When Spring Bloomed in the Spa City

With the cold weather still lingering in many parts of the country, winter-weary baseball fans can take comfort in knowing that the action ramping up across ballparks in Florida and Arizona heralds the arrival of spring.

But while the Grapefruit and Cactus League games have been an annual component of MLB’s exhibition schedule since before most of us can remember any differently, there was a time when teams found other pastures to their liking in preparation for the rigors of a full season.

At least as far back as the late 1860s, northern teams headed south in the late winter to embark on barnstorming tours that would wind their way back toward home by the time the weather was more amenable to outdoor play in those regions.

But in mid-March 1886, Chicago White Stockings President Albert Goodwill Spalding and Player-Manager Cap Anson tried something new by summoning their players to Hot Springs, Arkansas. The town was renowned for its natural hot mineral springs, which Anson believed would “boil out the alcoholic microbes in his hard-living players.”

Once in the “Spa City,” the ballplayers dispelled with the remnants of a winter’s worth of debauchery and shook off the hitting and fielding rust at the Hot Springs Baseball Grounds. They returned the following spring after claiming the 1886 National League pennant, this time sharing the grounds with the Des Moines Hawkeyes of the Northwestern League. In 1889, the National League’s Cleveland Spiders and Allegheny City Statistics also showed up with the hope of emulating the White Stockings’ winning ways.

Over the next three decades, the population of Hot Springs annually swelled as winter gave way to spring. As many as 250 ballplayers packed into the city at the peak of its popularity, where they could be spotted on the diamonds of Whittington Park or Fogel Field when not lounging around at the Majestic or Eastman Hotels.

Along with partaking in practices and exhibition games, the athletes built up their stamina by hiking the mountains surrounding the town, their workouts interspersed with daily muscle-soothing baths at one of the facilities that lined Bathhouse Row.

For some, the town’s bustling social scene was as much of an attraction as the springs, albeit one that presented more opportunities for trouble. Although he was known to crack the whip on his players, New York Giants Manager John McGraw set a less-than-stellar example when he was arrested for gambling at the Arlington Hotel saloon in 1904. And a young Babe Ruth went wild in his first exposure to the local night clubs and racetrack in 1915, resulting in his blowing through his entire salary before the start of the season.

Speaking of the Babe, Hot Springs served as the site of two key moments in his baseball career. The first came in 1918, when he foreshadowed his rise to slugging supremacy by launching a 573-foot home run out of Whittington Park and into an alligator farm across the street. The other took place in 1925, when his preseason regimen of heavy carousing led to the infamous “bellyache heard ’round the world” that sidelined him for the first two months of the regular season.

But Hot Springs wasn’t solely a place for players to wreak havoc outside the foul lines, as many of them became invested in the community. An avid offseason basketball player, Honus Wagner donated uniforms and helped coach the Hot Springs High School team in 1909. Two years later, Cy Young announced his retirement in Hot Springs, only to change his mind and suit up for one more year. He later made regular trips back to the area, where he was honored with a parade in 1938.

According to historian Mike Dugan in the documentary The First Boys of Spring, every big league ballclub had trained in Hot Springs by 1915. However, Florida was rapidly becoming a preferred destination by that point, its combination of newer facilities and even warmer weather proving too great of a lure for teams to turn down.

The void was partly filled by clubs from Rube Foster’s newly formed Negro National League, its participants finding a welcome reception among Hot Springs’ thriving black community. Meanwhile, individual players from the white Major Leagues continued to make the pilgrimage to the resort town, with Lefty Grove and Al Simmons among the luminaries who swore by the rejuvenating effects of the spring baths.

From 1933 to 1938, Hot Springs also attracted waves of big league hopefuls who signed up for Ray Doan’s month-long baseball school to learn from such expert instructors as Young, Dizzy Dean, George Sisler and Rogers Hornsby. Additionally, big league ump George Barr operated the nation’s first umpire school in the area until 1940.

Otherwise, Major Leaguers had largely abandoned Hot Springs by World War II. The Minor League Hot Spring Bathers kept the spirit of baseball alive in the city, winning three Cotton States League championships between 1941 and 1950. The Negro Leagues also maintained a presence, with the Hot Springs-hosted 1952 championship showcasing the eye-opening abilities of the Indianapolis Clowns’ Hank Aaron.

Three years later, the Negro Leagues’ Detroit Stars became the final professional team to train in Hot Springs, and the demise of the Bathers after that season brought an official end to an era.

As with long-defunct 19th century ballparks and the numerous players who enjoyed no more than the proverbial cup of coffee in the Show, the record of preseason baseball in Hot Springs has largely been swallowed up in the vast fabric of baseball history. But the memory at least lingers in the locale’s steamy air, with the signposts and ballfields serving to remind of how some of the game’s all-time greats would resurface every year to mark the arrival of spring in the Spa City.

Thanks to “The First Boys of Spring” as well as Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.