Play ball: Community gathers for game of catch
Baseball fans of all ages participated in a community-wide game of catch Thursday afternoon at the Baseball Trail Park on Whittington Avenue.
The event was organized by the Hot Springs Parks and Trails Department, Majestic Park Baseball Fields and Visit Hot Springs, and it was meant to commemorate Major League Baseball teams visiting the Spa City as early as 1886 for Spring Training.
Bill Solleder, director of marketing at Visit Hot Springs, said that they plan to hold similar events once a month.
“My boss and I, Mr. (Steve) Arrison, had come across an article — I think it ran in The New York Times, and it was about a man who was carrying a baseball around the house,” Solleder recalled. “And his wife was like, ‘Oh, he must really miss baseball,’ or something, and so she posted something online, ‘Hey, does anyone wanna play ball with my husband?’ And they came up with a time, and so they went to a park, and they just had a few people come out and play. It just, you know, created some time for people to get together and have, you know, friendship and fellowship and celebrate baseball.
“And so, we figured with Hot Springs’ rich baseball history and it being opening day of Major League Baseball, we would just do the same and just see who came.”
Solleder said that there was a good crowd that participated.
“Honestly, we didn’t know what to expect, but we’ve had like, you know, Steve Arrison’s here, the city manager (Bill Burrough) is here, and Derek Phillips, who runs Majestic Park, is here,” he said. “The wife of the late Mike Dougan (Susan Dougan), who was, you know, the guy who really carried the torch for baseball — Hot Springs’ baseball — history and uncovered all the spring training history. And then Tom Hill, who’s the Hot Springs National Park historian, he’s here, and then a few other people that I don’t know just showed up.”
Dougan, who was also playing catch, said that her late husband would have absolutely loved to have been out tossing the ball along with everyone else.
“He would have been out here at 3 o’clock coming to throw the ball,” she said. “He followed baseball inside and out, and he loved the history of it. And he loved Hot Springs, and so that mirrored the baseball love too. It was really sort of a package in one. Plus, he really wanted to bring baseball back to Hot Springs for the kids. He loved baseball and he loved that it brought people together.”
Majestic Park Manager Derek Phillips said that the new park, which is tentatively set for completion this fall, will benefit not just the local youth but the area economy as well. He said the park, which will consist of five playing fields, will host numerous tournaments throughout the season, as one is held nearly every weekend up to July 15.
“The first thing about Majestic Park that I’m really excited about is the fact we’re bringing a league back to the kids,” he said. “The league was formerly a part of The Boys and Girls Club which closed in 2017.”
Arrison, the CEO of Visit Hot Springs, summed up the special day in one word — fun.
“It’s a beautiful day out, but yeah, Bill said we’re going to do it once a month and, you know, hopefully we’ll get more people, maybe it will build. It’s just fun,” he said. “The four or five people I was throwing with, it was the first time they’d thrown a baseball in 15 or 20 years. And so, yeah, it’s just fun. And, of course, we’ve got the most beautiful day in the world.”