KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -
Major League Baseball isn't the only game in town during All-Star Week and the T-Bones are just one local organization looking to get some play out of the All-Star excitement.
Royals second baseman turned T-Bones coach Frank White is the one former All-Star who is at T-Bones stadium every game. But come July 6, there will be several legends at the game for autographs.
"You have Hal McRae, who lives in Florida, Amos Otis, who lives in the Las Vegas area," Matt Fulks, the T-Bones media relations director, said.
The T-Bones' Turn Back the clock Night event is a chance to see the legends and several others in a more intimate setting than FanFest and catch a game at the same time.
"Our GM Chris Brown used to be a clubhouse attendant for the Royals so he knows a lot of these guys. He knew them when he was a teenager and, for him, it's a chance to honor them out here," Fulks said.
Even some animals are getting worked up about the big day as they are preparing to be decked out in baseball attire for an All-Star summer.
Wayside Waifs is offering weekly specials and naming dogs after baseball greats.
"A Corgi mix would be Babe Ruth because he's short and stocky," Wayside Waifs Director of Shelter Operations Barbara Poe said.
And in Independence, MO, former president Harry S. Truman may not be a baseball great, but he was a great fan of the game.
"He was the only president who actually opened the baseball season one pitch with his left hand and one pitch with his right hand," Truman Library Curator Clay Bauske said of Truman.
The Truman Library has put together a bunch of artifacts, including the ball the 33rd president tossed out for the Athletics' first game as a Kansas City team as part of their Presidential Pitch Exhibit.
Also included in the library's artifacts is a humorous letter in response to the pitch signed by the president of the Washington Senators, whose season Truman typically opened.
"He sent this funny little note that says basically that Truman is a traitor because he switched allegiances to another team," Bauske said.
But the president wasn't nearly as athletic as his wife.
"She played pick-up games of baseball with her two brothers and the team they had, and she was actually their clean-up hitter occasionally," Bauske said.
Visitors will have to come by the Truman Library themselves to see how Truman got another ball on display, signed by actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan and America's sweetheart, Doris Day.
"It was also signed by Mrs. Grover Cleveland Alexander, the widow of the great pitcher," Bauske said of Grover Cleveland Alexander, the man whose life is the basis for the movie The Winning Team.
Altogether, the historian said it's a modest display that brings a majestically colorful picture of Truman's take on America's past time.
Click here for more information on the T-Bones' Turn Back the Clock Night.
Click here for more information on Wayside Waifs' All-Star Summer adoption special.
Click here for more information on the Truman Library's Presidential Pitch Exhibit.
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President Truman holding up two balls at the April 18, 1950 opening game of Washington Senators vs Philadelphia Athletics at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. He was known for pitching both left and right handed. Photo Courtesy: Harry Truman Library
