Wright Thompson tells the soap opera tale of Tony Peña's summer.

The events leading up to that plane ride weren’t pretty. In the last few weeks before he resigned as Royals manager, Peña had trouble sleeping. What’s worse, he could barely eat, and anyone who’s ever seen the man at a table should have known right away something was wrong.

Most days, he had only a banana. The pounds slipped off, almost 20 in all. Players might later privately complain that he quit on them, but no one could ever say he didn’t care.

“It was ugly for him,” general manager Allard Baird said.

A storm was brewing in Kansas City when Peña left for his final road trip with the team. He’d had conversations with Royals officials about a local divorce case he was being called to testify in — he had allegedly been having an affair with a neighbor.

He’d been asking around, trying to gauge how big a deal it would be in the community. On its own, he might have weathered it. Coupled with the losses, it was too much. American League Manager of the Year in 2003, Peña was now captain of a sinking ship.

I thought the resignation was a face saving gesture. Sometimes bosses let employees quit because it doesn't look as bad as getting fired. But Peña really took that road on his own. It appears Tony did the right thing for his family and himself. He turned off his cell phones and got to know his children. He relaxed. And now he's involved with baseball again, working for the Royals on special assignments, and enjoying the game once more.