Kansas City, Mo. ? Anyone who ever had somebody cut in line ahead of them ought to be cheering wildly for the Kansas City Royals.

The sudden revival of this long-woeful and almost universally overlooked franchise is baseball’s feel-good story for 2003, living proof that little guys without big money or inside contacts do occasionally laugh last.

Of course, nobody knows what the second half of the season will bring for the unexpected, injury-dogged leaders of the talent-challenged American League Central.

This is, after all, a team that lost a franchise-record number of games in 2002 and then was ordered to cut about $10 million off an already-modest $50 million payroll.

They could still take a tumble and vindicate their many doubters.

Or maybe not.

Perhaps the Royals are on the verge of becoming the first team in history to lose 100 games one season and then turn around and capture a division title the next. They’re already the first to lose 100 and then win 50 by the following All-Star break.

“So far, it’s been a magical season for us,” said rookie first baseman Ken Harvey.

Jose Lima, a former National League All-Star, is a candidate for comeback player of the year. Lima, who owns a 5-0 record since being added to the Royals' roster in June, will start tonight's game against Seattle.

If the Royals’ resurrection holds up, the energetic and positive-thinking Tony Pena will certainly be a top candidate for manager of the year.

Comeback player of the year could go to former National League All-Star Jose Lima. He seemed so thoroughly washed up last season even the Detroit Tigers gave up on him and his 7.77 ERA. Now since the Royals plucked him off the Newark Bears and taught him how to throw a slider, Lima’s 5-0 and cocky again.

And for rookie of the year, how about free-wheeling, hard-throwing closer Mike MacDougal? Coming into the season with a lifetime ERA nearing 5.00, “Mack the Ninth” hoped to make the Royals.

Instead, he made the All-Star team.

“It all starts with Tony,” said Desi Relaford, who’s become known as “Do-it-all Desi” for the way he competently hops around from one position to the next.

In his first full season as a field boss, Pena arrived in spring training with what most people figured was a corny motto and a collection of losers.

Giving his players a moving talk about the need to ignore what the outside world was saying, he passed out “We Believe” T-shirts. The organization went along by putting up billboards across town that simply declared, “Believe.”

Tony Pena has managed the Royals to a 51-41 record and a seven-game lead in the American League Central.

False bravado, most outsiders figured.

But then the Royals won most of their spring training games. And then they won 16 of their first 19 real games.

And now you can believe they’ll begin the second half of their “magical season” with a 51-41 record and a seven-game lead in the AL Central. It’s the biggest advantage of any division leader but Atlanta, and the first time they’ve had that big a bulge so late in the season in 23 years.

Perhaps most encouraging to fans who haven’t even caught a whiff of the postseason since the last out of the 1985 World Series was made, the Royals are heading into the second half on a 23-12 tear.

Not even a raft of injuries has slowed the believers.

“I always believed,” said Pena. “But I had to get them to start believing.”

The former All-Star catcher insists his team’s success is no surprise.

“Attitude will take you anywhere you want to go. We have people going out and giving 110 percent every day,” Pena said.

If Pena’s followers were going to fold, it seems logical to think they would have curled up and died by now. Injuries have caused starters Runelvys Hernandez, Kyle Snyder, Miguel Asencio and Jeremy Affeldt to miss significant playing time.

Mike Sweeney, their captain and top run-producer, has missed the last 24 games with a nerve problem in his lower neck that still has not abated.

Carlos Beltran, their second-best player, missed the first two weeks of the season with a strained oblique muscle and also went through a prolonged slump.

Joe Randa, after setting a team record for consecutive games at third base without an error, strained a muscle and has been out the past two weeks.

Second baseman Carlos Febles was out for a time with a wrist problem, similar to the injury that has also shelved outfielder Dee Brown.

But time after time, whatever replacement Pena plugs in seems to work.

“Whoever’s healthy, Tony has confidence in them,” said Relaford, who’s probably been the team’s first-half MVP. “He’s been saying that since day one. When you know your manager believes in you, it makes everything a little easier.”

Amid all the encouraging numbers is one big bummer, though.

Against teams who ended the first half of the season with winning records, the Royals are a flat-out terrible 15-29.

It’s a trend they’ll test immediately. Their next six games are against Seattle and Oakland, and they still have six to play against the Yankees.

“I don’t care,” said outfielder Raul Ibanez. “This has been a true team effort. Everybody has been doing their part. We’ve been able to overcome all the adversity and there’s no reason we can’t keep it up.”