Bathers offered Spa City own slice of pro ball
The Hot Springs Bathers were the Spa City’s own slice of professional baseball that competed in the minor league system.
Author of “Baseball in Hot Springs,” Mark Blaeuer, said the Bathers were established in Hot Springs in 1938 and lasted until 1955.
“It was our team, they played in the Cotton States League and I do not know that they ever made much money because they were always having financial struggles and they changed owners numerous times over the years,” Blaeuer said. “It was the Hot Springs club and certainly there was, I guess you would say, a small but enthusiastic following.”
Blaeuer said there were previous teams in Hot Springs.
“I don’t know that they were called the Bathers because of the hot springs. … I can tell you, however, that there were minor league clubs before the Bathers here in Hot Springs. The Hot Springs Vaporites… and they were a pretty good team, they won their league in 1908. Of course, back in those days, the baths were a whole lot more popular than say the 1950s,” he said.
Blaeuer said the Bathers had gone through multiple nickname changes.
“I know there was one team from the twenties that had bathtubs on their jersey. Not sure that they were properly called the Bathers by the 1930s, though they had indeed started up here as a minor league club,” he said.
Uvoyd Reynolds, now 89 years old, is one of the last surviving Bathers’ players. Reynolds said he was the first African American to play for the Hot Springs Bathers in 1954.
“Yeah, I was the first one,” Reynolds said. “It was challenging but I really was not up to it really. I played pretty well but I was not really up to being really good like some of the guys were. We had a few guys.
“… Well, about the time we made the minor league team… we did pretty good for a while, and after that old Charlie Williamson (Bathers’ owner), he would cut us loose. But there were about three of us (African Americans) that played.”
Reynolds discussed how he came to be a Bather.
“I was signed by Felix Wright,” he said. “He had a little pull and he wanted to develop a few of us that could play. So, that is how it started. Felix Wright, as a matter of fact, he was a Black man that owned a baseball team and we got together on Sundays. They always went out and played ball. … Charlie Williamson owned the Bathers and we had a pretty fair team, just
fair. So, it worked out fairly good. We did what we wanted to do there.”
Blaeuer said the Bathers played ball in a couple of different places during their 17 years in Hot Springs.
“Early on they played at Whittington (Park), but later on in, I think it was the 1940s, they built a new ballpark, actually more than one, out kind of where the present day Majestic Park is with that complex. And that was known for the longest time as Jaycee Park. So that is where they played and other teams would play there too. You would have visiting clubs in town that could arrange to play ball there,” he said.
He said when many of the well-known Negro League teams came through town, they “might very well end up playing out there at Jaycee Park.”
Reynolds, who played left and right field for the Bathers, said while he never collected any home runs, he did collect a few hits.
“We went to several places, in El Dorado, Arkansas, and other places where we played,” Reynolds said of his final season. “Greenville, Mississippi, Greenwood, Mississippi, and a few places like that. But then we came back at the end of the year; Old Charlie, he decided that he would let us all go at the time.
“But it was quite an experience and at the time, I was about 19 years old. Couple of other guys that came out were pretty good. I had one guy from Texas who had double thumbs. He was a pitcher; I think his name was Bill Mitchell. …But we had a fairly good team.”
Reynolds, who attended Langston High School in Hot Springs, said his favorite part of Hot Springs was being a Bather.
Along with the Bathers winning the Cotton States League in 1948, Blaeuer said some Bather players even made it to the majors.
“There were future major leaguers who played for the Bathers,” he said. “I don’t know that any of them were later Hall of Famers. There were some good ones and as often happens, they had injury, their careers were cut short by injuries or what have you, like Herb Adams.”
Adams was an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox from 1948 to 1950. Another major leaguer who played for the Bathers, Pete Fox, was an All-Star who played 13 seasons for the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.
Reynolds discussed life after Bathers’ baseball.
“Well, I have not been back, oh, in ages, after I left there. I went to California and played a little bit in California, but not too much. So, I just kind of said, ‘I give it up,’ then I decided to become just a regular guy. I spent 3035 years at General Motors,” he said.
Hot Springs, in recent years, has seen a rebirth in baseball with Majestic Park and the Natural State Collegiate League, offering a renewed sense of inspiration for area little leaguers.
Who knows? One day the Bathers may retake the field in Hot Springs with the echoes of players like Adams and Reynolds refueling the Bathers’ spirit.