In a ‘Game of Dreams,’ Royals’ White Has a Dream of a Game

By replacing designated hitter Hal McRae in the Kansas City batting order, Frank White has become the first second baseman to hit cleanup in a World Series since 1952.

A man named Jackie Robinson, then with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was the last to do so.

“I didn’t know that until after the first game in Kansas City,” White said Tuesday night, “and it really didn’t sink in until my dad and wife started talking about it.

“I mean, the more we all talked, the more excited I got about it.

“It’s really a great feeling. Jackie Robinson meant a lot to me. It’s too deep to go into, but you know what he did for the game and what he did for most every black player.

“In fact, when I first came up to the big leagues, I thought about asking for No. 42, but then I didn’t want to carry it for my entire career. I didn’t want to face the pressure of the comparison. I wanted to make my own name. I wasn’t any different than any other young player.”

Frank White had made a name for himself before Tuesday night, before the third game of the World Series, but he did it this time in a manner he had only dreamed about.

Hitting a pivotal home run in a pivotal World Series game--as the cleanup hitter.

“It’s a game of dreams,” White said, “and this is a dream come true. I never thought I’d hit a home run in a World Series. I never thought I’d hit cleanup. Never mind a World Series game. I never thought I’d hit cleanup in a regular-season game or in a spring training game.”

This is how White eased the loss of McRae and helped drive the Royals back into the I-70 Series Tuesday night with a 6-1 victory:

--He hit a two-run, fifth-inning homer off Cardinal starter Joaquin Andujar that turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-0 lead.

--He followed a walk to George Brett with an RBI double in the seventh inning off Rickey Horton.

The Kansas City cleanup hitter now has three doubles, two walks, one homer and one single in his last nine at bats.

In 13 seasons, White’s forte has been defense. He is a six-time Gold Glove winner with a .259 career average. He has also averaged only eight homers a year, a modest figure that would be even less if he hadn’t hit 17 homers in 1984 and a career-high 22 in 1985. In ‘85, he occasionally was employed as the No. 4 hitter, primarily against left-handed pitchers.

McRae, who drove in 46 runs in his last 56 games, has been idled by the rule that permits employment of a World Series designated hitter only in the even-numbered years.

“I’m trying to be a little more patient and wait for a pitch I can drive,” White said, “but I’m basically doing the same things I did when I hit fifth, sixth and seventh.

“Dick (Manager Howser) hasn’t said to me, ‘You’re hitting fourth because we want you to hit the ball out of the park.’ He’s said to me, ‘You’re hitting fourth because Hal can’t. Just be yourself.’

“I’m filling a role and looking for the ball in a certain spot. I can drive it if I get it. That’s how I hit 22 home runs. At the same time, I never go to the plate saying I’ve got to do this or that, I’ve got to make up for what Hal would be giving us.

“There’s already enough pressure just trying to make contact.”

The 5-11, 175-pound White is just that, a contact hitter. Howser might have batted Steve Balboni, who slugged 36 homers during the regular season, in the cleanup spot, but Balboni struck out 166 times during the regular season and has yet to hit consistently in October.

“Dick showed confidence in me,” White said, “and I want to repay it. I kind of like the challenge. The one thing is, I’ve never been bashful about swinging the bat, and I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure on me.

“If I don’t do well, people will say Dick shouldn’t have put me there.

“But if I do well, then I get to talk to you guys (the media), and this is kind of fun.”

The White homer came on a high fastball and was the last pitch Andujar delivered. White drove it deep into an enclosure where the batting cage is housed behind the left-field fence.

He had hit only other homer in 37 previous post-season games.

“I just don’t believe it happened,” White said. “If I was Joe Morgan with more than 200 homers, maybe. But I just went over 100, and I never thought that would happen either.

“I mean, when I saw where the ball went I said to myself, ‘was that you?’ And when I got to the dugout the guys were staring at me as if to say, ‘how did you hit it that far?”’

Surrounded by reporters at his locker, White was asked how he hit 17 homers last year and 22 this year.

“As long as I’ve been in the majors,” he said, “I’ve always felt I could hit with a certain degree of power, but when I first came up we had guys who could do that, so I’d bunt, hit and run, hit the ball to the opposite field.

“Then when we started to lose Willie Aikens and Amos Otis and Jerry Martin, and Dick started to hit me third when George (Brett) would get hurt, I started to think more about driving the ball.

“I knew my average would go down and I might strike out more, but the team needed home runs, and I tried to provide it. I went into the ’85 season trying to hit three a month, thinking that two of them might be the difference between wins and losses.

“It really comes down to the fact I’m not a George Brett or Willie Wilson. You only have to look at my career stats to know I’ll never be a great hitter. I’ll never hit .300, but I’ve never made that my goal.

“I’ve seen a lot of .250 and .260 hitters who drove in important runs, and that’s what I’ve always tried to be.”

White was more than that in the 1980 playoff with the Yankees. He propelled the Royals to a three game sweep by batting .545 and winning the MVP Award. Then, in the World Series against the Phillies, he went 2 for 25.

“I had a big playoff,” he said, “but I wasn’t one of the big guys on the team. I mean, they looked to me for defense. I couldn’t carry a team, which is why that Series hasn’t stayed with me. I was disappointed we lost. I was disappointed that I didn’t do better.

“But it’s five years later, and to say I’m trying to make up for it now is ridiculous.”

It’s 13 years since Frank White came to the Royals out of a tryout camp and the short-lived baseball academy of owner Ewing Kauffman. Had you told him then, or even a week ago, that he’d be batting cleanup and hitting a home run in a World Series, he might have said that it, too, was ridiculous.