I wouldn't hold that against him. Overall, those Yankee teams were more talented than the Royals. If you rank the players, George Brett was the best player on either roster but after that the Yankees would dominate the rankings. Herzog got a lot out of these players.
Oh I agree. The Yankees were a deeper team. But I wouldn’t discount Amos Otis and John Mayberry and Frank White of the Royals either. And then they finally broke through in 1980 (although they lost to the Phillies in The Series that year. Jim Frey was the manager I believe.)
I am an Orioles fan, and even though the Os had some great teams in the late seventies through ‘83, those Royals teams gave the Orioles fits when they played in Kansas City... as the Royals just ran, ran, ran, and the Os were an old-fashioned team built on pitching and the home run.