The Kansas City Mules baseball team doesn’t have the ring to it that Kansas City Royals does. But how about the Steers, MoKans, Plowboys, Scouts – or the Kansas City Capsules? When entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman gave Kansas City a new professional baseball team in 1968, The Kansas City Star held a naming contest and collected these ideas, plus about 17,000 more.

Author and Emmy-award winning Fox4 reporter Matt Stewart has covered the Royals for 20 years, but his new book, The Kansas City Royals: An Illustrated Timeline, provided an opportunity to dive into the team’s forgotten and lesser-known stories.

Just after the 2024 season opener, Stewart shares those stories – and learns a few more – in a conversation with former Royals second baseman, Jackson County Executive Frank White. White played for the Royals for 18 years, appeared in five All-Star games, and won eight Gold Glove awards for fielding.