November Pickups

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Oh heck why not. As many of you know I am SABR geek so seeing something like this is great fun!

The photo PC is a shot of Babe at Majestic Field in Hot Springs, AR and is thought to be from Spring Training in 1915 or 1916. Majestic Field was located at the site of the current Boys & Girls Club and a baseball field sits on the very same site though for 50 years a swimming pool was at that location.

Majestic Field was created in 1909 following an argument between the Red Sox, Pirates, Dodgers and Phillies over the use of Whittington Park Field or Ban Johnson Field which was located near the downtown area at the north end of the trolley line. The Red Sox who stayed at the Majestic Hotel built their new field at the south end of the trolley line and named it for their hotel.

Part of each team's agreement with the city was free transportation on the trolley system.

A decade or so back this series of PCs turned up in a auction, perhaps on eBay? A reproduction of the set made it to our local Advertising & Promotions Commission which has done a wonderful job of promoting the birth of Spring Training here in 1886. Each year they issue a set of postcards with images of our history, there have been a dozen or so Bill Clintons and about 6 or 7 Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner issues. The PC Pete has which is amazing was one of the images reproduced years ago along with the others in the set.

This past March we launched the Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail, a series of 27 large cast plaques honoring specific sites around town where significant baseball events occuered from 1886 to 1952. Some of the sites in incude each of the five fields used and such events as Ruth's 565 foot homerun on St. Patrick's Day 1918. Through a barn storming tour with Campanella and Robinson in 1952. By the way Ruth historian Bill Jenkinson sites the 1918 Ruth homer as the true turning point in Red Sox leaderships decision to let him play full-time. One of my favorites is the plaque at the site of the high school gymnasium where Wagner taught the school team how to play basketball. Walter Johnson was reported in the local paper to have joined in after enjoying a morning of hot baths.

During the event in March the A&P hosted a luncheon to honor the SABR members from all over that helped put the project together including Jenkinson from Philadelphia, Tim Reid from Florida and Don Duren of Dallas. Each member was given a framed set of copies of the PC set that Pete's card is from.

I do want to stress that the copies of the PCs were more black & white than sepia and were much larger. Sorry for my rambling, hope some of you got some fun out of it.