Last week, the Royals extended an olive branch to White. If ever there were a time to make amends, it was heading into Game 3 of the ALCS against Baltimore, the first ALCS the Royals would host since the 1985 team that featured White, a sure-handed second baseman, filling the cleanup spot. The director of the Royals Hall of Fame, Curt Nelson, reached out to White. Others in the hall were coming to town for the occasion, and they were going to be on the field together, and the team wanted to let bygones be bygones, to have White join the group.
He said no.
"It wasn't right for me," White said, and it prompted some in the organization to wonder: If that wasn't right for him, can anything be?
---
Whether it was his criticism or the perception that he bad-mouthed the team to other organizations, the Royals told White they wanted to slash the salary of his community-relations job – essentially a perfunctory, appearance-making gig – from $150,000 to $50,000. The Bell hiring was one slight, the Hillman another. White saw this as too much, an insult. A year later, Fox Sports fired him from his announcing job and replaced him with Rex Hudler, an unabashed booster.
White joined the Kansas City T-Bones, a local independent team, as a coach, and worked in sales and marketing for a local roofing company. At public appearances, fans would ask when he was going to go back to the Royals, and White would smile and laugh, because that's how he hides his pain. And at the same time, the Royals grit their teeth at being cast as the bad guys, knowing that a six-figure annual golden parachute is the sort of luxury rarely given, believing that White's desire to be treated as Brett's equal fueled an animosity that needn't have existed.
"I'm not waiting for an apology at all," White said. "I've basically moved on. What happened with the Royals happened with the Royals. What happened with Dan Glass and his front office happened with him. My focus has been on rooting for the team and winning the race next month."
|