WINNER of the "WINNER-WINNER CHICKEN DINNER" Spring 2024 QUARTERLY GIVEAWAY IS . . .
It’s That Time Again! What Time? Time to announce the winner of the Spring 2024 “Winner-Winner Chicken Dinner” Quarterly Give-Away at Kelly’s Fishbowl!
Wait! Before we announce the winner, huge thanks and fishbowl love to all of you who entered this quarter’s Winner’s Choice Giveaway by subscribing to my blog, “Kelly’s Fishbowl,” sending letters & drawing to Norman the Goldfish’s advice column “Ask Norman,” or sharing snapshots of “Activities” on social media.
In the interest of fairness, we wanted choosing the winner to be completely random random drawing. And in the interest of transparency, we recorded the event. As we know you’re on the edge of your seat, anxiously waiting to find out if you are IT! Watch the Winner Drawing Recorded LIVE!
Not showing up on your device? Click HERE!
And the winner is . . .
. . . Sarah Hickner!!!!!!!!
(If you’re that Sarah, you’ll be notified by email, so check your spam folder.)
Lucky Sarah will win dinner with a chicken or her choice of any one of these fabulous prizes:
To all of you: There’s still next time! Enter now, enter often, even better—have your kids, students, second-cousin-on-your-goldfish’s side enter. There is no limit to how many times you enter—or WIN the Quarterly Winner-Choice Giveaway!
Find the Complete Quarterly Winner-Choice Giveaway details here!
(Jeez! What’s with all the blinking??? Whoever counts Kelly’s blinks and posts the correct number first in comments will win a prize, too!)
What Inspires Me? The Babe Going Out With a BAAAAAAAM!
On May 25, 1935, at Forbes Field, Babe Ruth didn’t hit one home run—he hit three!
For more Baseball & Babe, check out my book! Click! Even if you love the Mets or Sox…even if you hate the Yankees…you’ll LOVE it—it’s baseball history!
He belted the first one into the lower deck.
The second homer landed in the upper deck.
The third blasted clear out of the ballpark.
Ruth went four for four that game, hitting three home runs and driving in six runs.
As the Boston Globe put it, “Babe Ruth’s final home run was a moonshot!”
“Twice he cleared the playing field with home runs which have been made in the same manner by ordinary sluggers. The third time, in the seventh inning, he caught hold of one of Guy Bush’s slow curves, and with one mighty swipe sent it clear out of the ballpark 50 feet over the right field stands, the first time the ball had ever been knocked out of the park in that particular spot.”
Back to the game: The game was a history maker for The Babe, but not for The Braves. The Pirates won 11-7.
Five days later, on May 30, 1935, Babe Ruth played his final Major League Baseball game.
Babe Ruth retired with a career record of 714 home runs, 2,213 RBI, 2,062 walks and a lifetime .342 average. His pitching record in 10 seasons was 94-46, with 107 complete games.
HOUSTON! Get Ready THTRB is Coming Your Way! JUNE 8-Save the Date!
Houston Friends It’s a Party and You’re Invited!
PEANUTS, POPCORN, CRACKER JACKS!
COME JOIN THE FUN AND YOU’LL NEVER LOOK BACK!
When: June 8, 5:00 pm
Where: Blue Willow Bookshop
Click to the Blue Willow Bookshop Event Link. All the details are below, too.
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING . . .
WINNER of the "WINNER-WINNER CHICKEN DINNER" April 2023 QUARTERLY GIVEAWAY IS . . .
It’s That Time Again! What Time? Time to announce the winner of the 1st Quarter of 2023 “Winner-Winner Chicken Dinner” Quarterly Give-Away at Kelly’s Fishbowl!
Wait! Before we announce the winner, huge thanks and fishbowl love to all of you who entered this quarter’s Winner’s Choice Giveaway by subscribing to my blog, “Kelly’s Fishbowl,” sending letters & drawing to Norman the Goldfish’s advice column “Ask Norman,” or sharing snapshots of “Activities” on social media.
In the interest of fairness, we wanted choosing the winner to be completely random random drawing. And in the interest of transparency, we recorded the event. As we know you’re on the edge of your seat, anxiously waiting to find out if you are IT!
Watch the Winner Selection YouTube Video! (Not showing up on your device? Click HERE!
And the winner is . . .
Not so easy…to find that out, you’ll need to watch the next video because Dylan and Aiden want to announce it themselves! Click Here for the YouTube Link!
And the winner is . . . Emily!
(If you’re that Emily, you’ll be notified by email, so check your spam folder.) Lucky Emily will win dinner with a chicken or her choice of any one of these fabulous prizes:
To all of you, There’s still next time! Enter now, enter often, even better—have your kids, students, second-cousin on your goldfish’s side enter. There is no limit to how many times you enter—or WIN the Quarterly Winner-Choice Giveaway!
100 Years Ago, Ruth's House Opened for Business!
Hi Fishbowl Friends! Today is the day-the day that started this whole journey-from idea to poem to picture book: April 18th, 1923! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Here’s the link to the article. Thank you all for being on this journey—and celebrating with me!
All Play Ball! Picture Books about Black, Brown, Male, Female Baseball Players
Spring Training is on! Right now, Major League Baseball players of all colors are warming up. A rainbow of baseball kids are warming up too, to play and watch—and read! These picture books about Black, Hispanic, Native American, male and female baseball players will make reading time a hit!
When talking baseball history, most fans’ knowledge of baseball players of color starts on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson took the field as the Brooklyn Dodgers #42, the first Black player to play in the MLB. But that is far from the truth.
Black players have been playing as long, as well, and in spite of the MLB—right along with White players—the same game, by the same rules, and on the same fields!
Did you know that when Yankee Stadium wasn’t hosting NY Yankee vs other MLB team games, it was home field for Negro Leagues Baseball teams, too.
And there are—and were—women in Pro Baseball! Players, coaches, scouts, managers and owners. Effa Manley, owner/manager of Newark Eagles, was the first woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame!
Nicknamed “The Great One,” Roberto Clemente led the Pirates to 2 World Series, hit 3000 hits, and was the first Latino to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Read more in Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburg Pirates!
Mamie “Peanut” Johnson was the first female pitcher in Pro Baseball pitched in the Negro Leagues.
Read more in Mamie On the Mound!
Before 1947, players of color were banned from MLB so under the leadership of player/manager Pop Lloyd, the Negro Leagues was formed. Check out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum website for Black players history, photos and more!
Negro Leagues superstar Buck O’Neil played with the Kansas City Monarchs. The Greatest Thing is his story.
Josh Gibson known as the “Black Babe Ruth” was one of the biggest hitters of all time! read more in William Brashler’s biography Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues
“African Americans make up 50% of MLB’s current top 10 leaders in career HRs.”
On April 22, 1897, Louis Sockalexis became the first American Indian to become a Major League ballplayer with the National League Cleveland Spiders.
Read more about him in Louis Sockalexis: Native American Pioneer by Bill Wise.
Before Jackie Robinson put on the #42 Jersey and took the field as a Brooklyn Dodger, he’d done a lot of living and played a lot of baseball. There are books about him for readers of all levels:
And just so you know, my new picture book, The House That Ruth Built, illustrated by Susanna Covelli, is loaded with baseball history, vintage photos and trivia about the players, including Babe Ruth, Josh Gibson and the Negro Leagues, balls, bats, fouls, strikes bases loaded—available NOW from Familus!
WINNER of the "WINNER-WINNER CHICKEN DINNER" QUARTERLY GIVEAWAY IS . . .
THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the Quarterly Giveaway is . . . Fanfare please!
Wait! Before we announce the winner, huge thanks and fishbowl love to all of you who entered this quarter’s Winner’s Choice Giveaway by subscribing to my blog, “Kelly’s Fishbowl,” sending letters & drawing to Norman the Goldfish’s advice column “Ask Norman,” or sharing snapshots of “Activities” on social media.
The good news is you made our fishy hearts flutter with joy. The better news is, there weren’t as many entries as there could have been—did you forget you could enter more than one time each quarter?—so all of you who did enter have a 1-30 chance of winning. Talk about great odds!
In the interest of fairness, we wanted choosing the winner to be completely random random drawing. And in the interest of transparency, we recorded the event. As we know you’re on the edge of your seat, anxiously waiting to find out if you are IT!
Watch the Winner Selection YouTube Video! (Not showing up on your device? Click HERE!
And the winner is: Marina V
Lucky Marina will win dinner with a chicken or her choice of any one of these fabulous prizes:
To all of you, There’s still next time! Enter now, enter often, even better—have your kids, students, second-cousin on your goldfish’s side enter. There is no limit to how many times you enter—or WIN the Quarterly Winner-Choice Giveaway!
What Inspires Me? Digging Through the LOC Stacks
This is a page from the 1893 H.H. Kiffe Catalogue. How did I find it? Joanna Colclough, a Librarian Extraordinaire/Archival Archeologist at the Library of Congress dug it up!
That’s what inspires me: The Library of Congress!
The Library of Congress (LOC) is “the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country.” -wikipedia
What’s in the Library of Congress?
Copies of every publication in the English language that is deemed significant. Specifically:
via Wikipedia: “The Library of Congress states that its collection fills about 838 miles (1,349 km) of bookshelves and holds more than 167 million items with over 39 million books and other print materials.[5] A 2000 study by information scientists Peter Lyman and Hal Varian suggested that the amount of uncompressed textual data represented by the 26 million books then in the collection was 10 terabytes.[77
What’s especially inspiring is that the Library of Congress is OUR LIBRARY!
Each of us—me and you—can access the library. We can visit it in person—it is an actual library located in Washington D.C. and we are welcome to visit it, browse the collections, see the books and some memorabilia and collection items ourselves.
But, what’s easier is that much of the Library of Congress holdings—especially photographs—is on line! All we have to do is input what you’re looking for in the search box, click and look!
And if, like me, you need lots of extra help finding what you’re looking for, the Library of Congress staff is super helpful.
See for yourself! Click to Visit the Library of Congress!
See you at our library!
I’ve been digging—yep! Elbow deep, digging, but not “in the dirt.” I’ve been digging through the Library of Congress archives in search of baseball minutiae for my forthcoming picture book The House That Ruth Built (Familius 2023). It’s about the opening day game in the original Yankee Stadium and Babe Ruth’s historic first homer in the stadium, but so much more. It’s about the origin of the game, and history—so much history—100 plus plus plus year-old history of the sport and the world as it was back then. For instance, how do you think that April 18th, 1923 game was broadcast?
It wasn’t.
That’s right. No one saw that historic game on TV because there was no TV back then.
No one sat with their ears glued to some huge box radio either, because while radio had been invented—credited to Guglielmo Marconithe in 1894, and the first professional baseball game had been broadcast on the Radio—Aug 5, 1921, Pirates vs Phillies at Forbes Field in Pittsburg— the NY Yankees did not allow their games to be broadcast until the 1923 World Series.
The only people to enjoy that first baseball game played in Yankee Stadium in real time were folks at the actual game. The rest of the world experienced second-hand from sports reporters who shared the play-by-play with fans via telegraph which was then transcribed and printed in newspapers. And where, 100 years and more later, does one find those newspapers?
Kids: Try some Baseball Math!
These pages from the 1893 H.H. Kiffe Catalogue list baseball stuff for sale. If $1 in 1893 is equal in purchasing power to about $32.92 in 2022, how much would one of these baseball hats cost today?