Mike’s Blog – David A. Kelly

Mike Walsh, one of the main characters in the Ballpark Mysteries books loves to write about baseball. That’s why I’ve given him this page on my website so he can write about the Ballpark Mysteries books and baseball. Here’s Mike:

Baseball Mud - While Mr. David A. Kelly has helped me and Kate write the Ballpark Mysteries books, he also does some books on his own, including a really cool picture book called Miracle Mud: The Secret Mud that Changed Baseball. The book tells the story of this mud, that comes from a secret place (in New Jersey!) Read More
It’s a Ballpark Mysteries World Series! - Wow! I hope you’ve all been watching this year’s World Series! In case you haven’t noticed, BOTH teams in the series are teams that Kate and I visited! We went to Kansas City first, to see the Kansas City Royals, and later on, we went to San Francisco to the see the Giants. We had Read More
Stolen Turtles? - Why would anyone want to steal turtles? Kate and I never thought about stolen turtles until we took a trip to the Miami Marlin’s neat baseball stadium with huge fish tanks. You can read about it in our book The Missing Marlin. But we couldn’t believe it when we read a news story recently about Read More
Babe Ruth book - Mr. David A. Kelly just sent me and Kate a copy of the first book he wrote — Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse. He wrote it in 2009, but a new version of it just came out. It’s got neat new facts in the back about the Red Sox and Babe Ruth. See for Read More
Video fan mail - Kate and I just received this great video from Luke, one of the Ballpark Mysteries biggest fans. He’s happy to be reading the Ballpark Mysteries and has a suggestion for us on what ballpark we need to go to next…
Fenway Foul-Up Missing Chapter - Ballpark Mysteries or Red Sox fans will want to check out the latest addition to the Ballpark Mysteries website. It’s a missing chapter from the first Ballpark Mysteries book, The Fenway Foul-Up. In the book, Kate and I had a great time visiting Boston and helping Big D find his missing bat. But even if Read More
The Wrigley Riddle Wins the World Series! - Okay, well, maybe our book THE WRIGLEY RIDDLE about Kate and my visit to the Chicago Cubs didn’t really win the World Series (and neither did the Cubs!), but Amazon.com did name THE WRIGLEY RIDDLE as one of its Best Books of the Year 2013!
The San Francisco Giants Mystery! - When Kate and I travel to different ballpark, we know that we’ll see a baseball game. But when we went to San Francisco last year, we never thought we’d go kayaking in San Francisco bay! Turns out the bay is right next to the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark! It’s really cool, since home runs get Read More
The Chicago Cubs Mystery! - The Chicago Cubs are one of the oldest teams in baseball. They also have one of the old stadiums–Wrigley Field. It’s really famous for the green ivy that covers the outfield wall. That’s why Kate and I were really surprised to discover that someone had been cutting holes in their ivy and possibly running their Read More
What Does Outer Space Smell Like? - I’d much rather be playing baseball or watching TV than cleaning up. I mean, why put your clothes away if you’re just going to wear them again? But sometimes, when my room starts to smell, my mom makes me clean it up. I’m guessing she’d want our astronauts to clean up outer space for the Read More
A Giant Win! - Wow! That was neat. Unless you’re a Detroit Tigers fan. The San Francisco Giants just won the World Series with a really exciting game. It even went into extra innings. Kate was hoping the Tigers would win, but I was rooting for the Giants. Now, Kate has to carry my backpack to school on Monday! Read More
The All-Star Game and The All-Star Joker - You can bet that Kate and I will be watching tonight’s All-Star Game in Kansas City, since Ballpark Mysteries book 5 (The All-Star Joker) takes place there! We had an amazing time visiting Kansas City. I loved the BBQ! But see if you can find the miniature golf course at the Royals’ stadium during the Read More
Ballpark Mysteries Books - Usually Kate and I are busy with school and baseball (okay, well, Kate is usually reading, too). That’s why we take all the cool trips, and let Mr. Kelly actually write the books. But he sent along some cool links that I wanted to post. The first is an in-depth Q&A about the Ballpark Mysteries Read More
The Astro Outlaw - Wow. It’s hard to believe that Kate and I have been on four cool ballpark adventures so far. Last year we shared our trips to Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles with you. But we’ve got something really, really neat. Our fourth book is out today! It’s called THE ASTRO OUTLAW! Last year, when Read More
The Miami Marlins – All New for 2012! - When I was eating my breakfast cereal this morning, the TV caught my eye. My mom was watching a sports show and they were talking about news all around the MLB. I guess they were thinking about warm weather, because they spent a lot of time on the the Florida Marlins. Or should I say, Read More
Bobby Cox - I was walking home from the barbershop with Kate. As usual, she was rattling off some baseball statistics. I was more focused on bouncing my tennis ball, than on her facts. That was, until she mentioned Bobby Cox. Bobby Cox was a manager for the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Braves for almost 40 years! The Read More
Mike’s Pine Tar Experiment - Yesterday when I came home from school, there was a baseball game on TV. I sat down and watched for awhile. (I didn’t want to do my math homework.) Anyway, they zoomed in on this guy’s bat before he went up to the plate. Guess what I saw? There was this black, sticky looking material Read More
Switch Hitting Hall of Famers - Yesterday, I was reading a book about baseball. It had cool stories, and awesome pictures. One story was about Mickey Mantle, one of the best hitters in baseball history. The coolest part about him is that he could hit from both sides of the plate! Can you believe that? I have enough trouble hitting from Read More
The Hit - Yesterday I was in English class and we were writing stories. My teacher told me to write about my favorite memory, and I knew just what to write about! It was a sunny day at the local ballpark near my house. My friends and I were playing a game of baseball. I came up to Read More
The Houston Astros Take Off - Hey guys it’s Mike, with big news. The Houston Astros are moving from the National League (central) to the American League (west). This is the first league change since 1998 when the Milwaukee Brewers moved into the National League. This is so exciting because the I love watching the Astros play. Now they will battle Read More
Can You Believe Spitballs Were Legal? - WOW! Did you know that it was once legal to throw spitballs? (and yes, spitballs are what they sound like.) The spit makes the ball spin in all sorts of wacky ways! Before 1934, pitchers were allowed to rub spit on baseballs to make them harder for batters to hit! I decided to test it out with Kate Read More
Guess who’s a fan of Ballpark Mysteries? David Ortiz! - Wow! Kate and I went to see the Red Sox play in Ballpark Mysteries book 1, The Fenway Foul-Up. We had a blast. But we had an even bigger blast last week when Mr. Kelly showed us this picture. It turns out that Mr. Kelly knows someone who knows David Ortiz, so he sent along Read More
Interview with David A. Kelly - Mr. Kelly, the author the Ballpark Mysteries, asked if I could post this link to an interview he did with CONVERSATIONS Magazine. I didn’t read it myself because Kate and I are pretty busy this week looking at all the baseball stores in Coopertown, New York (our hometown). The Hall of Fame induction stuff was Read More
New Book – The L. A. Dodger - Our third Ballpark Mystery is officially on sale today! Yea! This is such a great book, because me and Kate got to go California to visit her father. He’s a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. We had a great time. I even beat Kate in bumper cars (you’ll have to take my word for Read More
Cooperstown, New York - Man, it was a perfect day for the induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame. Kate and I had a great time. We spent a lot of the day selling water to all those really hot tourists that came to town. We also spent a little time with Mr. Kelly, the writer of the Ballpark Read More
Ballpark Mysteries on Tour! - Wow, it sure has been hot around here lately. Hard to believe, it was even too hot to play baseball today. So I thought I’d stay inside and catch up on some video games. But my mom had a different idea. She wanted me to catch up on cleaning my room. It looks like Mr. Read More
Random House Loves the Ballpark Mysteries - I guess Random House loves the Ballpark Mysteries! They hung a huge poster of the front cover of book two, The Pinstripe Ghost, in the front window of their New York City headquarters! Check out the picture: Looks like the Ballpark Mysteries are right in between a New York Times “instant best seller” and a Read More
First Pitch at Portland Sea Dogs Game - Mr. Kelly (the author of the Ballpark Mysteries) got invited to Portland, Maine to throw out the first pitch at last Saturday’s game. Here’s a picture of him doing it. While he’s a pretty good writer, it certainly doesn’t look like any of the Sea Dogs pitching staff have to worry about their jobs. Maybe Read More
Boston Globe Features Ballpark Mysteries - Way cool!. Today’s Boston Globe newspaper has a great article about me and Kate! Well, okay, it also mentions David A. Kelly, the author, a little bit. And the Ballpark Mysteries series. But Kate and I are in there too! And Mr. Kelly wouldn’t really have much to write about if the two of us Read More
Opening Day – 2011 - Wow! Today is finally opening day. The first real baseball games (that count) for 2011. Today, when it comes to baseball, anything is possible. Any team has just as much chance of winning the World Series this year as any other team. At least before the games start! It’s just like when Kate and I Read More
Spring Training – 2011 - The author of our Ballpark Mysteries books, Mr. Kelly, just sent me some cool pictures from Spring Training. He got to go down to Florida to see a Red Sox game and a Yankees game, and give away free baseballs (he promised to bring me and Kate one, but I haven’t seen it yet!) to Read More
The Ballpark Mysteries Books Arrive! - Looks like Spring Training has started! Kate and I are excited because Random House is now selling the first two books about our adventures at the ballparks–THE BALLPARK MYSTERIES! I think they look great! You would never believe how LONG it takes to get a book published. We went to Boston’s Fenway Park ages ago, Read More
Yankee Stadium Haunted? - A little while after Kate and I went to Boston to see the Red Sox, her mom took us down to New York City to see the Yankees! I thought that Fenway Park was cool. But Yankee Stadium is really neat! It was great to finally see the place where the Yankees play. They’ve won Read More
Green Monster - We were so excited to go to Boston to see the Red Sox! Kate’s mom had to drive out to report on a game for the AmericanSportz website. So she asked us if we wanted to come. Of course, we said yes! We had to leave early from Cooperstown (it’s about six hours away). We Read More
What Mike’s Eating Today - Just went to Houston, Texas. I saw a Houston Astros game (cool!) and took a tour of Space Center USA. That’s where they do all the mission control work for the the Space Shuttles, the International Space Station and other rockets. But the best part of the trip was picking up some of these: Why Read More
Rangers Ballpark - Hey guys, I’m still in Houston. I just saw a game in the Rangers Ballpark. It was amazing! Right next to the park is an office building. Imagine working there! You could watch a baseball game when ever you wanted by just looking out the window. The park even has Little League field and a Read More