Kansas City, Mo ? Tom Gamboa never saw this coming.

The coach who drew national attention after being attacked by a father and son last year was caught by surprise when the Kansas City Royals dismissed him following Sunday’s final game.

“It’s too bad that I got fired,” Gamboa said Wednesday from a hotel room in Albuquerque, N.M. “But after 30 years in this business, I’ve been with seven teams. That darn attack has probably become a stigma. It may be better for me and the Royals to just part ways.

“Maybe that will make this thing go away.”

That “thing” is all the attention he’s received since Sept. 19, 2002, when William Ligue Jr. and his teenage son jumped over the railing at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, threw the 55-year-old Gamboa to the ground and began kicking and punching him.

It turned Gamboa into an instant celebrity and increased awareness about the issue of on-the-field safety — and left him with some permanent hearing loss.

One year to the day later, Gamboa filed suit in Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court against Ligue, as well as the security firm and concessionaire at the Chicago ballpark at the time of the attack. The lawsuit alleges the concession company served alcohol to Ligue until he became drunk and that the security firm failed to keep him off the field.

“The prosecutor urged me to do so,” Gamboa said.

Ligue was sentenced last month to 30 months on probation plus community service on two counts of aggravated battery. His teenage son was sentenced to five years’ probation and 30 hours of community service.

After his firing, Gamboa piled his belongings into the family car and headed toward his West Coast home, stopping along the way to see old friends. He still feels unworthy of his sudden fame and is uncomfortable with it.

Gamboa, reassigned from first-base coach to bullpen coach at the beginning of the season, said he sometimes sensed there were people in the Royals organization who resented the attention he drew everywhere he went. As he and other coaches would wade through crowds, autograph-seekers would line up around him.

Once, when the Royals were in Chicago and in first place in the AL Central, Gamboa said manager Tony Pena told him it was the players who should be talking to the media.

“What was I supposed to do?” Gamboa said. “Am I supposed to be rude to people who are just trying to do their job?

“But I could see Tony’s point. It’s flattering that people remember who you are and they hope you’re fine. But it happened a year ago. At what point does it fade?”

A few hours after the Royals ended their season with an impressive 21-game turnaround, Gamboa was fired.

The Royals cited the bullpen’s high ERA of 5.60 as a reason, although pitching coach John Cumberland and every other member of the team’s coaching staff was retained. Tuesday, the Royals promoted minor-league catching instructor Brian Poldberg and made him their bullpen coach.

“We felt the need to upgrade the position,” general manager Allard Baird said.