Inaugural Baseball Weekend gaining global attention
Hot Springs’ Historic Baseball Weekend Friday and Saturday is gaining global attention for the new resources becoming available to document the Spa City’s role in the history of the sport.
Descendants of Babe Ruth will be in Hot Springs along with Hall of Famer Ferguson “Fergie” Jenkins and player-turned-broadcaster Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky.
The final two plaques honoring legendary Arkansas-born catcher Bill Dickey and pitcher Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove will be dedicated at 11:30 a.m. Friday as part of the Historic Hot Springs Baseball Trail, which traces the locations and history surrounding the hundreds of Major League baseball players and staff who trained in Hot Springs long before spring training became associated with Arizona and Florida, according to a news release by Visit Hot Springs.
A ceremony celebrating the
anniversary of Babe Ruth’s historic first 500-foot home run out of Whittington Park into the Arkansas Alligator Farm 100 years ago will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday at home plate in Whittington Park.
According to Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison, the weekend has gained global attention and the visitor’s bureau has received calls from enthusiasts around the world seeking details on the weekend’s events.
“The interest has really surprised me,” Arrison told The Sentinel-Record Wednesday. “What we thought would be a small event looks like it may be much bigger than we anticipated.”
Since the announcement of the Historic Baseball Weekend, Arrison said he has received calls from ESPN and Japanese sports writers because of recent excitement over Los Angeles Angels pitcher-hitter Shohei Ohtani, who has been called the “Babe Ruth of Japan.”
Tom Stevens, Ruth’s grandson, will be in town for the ceremony at Whittington Park Saturday and discussing the new book, “Babe Ruth — A Superstar’s Legacy” by Jerry Amernic. Stevens wrote the foreword for the book, which outlines the legacy of Babe Ruth on many different fronts, both on and off the baseball field.
In addition to Babe Ruth’s grandson, Arrison said three generations of the Babe Ruth family including his great-grandson, Brent Stevens, and great-great-granddaughters, will be here. The baseball legend’s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens — who will celebrate her 102nd birthday on July 17 — was invited but will be unable to attend.
According to the news release, in conjunction with Historic Baseball Weekend, Tim Reid, one of the five baseball historians who have shepherded the establishment of the Baseball Trail, and his son, Timmy, have created three new websites documenting the number of Baseball Hall of Fame pitchers and catchers who are known to have played in Hot Springs as well as Babe Ruth’s historic home run. These websites are www.firstfivehundredfoothomerun.jimdo.com, www. hot springs pitcher shall of fame. jimdo.com and www.hotspringscatchershalloffame.jimdo.com.
“Beginning in 1886, Hot Springs, Arkansas, became the epicenter of Spring Training for Major League Baseball and the Negro Leagues,” the Reids wrote on their catchers website. “Hundreds of baseball’s greatest stars traveled to train and play at ‘America’s BadenBaden,’ internationally famous for its hot mineral springs and spas. Among the many legendary ballplayers who graced the ball fields of Hot Springs, was an astonishing … 61 percent of all catchers currently in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York. This website is a tribute to the backstop immortals of Hot Springs, Arkansas.”
Of the pitchers, the Reids wrote on their website, “Of all ballplayers, pitchers participated and benefited the most from training and healing in Hot Springs. Indeed, nearly 50 percent of all pitchers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame today trained at Hot Springs! This site is a tribute to the crème de la crème of pitching legends who trained in the ‘Valley of the Vapors.’”
Famed baseball historian Bill Jenkinson has written new articles on Dickey, Grove and Ruth for Visit Hot Springs’ Baseball Trail website, www.hotspringsbaseballtrail.com.
The events included in the weekend are free to the public, Arrison said, on a first come, first served basis for the panel discussions.
“So far the weather looks like it’s going to be good for our dedications,” he said. “I’ve spoken with Babe Ruth’s family several times, and they’re all very excited. None of them have been to Hot Springs, and now they will get to see where their grandfather trained.”
On Friday at 6 p.m., the Playing in the Major Leagues panel discussion featuring Jenkins and Hrabosky will be held in room
208 of the Hot Springs Convention Center. Journalist Rex Nelson will moderate all panel discussions over the course of the weekend.
At 7 p.m., Jenkins and Hrabosky will sign autographs.
In room 208, a screening of the Emmy Award-winning Larry Foley documentary “The First Boys of Spring” will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday. The film documents the birth of Major League spring training more than a century ago in Hot Springs.
Following the film at 2:30 p.m., the Baseball in Hot Springs panel discussion will take place featuring the five historians who helped create the Historic Baseball Trail. Historians include Jenkinson, Reid, Mike Dugan, Mark Blaeuer and Don Duren.
Babe Ruth’s family along with Jenkinson and Reid will lead a panel discussion, The Life of the Sultan of Swat, in room 208 at
3:45 p.m. Saturday.
Given that the final two plaques of the trail will be dedicated Friday, Arrison said this does not mean Hot Springs will stop celebrating the sport’s ties to the city in the future.
“We will surely do something annually to remind people of our baseball history,” Arrison said. “We are always going to be proud of our baseball heritage here, and we’re not getting away from promoting the history of spring training.”