"The divorce is final now. No reconciliation is coming, and no happy ending. Just more of a bitter war between the Royals and a hometown man whose statue stands in front of the stadium he literally helped build with a construction job one summer.

Frank White played so well over 18 seasons that the Royals retired his number. He has done hundreds of public appearances on their behalf, worked in the front office, and broadcast games on radio and TV. Once, he dreamed of managing them.

But now he is a full-time employee for the T-Bones, coaching in the low-budget outpost of minor-league baseball and swearing off the only big-league team he's ever truly loved.

White is done with the Royals. He's said this before, you might remember. This time he is shutting the door on ever coming back.

"There's nothing they can do for me," he says.

Joining the T-Bones is White's way to stay in the game, and he sees some connected business relationships that might help. He will serve as first-base coach, advise the front office and make most of the bus trips to road games, a significant drop in status and pay from making around $300,000 last year broadcasting Royals games.

White has no delusions of rekindling dreams of a big-league managing career from the Northern League, which isn't connected to any major-league teams and offers only the faintest hope for players to be noticed. He sees this instead as a way to move on emotionally while staying in Kansas City."