image. How did we try to shed that? We built museums and parks and boulevards.”

And in 1955 we got major-league baseball. The Star called opening day for the Kansas City Athletics “one of the most momentous events of the city’s history.”

But that team was a perennial stinker, as were the stockyards that greeted visitors flying into Municipal Airport.

Well, it has been decades since Kansas City smelled like poop.

But it’s too early to know how long this Royals thing will have the whole metro area coming up roses.

“How a team’s success figures into the city’s fortunes is a difficult thing to answer,” said historian Worley. “But it sure is interesting to watch.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 11:49 PM with the headline "Kansas City is a world champion, so are we finally OK?."