Families across the Kansas City metro area have commemorated the Kansas City Royals’ 2015 World Series win in innumerable ways, but one Weston family will leave a lasting reminder of the series in print. Barbara Lott recently published “Celebrate Kansas City! We Won the World Series!” through CreateSpace, an independent publishing platform.
The Lott family has a long history with the often-underdog Royals. Back in 1985, the family bought its first VCR to record the Royals victory parade. Also in 1985, their son, Erinn, was born.
JEANETTE BROWNING FAUBION/Citizen photo
Barbara Lott of Weston, Mo. poses with a copy of her book, “Celebrate, Kansas City! We Won the World Series!” Lott self-published the book.
“Back then we couldn’t afford to go to games,” Lott wrote in the introduction to her book, which was released in early April.
Even with this obstacle, she and her husband, Mel, and their three children, made an effort to catch every game on television. They stuck with the Royals through thick and thin, and by 2015 Erinn’s son Brayden joined this Royals family.
Erinn was struck with a great idea and immediately called his mother.
“He said I needed to write a book,” Barbara said. “He thought it would be cool to have something to pass on.”
Inspired by the family’s Christmas letters Barbara wrote each year, which were based upon the classic poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, she got to work adapting the poem to the 2015 Royals win.
“’Twas the start of the World Series two thousand fifteen, thirty years since the last championship or was that a dream?” she wrote.
Lott approached her nephew, an artist, to illustrate the book, but with a baby of his own on the way, his schedule was full.
“We tried to get it out before opening day,” Barbara said, but she kept striking out in locating an artist.
One of Barbara’s former students recommended Regan Krebs, an illustrator in Lansing, Kan., and based on one watercolor her nephew produced, Krebs drew a book’s worth of illustrations in record time.
“I really liked the dreamlike quality of my nephew’s picture, and she really captured that,” Barbara said.
The finished book had a fairly public debut earlier this month courtesy of her brother, Patrick Farnan. At the April 11 Weston Board of Aldermen meeting, Farnan, an alderman, read the book to the audience before the meeting convened, showing off the illustrations between the stanzas of poetry.
“I’m not trying to plug her book, but it is available on Amazon,” Farnan said.
The book is indeed available on Amazon.com, at a cost of $12.99, shipping included. So far, about 25 copies have sold online with about 100 currently in print.
“I really did it more for my husband and son and grandson,” Barbara said, noting that she hoped to make back what she’d spent to publish the work and donate a portion of any profits made to Kansas City’s MLB Urban Youth Academy.
Lott will read the book from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, May 7 at East Hills Mall in St. Joseph, Mo. It has been read at several classes at West Platte Elementary School, and she is looking into opportunities for other local book readings and signings.
The Royals themselves will soon get a look at the work they inspired when a former neighbor who works for the team takes several copies to the players’ wives club.
“We want some of the players to have a copy for when they have kids,” Mel said. “That would be great.”