Ruth’s called shot. Ricky Being Ricky. Candy Cummings’ curveball. Baseball is a game full of stories, and its lore helps maintain the rightful moniker of “America’s pastime.” And some of the greatest stories come from a town of fewer than 40,000 people.
While most fans imagine sunny Florida and Arizona when thinking of spring training, the ritual actually started in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1885 and 1886, the Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs) had a winning percentage of .752 and captured back-to-back National League pennants. Between seasons, team manager Cap Anson started an unconventional practice in an unlikely baseball town. Hot Springs, part federal reservation and part boomtown, was known more for its thermal water, heated by a 4,000-year geologic process to a constant 120 degrees. The town’s therapeutic baths caught Anson’s attention, and he sent his team to Hot Springs to get fit for the 1886 season.
Follow the Leader
What works for one team must surely work for another. Following this train of thought, the White Stockings were soon followed to Hot Springs by the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Brooklyn Dodgers, and New York Yankees.
Players took advantage of the baths to rejuvenate and prepare for the season, while the rugged terrain of hillside trails offered natural fitness challenges. Local parks provided a place for on-field training. An indoor weight room exhibit is on display at the Fordyce Bathhouse, which now houses the visitor center for the federal reservation turned National Park in 1921.
Iconic players like Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Cy Young, and Rogers Hornsby trained in Hot Springs, and according to local baseball historian Mike Dugan, pitchers Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, and Satchel Paige were advocates of the springs, which limbered up their “winter arms.”
Negro Leagues
Hot Springs was an integral location for Negro League baseball. Fifteen teams conducted spring training at Sam Guinn Field in the ’20s and ’30s, now the site of the Greater St. Paul Baptist Church. Staying at the National Baptist Hotel, players helped define the city’s ‘Black Broadway.’
Jackie Robinson came to Hot Springs before his sixth year in the big leagues to play in an exhibition game. During a Negro Leagues tour of the south, Hank Aaron stopped in Hot Springs, on September 17, 1952.
Babe’s Blast
The popularity of Hot Springs as a training site for all players began to decline by the mid-20th century, as teams moved to Florida and Arizona for more modern facilities. But around 2010, CEO of Visit Hot Springs Steve Arrison was looking to expand the city’s already popular St. Patrick’s Day celebration and uncovered another “diamond in the rough.”
“I happened to be at the historical society, and I found out Babe Ruth hit a home run here on St. Patrick’s Day in 1918,” recalls Arrison. “He hit the ball out of Whittington Park into the Arkansas Alligator Farm.”
Impressed, Arrison connected with baseball historian and Ruth expert Bill Jenkinson to validate and commemorate the event. Accounts from the day did indeed claim the ball went into an alligator pond, so Arrison employed a local engineering firm to measure the distance from home plate—established through historical society photos—to the nearest alligator pond in the attraction. The blast measured 573 feet.
“Those alligator ponds are in the exact same place they were in 1918. That home run is perhaps the first one recorded over 500 ft. in the history of baseball. That really got me interested.”
The Trail
In 2012, Jenkinson talked Arrison into creating a Hot Springs Baseball Trail. So, he gathered a handful of baseball historians to create a 33-stop, self-guided tour, which highlights the players and places crucial to Hot Springs’ baseball history.
“We got into it. It was just amazing,” Arrison added. “We have this unique take on early baseball; 42% of the players in the Hall of Fame played baseball here. By now, I was in this with both feet.”
The tour starts by highlighting home state heroes Dizzy and Daffy Dean. Visitors then travel through town following an online app with photos and audio descriptions, ending up at Whittington Park.
The Old and the New
“None of the old fields are really left,” laments Arrison. “You can see the remnants of Whittington Park. Majestic Park was redone a couple years ago, but it’s nothing like it was back in the day.” But Visit Hot Springs’ efforts have kept the town’s baseball history alive.
Majestic Park today is “where baseball’s past meets baseball’s future,” and the five-field complex hosts local youth leagues and tournaments. In 2025, the complex will be the site of the 14U Babe Ruth World Series.
“We have historical markers all throughout the park that tell the kids who played and what happened there,” says Arrison. “That is also where we put the Babe Ruth statue…which is one of only three in the world.”
Baseball Weekend
Arrison’s efforts ultimately culminated in the Hot Springs Baseball Weekend, which occurs annually in August. The first weekend in 2017 was merely an unveiling of the Dean plaque, attended by former St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Bob Gibson. The event coincided with the release of The First Boys of Spring, a documentary coproduced by Visit Hot Springs.
Since then, the event has brought ten Hall of Fame inductees to town, including Steve Carlton, Wade Boggs, Andre Dawson, Jim Edmonds, Dale Murphy, and Chris Chambliss. It’s free to attend, with baseball legends conducting panel discussions inside the Hot Springs Convention Center. A card show happens at the same time, and some players hold autograph sessions, but the weekend is much more than a player at a table posing for pictures.
“It’s a different atmosphere. These athletes talk about their careers and banter with other players,” says Arrison. “We have different panels related to their experiences, and people can ask questions. Sometimes we hear stories that do not make it into the books.”
If You Build It...
Arrison has pointers for anyone wanting to create a baseball weekend: realize player appearances cost money, invite players popular with the local fanbase, keep admission free, make sure you have the space to fit the fans, and get sponsors to help pay.
“This is Cardinals and Cubs territory, so obviously we bring in some players from those teams,” he added. “We used local connections to make inroads with the MLB teams and went from there.” The 2025 weekend welcomes Johnny Bench, Goose Gossage, Steve Garvey, Bret Saberhagen, Al Hrabosky, and Ron Guidry.
Hot Springs is a treasure trove of baseball history. Arrison has helped put the memories of the early game on display, bringing baseball back to Hot Springs—not in the form of spring training, but as a place where America’s pastime lives on, just as strong as it did in 1886.