Day 16 and 17: Major League Baseball Trip.

DATE: Monday, September 16, 2013. Day 16 and 17.
LOCATION:  Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, home of the Royals and our 10th and final major league baseball stadium.

All three of us wanted to go to the Truman Library in Independence. Rusty agreed - he took us to the Library. It was a fabulous way to spend the next three hours. World War II was over and the Cold War was just beginning. Truman had to make many tough decisions. A few of them were: how to handle the striking railroad workers; how to save Greece and Turkey from falling to the communists; how to respond to the North Korean invasion of South Korea; how to handle the Republican controlled Congress from 1947 to 1949 that opposed everything he tried and wanted  to do; how to integrate the military; how to respond to the communist takeover of China in 1949; how to respond to Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948; how to win the presidency in 1948 against Tom Dewey; plus many other things.

But one decision that was easy for Harry to make was how to respond to Paul Hume, the music critic who had unkind words to say about his daughter Margaret's singing ability. Margaret Truman was trying to make a career with her singing. She gave a concert on December 6, 1950 and Mr. Hume had some pretty nasty words to say about her singing. Here is Mr. Hume's review on Margaret's singing that night.

Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice of little size and fair quality. She cannot sing very well, is flat a good deal of the time, more last night than at any time we have heard her in past years. She has not improved in the years we have heard her. She still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish.

Harry read those comments and that was more he could take. Nobody was going to criticize his daughter and get by with it. He got extremely mad and decided he would write a letter to Mr. Hume and let him know that, as Margaret's father, he was not going to put up with it. What follows is the letter Harry wrote to Mr. Hume.

Mr. Hume:

I've just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an "eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay."

It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively what you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.

Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below.

Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.
\
H.S.T.

When it hit the papers the response was quite favorable for Harry. A lot of people knew exactly how he felt - that any father would feel the same way if some body did that to their daughter. Anyway, the original letter is not at the library. Being it was sent to Mr. Hume it was the property of Mr. Hume. Hume sold the letter in 1951 for $3,500 to the Malcolm Forbes Estate where it hung in the family's NY corporate art galleries. In 2002 the letter was purchased by the Harlan Crow Library, a private library at the Highland Park, Texas, estate of Harlan Crow, a real estate businessman.

Monday night we went to Kaufman Park, home of the Royals. Royals won 7-1. It is a fabulous stadium with geysers in center field. a huge scoreboard, a huge concourse with many restrooms, many vendors, a miniature ball field for little kids to play on, and a museum displaying the history of baseball in Kansas City. The museum guide was dressed in a baseball uniform from the 1860s-1870s - he was so interesting and really knew his baseball. They had a big section on the history of the Negro Leagues and the famous Kansas City Monarchs. Some of the best baseball players ever played there but never made it to the major leagues because of the color barrier. Thank God for Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson in 1947.

This was our last baseball stadium - it was number 10. Except for Wrigley in Chicago all the other nine stadiums were built in the last twenty years - they are all wonderful baseball parks. They all get mostly As or A+s from me for being fan friendly.

Our stadiums included: Milwaukee, Cubs, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Yankees, Phillies, NY Mets, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. I'm so glad Brad called in May and said, "I've got a month long baseball trip on my BUCKET LIST.  I've  got the time now that I'm in between jobs so Dad, what do you think?" I said, "I'm in, but not for a month - two to three weeks would be better." Being my brother John is a big baseball fan we decided to call him to see if he would like to join us. He gave an emphatic YES. So Brad got all the tickets ordered online plus he had all the hotels booked online also except for Manhattan, John did those.

The three of us made memories to last for whatever time we have left on this earth. To make matters better for me Ruth Ann was all for it. We had never been separated for 17 days in our 53 years together. Thank You Ruth Ann.

Day 17: Major League Baseball Trip. Day 17.

We left Rusty and Angie's home in Overland Park in midmorning and drove to Anamosa. We had stayed at Rusty and Angie's home for three nights. They were perfect hosts and I thank them so much for their hospitality. It was a pleasure to spend three days with them. We got home at 4 PM. John left at 5 for his five hour trip to his home in St. Peter, MN. All three of could now scratch the Major League Baseball Trip off our BUCKET LIST.