Home  News Racine Student Wins Baseball Hall of Fame Grand Prize
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Racine Student Wins Baseball Hall of Fame Grand Prize
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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(CHICAGO) – Thanks to a trip to his local library, 11-year-old Oscar Youngquist is about to take another journey – this time to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Last weekend, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith drew Youngquist’s name as the grand-prize winner of the Step Up to the Plate @ your library® program.
Developed by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Step Up to the Plate teamed up two American pastimes - baseball and libraries - to encourage fans of all ages to use the print and electronic resources at their library to answer a series of trivia questions.
As the grand-prize winner, Youngquist, who is a Chicago Cubs fan from Racine, Wis., will travel with his father to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame’s World Series Gala on Saturday, Oct. 25. He will also receive a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum and archives, which houses such iconic baseball artifacts as Bath Ruth’s bat.
Oscar’s father Grant had begun to use the Racine Public Library for home schooling resources. When they saw a display for Step Up to the Plate, it really hit home.
“We make tremendous use of the library,” said Grant. “All Oscar talks about is baseball. He couldn’t be more excited about going to the Hall of Fame.”
Youngquist is not the only winner from Racine. Matthew Gehne, also 11, was selected as one of 20 first-prize winners. Each runner up will receive a commemorative hardbound copy of the “Hall of Fame Yearbook;” a copy of “Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’” by Andy Strasberg, Bob Thompson and Tim Wiles; a Hall of Fame T-shirt and other prizes.
Other first-place winners include:
· In the age 10 and under category: Cooper G. Babcock, Gilbert, Ariz.; Parker Burbridge, Kirkland, Wash.; Justin Debord, Locust Grove, Ga.; Kevin Jacob Nitz, New Berlin, Wis.; Sophia Timm, Appleton, Wis.;
· In the age 11 to 13 category: Benjamin John Duncan, Tucson, Ariz.; Carly Few, Greer, S.C.; Matthew Gehne, Racine, Wis.; Tim Parent, Levittown, Penn.; Samantha Tierney, Wilmette, Ill.
· In the age 14 to 17 category: Michaela Brenner, Guy Mills, Penn.; John McDonough Fisher, Hockessin, Del.; Ashley Gragg, Swannanoa, N.C.; Jonathan Oyer, Murrieta, Calif.; Jed Taylor, Urbana, Ohio;
· In the 18 and over category: Donna M. Feder, Oak Park, Calif.; Phylis Liscum, Yorktown, Va.; Brian Mulligan, Mahwah, N.J.; Judy Waters, Orangeburg, N.Y.; Alonso Zaragoza, Chicago.
“Step Up to the Plate was a great way for us to bring the community together,” said Becky Spika, program coordinator at the Racine Public Library. “It was wonderful seeing grandparents, parents and children working together to locate the answers.”
This year’s national program celebrated the 100th anniversary of the song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Contestants who answered four questions from Step Up to the Plate @ your library playbooks correctly were entered into the national drawing. Questions were divided into four “playbooks” corresponding to different age levels. Oscar’s questions included:
· In what year was the first baseball song written? (1858, “The Baseball Polka”)
· For what major league team was Wrigley Field (then called Weeghman Park) built? (The Chicago Whales of the Federal League)
· In what year was the first major league baseball game shown on television? (1939)
· Who was the fist woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame? (Effa Manley, former owner of the Negro Leagues’ Newark Eagles)
Step Up to the Plate @ your library is part of the Campaign for America’s Libraries, ALA’s public awareness campaign about the role of libraries and librarians. The Campaign is made possible in part by ALA Library Champions, ALA’s highest level of corporate members.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a not-for-profit educational institution dedicated to fostering an appreciation of the historical development of the game and its impact on our culture by collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting its collections for a global audience, as well as honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to our National Pastime.
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