Spring training in sunny Florida and Arizona is now in full swing for all 30 Major League Baseball teams. Few fans may realize that Spring Training for Players actually began in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The exhibit "Hot Springs: Baseball´s First Spring Training Town" that will be on display at the Hot Springs Convention Center will showcase 24 historic Baseball photos taken during a time when photo negatives were on fragile glass plates. Most of the photos chosen for the exhibit also feature a prominent Hot Springs landmark from the past in them, and represent a glorious time when Hot Springs was the destination place for Major League Baseball.
The exhibit, entitled "Hot Springs: Baseball´s First Spring Training Town," covers one wall in the Hot Springs Convention Center and is sponsored by Arkansas Farm Bureau, The Garland County Historical Society, and the Hot Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau. Perhaps it is fate that the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR - www.sabr.org), which was formed in August 1971 in Cooperstown, New York will also hold a meeting in Hot Spring.
The SABR now consists of more than 6,700 members, and included many prominent writers, officials, and former players from around the worldwide. All members have an interest in baseball research, statistics, or history. And, this exhibit might just be one of the highlights of their trip to Hot Springs.
Mike Dugan, a Hot Springs native and also a member of SABR and on its Deadball Committee said, "In 1886, future Hall-of-Famer Cap Anson was manager and first baseman for the Chicago White Stockings and brought his team south to prepare for the season. Anson had learned about our mineral waters and spas and the reason he brought the team to Hot Springs was so they could ´boil out the alcoholic microbes´ in his hard-living players."
The players got in shape by soaking in the spas, hiking the mountains and playing baseball in a more moderate climate. Thus, spring training was born. And, what about the Deadball connection? Well, the early 1900's are known as the "deadball" era in baseball because the balls didn´t carry well when hit.
According to Dugan, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds all came to Hot Springs for spring training in the early 1900's. Other individual players would come on their own as well up until the early 1940's, even after teams started going to Florida in the mid-1920s. Some of the most prominent ballplayers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame played in Hot Springs, including Cy Young, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Al Simmons and Zach Wheat.
Later, when the big league teams shifted spring training to Florida, teams from the National Colored League began training in Hot Springs. Hall-of-Famers Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who came to Hot Springs in 1932 and ´35.
"It was an historic time when movie stars, entertainers and celebrities regularly visited Hot Springs," Steve Arrison, chief executive officer of the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission. "The Player's were accessible to the public. Though some, like Ruth, were larger than life, they enjoyed their celebrity status and didn´t shy away from the fans."
Learn More
To learn more about this exhibit and plan your trip, visit the Hot Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau at www.hotsprings.org or call 1-800-SPA-CITY
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