Perhaps growing impatient at the slow progress of a Mickey Mantle Museum in his Route 66 hometown of Commerce, Oka., Joplin Globe guest columnist Scott Haar makes a pitch for putting the Mick museum in nearby Joplin, Mo., instead.
I’m not persuaded by Maar’s argument. I’d rather have the museum in Mantle’s actual home state than a neighboring one. Mantle is the greatest baseball player Oklahoma has ever produced, and that’s not small praise when you consider the Sooner State also boasts Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell, and Paul and Lloyd Waner — all of them Hall-of-Famers. I once did a listing of baseball players by state, and Oklahoma’s would be as good as any.
The Mantle museum also would be greatly beneficial to the struggling town of Commerce. Joplin is a thriving community and will be for the foreseeable future. Commerce needs the museum more.
#7 museum belongs in Commerce, OK.
I can say without a doubt that Mick’ did not want a statue in Commerce, let alone a museum as was well explained in a letter from Mantle attorney Roy True when a group of people saying they were school mates of Mickeys that was out raising money by the sale of reprint patches, and buttons from the Glenn Berry Manufacturing Co. in Commerce that produced the Mickey Mantle Westerns.
They were asked to cease any organized plans to erect any monument to the likes of Mickey Charles Mantle.
Today you see these articles on Ebay but they are not authorized Mantle items to be sold and should not be as the buttons reflect Mantle’s signature and the patches have Mantle’s name which is also copyrited by the Mantle family out of Dallas
Dont get me wrong a Mantle Museum would be great and I would be there everyday, but Commerce would not be Mick’s choice, as far as Joplin… He spent along time there as well… Who Knows… But keep the choice of what Mick would have wanted
Thanks for the venue to let the public know what Mick would want!
scott Harr simply wanted to see his name in print, nothing more