Opening Day at Yankee Stadium with Kelly Bennett

In today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host Christopher Robbins, co-founder of Familius publishing, husband, father of nine, author, fisherman, backpacker, and aspirational musician based in the Central Valley of California, talks to Kelly Bennett. She has been writing professionally for more than 30 years both fiction and nonfiction. Her award-winning picture books included Not Norman a Goldfish Story, Vampire Baby, Your Daddy Was Just Like You and The House That Ruth Built celebrate all that goes into being a kid, families, friends, pets, fun and games. 

Episode Highlights

• 2.00: Today Christopher and Kelly are going to discuss baseball and the history of the original Yankee Stadium and the opening game between the Yankees and Red Sox. 
• 03.20: The Yankees are the team that made baseball the phenomenon it is today. Around the 90’s it was America's sport at the time. 
• 04.20: Kelly shares how her grandfather was into baseball. Her grandfather was a semi-pro ballplayer. Later she and her brother started playing, now her kids also play baseball. 
• 05.02: There is geometry in baseball, the statistics are just beyond belief in baseball. Kind of gives us an idea of why baseball has been such a fascinating sport for the American public for well over 100 years. 
• 05.54: Baseball is the one game where anything can happen. Anything that ball can go anywhere. It can be hit, or it cannot be hit.
• 06.31: This April celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the original Yankee Stadium opening,
• 08.25: Kelly shares how Babe Ruth changed the game of baseball. People started hearing about Babe Ruth hitting and they started coming to the games just to see if he would hit it. And even when he struck out, they loved it because he put so much into it that he'd spin around beyond. He was a total hand, so it was more about the showman. Because of that, the stadium was built. 
• 09.17: Kelly shares what made Babe Ruth such an iconic figure that transcended time.
• 11.24: Kelly shares what made her so interested in researching this opening day game and the history behind it. Her book includes the fans, the hawkers, the details of the stadium, and the players.
• 12.58: Families have these habits that we believe help families be happy. One is Play Together and one learns together. Kelly’s book falls within those. 
• 15.14: Playing ball is not about your gender, it's not about your physicality. It's about anybody who can play actual catch, starting with your toddler.
• 17.07: Kelly shares one story that she loves about Babe Ruth. 
• 19.02: The house that Ruth built comes out in April 2023, the 100-year anniversary of the first game played between the Red Sox and the Yankees on April 1923.

3 Key Points

1. Kelly shares why she is so interested in baseball and what is her history with baseball. 
2. Kelly explains how Babe Ruth was able to draw all by himself, triple and five times and 10 times the fans that any other stadium, including the archrivals, then New York Giants, was drawing. 
3. Kelly shares how she thinks the family could benefit from and how they could use the house that Ruth built to play and learn besides just reading the story.

Tweetable Quotes

• “We love baseball, but you got to hate somebody, whoever you are playing against. I guess that's the way it goes.” - Kelly
• “Anybody can play baseball. It's easy to get. All you need is a ball and a bat, and you can start playing baseball.” - Kelly
• In Kelley’s book, there are sidebars that have facts of baseball historically. You can bring together your intergenerationally. Because kids today have no idea what the world was like 100 years ago.” – Kelly
• “Football is very controversial right now. You need a ball that's a certain shape you need to feel there's the plays are really much more set. Basketball, you need a hoop. Baseball, all you need is two people, or one person throw it up in the air they catch.” - Kelley
• “A lot of people think Babe Ruth was an orphan. He wasn't an orphan. However, when he was seven years old, his parents put him into a boy's school for incorrigible children, for orphans and some put there by the state. In his case, he was put there by his family.” - Kelly 

Resources Mentioned

• Pre-order now: https://www.familius.com/book/the-house-that-ruth-built/
• Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
• https://www.kellybennett.com/
• Podcast Editing