Groundbreaking to start baseball weekend

HOT SPRINGS — The long-anticipated groundbreaking for Majestic Park, a five-field baseball complex at the site of former Hot Springs Boys & Girls Club, will take place Friday with several retired major league baseball players in attendance.

Former major-leaguers Ted Simmons, Lee Smith and Al Hrabosky, who will be in Hot Springs for the third annual Baseball Weekend, are scheduled to attend the short ceremony.

The groundbreaking will be at 6 p.m. at Carson and Belding streets.

“The public is welcome, but it’s going to be a very quick ceremony, more of a photo-op, but we’d love to have the public involved in every aspect of the project,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, the city’s tourism arm.

“It’s August at 6 p.m. It’s going to be very hot, so there will be two very, very, very quick speakers, and then photos of the groundbreaking, and then we’ll get started.”

Also participating in the groundbreaking ceremonies will be members of the Majestic Park Committee, who led the campaign for voter approval of the complex’s construction; the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission; Mayor Pat McCabe; City Manager Bill Burrough; and members representing Ritter Communications and the Oaklawn Foundation, according to a news release.

Hot Springs baseball historian Mike Dugan and ad commission chairman Elizabeth Farris will speak briefly.

A second groundbreaking will be a dusting off of the home plates, with key people who have helped with the project, such as the construction committee, the Oaklawn Foundation and Ritter Communications, which gave grants to the project.

Arrison said he’s excited to get it started.

“The project will be five fields for youth baseball. They’ll all be totally artificial turf, lights; one field will be a large field with more seating where we can play college [and] high school [baseball],” Arrison said. “And it’s on historic baseball ground. This was one of the first sites for spring training in Hot Springs.

“Babe Ruth, when he was a rookie with the Red Sox, he actually participated in his first spring training right where Majestic Park is, so that’s just another added flavor to it.”

The economic impact the new facility will have on the city will be significant, Arrison said, because the city has little youth sports income.

“When we start getting those traveling baseball teams, the tourism impact will be great,” he said. “I think the impact on our local children who want to play baseball is really great, because right now we don’t have the fields in Hot Springs outside of the schools.

“We’re really looking forward to it.”

The Baseball Weekend will continue Saturday with a full day of activities at the city convention center. All Baseball Weekend events will be free.