Just in time for the holidays, two members of the T-Bones family – coach Frank White and Matt Fulks, the Director of Media Relations – have had their most recent books published.

One Man’s Dream
For 18 years, Frank White was the gold standard by which every Major League Baseball second baseman was judged. His fielding range was uncanny and his ability to make a pinpoint throw to first base defied description. Yet, near the end of his career, he left the Royals with a bad taste in his mouth. He served as a coach for the Boston Red Sox for a brief stint, but returned to Kansas City with renewed optimism, hoping that one day his dream of becoming a Major League manager would become a reality. He worked as a coach, a Double A manager in Wichita, Kansas, and served as a team vice president. Whenever it came time to name a new field manager, he was always overlooked. He never made his disappointment public, but he would confide to close friends that he was heartbroken by the Royals decisions concerning his future.

Most recently he enjoyed a successful stint as a TV color commentator for the Royals, but was kicked out of the booth because of his honesty and insight into a team that had not enjoyed the type of success that was always associated with the Royals during White's golden era. In 2012, he became a coach with the Kansas City T-Bones.

In his new book, One Man's Dream, My Town, My Team, My Time (Ascend Books), co-authored with Bill Althaus, White gives fans an inside look at his baseball legacy, from the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s to the disappointing way the team turned its back on its greatest representative – both on and off the field.

One Man’s Dream is a 6 x 9 hardcover book with 272 pages. It retails for $24.95. You can get more information at www.ascendbooks.com.

This is White’s second book. In 2004 he wrote Good As Gold: Techniques for Fundamental Baseball. His co-author on that project was Matt Fulks. Speaking of which…

Conversations at Chappell’s
They talk sports, all the time, at Chappell’s Restaurant and Sports Museum in North Kansas City. Now those conversations are captured in a new book celebrating the restaurant’s 25 years.

Conversations at Chappell’s: Reliving Kansas City’s Great Sports Memories (Kansas City Star Books), written by Fulks with Jim Chappell, is a unique, oral snapshot of Kansas City’s sports history – the good and the bad – featuring many of the athletes and media personalities who were involved.

More than 55 sports personalities were interviewed during roundtable lunch discussions at Chappell’s – which Sports Illustrated, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune have selected among the nation’s top sports bars. The end result is a collection of behind-the-scenes and personal memories from people such as Bobby Bell, Len Dawson, Dennis Leonard, Fred Patek, Lew Krausse, Sam Lacey, Bud Stallworth, Scot Pollard, Curtis McClinton, Corby Jones, Lynn Dickey, Larry Holley, Kevin Harlan, Dave Stewart, Kent Pulliam and Denny Matthews.

Complete with nearly 150 photos, Conversations at Chappell’s is a hardcover, coffee-table book with 244 pages. It retails for $24.95. More information is available at www.MattFulks.com.

One Man’s Dream and Conversations at Chappell’s are available at Kansas City-area bookstores or online at Amazon.com.