Peter that was fantastic!
I have spent the past year with a great group of fellow SABR members working on our Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail which will debut this Spring. We will have 25-35 plaques around town tying those location to significant/fun baseball events here during our golden age of Spring Training 1886-1929.
Speaking of Rabbitt, he basically ended his lengthy career here jumping out of a second story window after refusing to pay for an evening with a lady of questionable repute. His ankle was fractured.
On St. Patrick's Day in 1918 Ruth hit a homerun against the Dodgers that supposedly covered 565 feet into an alligator farm.
I have had enormous fun over the years talking baseball with my Dad who turns 94 in a few weeks. He missed most of the heyday here but did see many players who continued to come for the thermal baths.
Hot Springs celebrated Cy Young Day on Feb. 24th, 1938 to thank Cy for still coming to town every year. That was on my Dad's 20th birthday by the way.
A fellow by the name of Ray Doan opened a baseball school on the old fields in 1933 right across the street from my grandparent's house. Dad worked there raking the infield, watering and such. That first year 11 future hall of famers were the instructors.
My Dad used a glove given to him by Jimmy Foxx for years.
While I never had the chance to see or hear any of these people being born in 1954 I have closed my eyes and wondered about them many times. I have used that link between my Dad and his Dad that did see the game and it's stars in the deadball era and beyond.
Did my Grandfather see Charlie Grant the black bellhop from here that McGraw tried to sign as an indian? McGraw was fined here for shooting craps on the sidewalk on one visit. Was he downtown when "Nuff" Ced McGreavy and "Honey Fitz" brought the Royal Rooters on a special train to see their beloved Red Sox on several occasions? He lived until 1968 but I was not baseball educated enough to ask.
My Grandfather was fined in 1938 while on jury duty when a woman hung that jury during the World Series. Papa wanted to listen to his Giants and he told her to "Either bleep or get off the pot, the games was about to start."
It was here in 1925 that Babe either ate too much or contracted whatever that led to the "bellyache heard around the world."
Dad as a child with a couple of his brothers ran into Ruth walking on the mountain a few times with several other players, I wonder who they were? The players gave them a nickel each!
Just some of my random thoughts.
I did have my baseball moment this past July while sitting at an Arkansas Travs game with my daughter. A fellow came in and sat next to me with a large back pack. He pulled out his radar gun and note pad. We began talking and it turned out to be Hal Morris. Best nine innings ever for me, he was a great gentleman.
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