HAINES CITY, FLA. ? The first thing Frank White did for the Kansas City Royals was pour concrete.

While waiting to attend the Royals’ development academy, the unemployed teen was given a union card and put to work on the construction crew building Kauffman Stadium. He’s particularly proud, he says with a grin, of the men’s and women’s restrooms on the main concourse.

A Gold Glove Second baseman with Kansas City, Frank White is now in the Royals' front office.

Next, in a 20-year playing career, he won eight gold gloves and became the first second baseman since Jackie Robinson to bat cleanup in the World Series.

After retiring as one of the finest defensive infielders of his era, he spent four years directing traffic on the basepaths as first base coach.

Now he’s a special assistant to general manager Allard Baird, wearing a coat and tie instead of a uniform and helping the team make good decisions instead of good plays.

“I’m learning everything I can as quickly as I can,” said White, 51.

“Major league scouting, amateur scouting, player development, minor leagues, arbitration, contracts, what the general manager does, what the assistant general manager does. It’s fun, and it’s very challenging.”

A Kansas City native and one of the most popular athletes in the town’s history, White isn’t sure just where this next chapter in his baseball life will take him.

To a general manager’s job someday?

“That’s so far away it will be a long while before I can make that decision,” he said. “Right now my No. 1 goal is just to be the best special assistant to the general manager that I can be, getting through this first year. Then I’ll know how I feel.”

If the pattern holds true in a journey that’s taken him from the construction crew to the player roster, to the manager’s staff and now to the front office, White will turn out to be a crackerjack GM.

Everything he’s ever done for the Royals, he has done well.

One of only two second basemen to win eight gold gloves, he was a key ingredient in the Royals’ two American League pennant wins in 1980 and 1985. Manager Tony Muser has praised his work with young players as a coach.

“My schedule is pretty complete until the end of spring training,” White said. “After spring training, everything’s pretty wide open. I’ll have to sit down and figure out what I’m going to do the rest of the year. I know there’ll be very little travel with the team, and I like that.”

Seeing how things work in the executive offices, however, has been an eye-opener.

“When I first sat down at player evaluation meetings and listened to everybody’s comments,” he said, “my first thought was, ‘I wonder if there was this kind of discussion when it came time to release me?”‘

He’s also learned that evaluating talent is not as simple as he used to think.

“As a player, I could look across the field and say this guy can or can’t play. I was pretty good at that,” he said.

“In coaching, you learn to spot a guy’s specific strengths and weaknesses. Now I have to break it down to numbers 40 is below average, 60 above average, putting it all down on paper in every area, like running speed, arm speed, whether he’s a better runner from home to first or second to home.”

In this new endeavor, there is one thing he keeps promising himself he will not do.

“I will not forget how hard it was when I played,” White said.