Majestic Park

Located at Carson and Belding Streets in Hot Springs (Garland County), Majestic Park is a five-field baseball complex that hosts youth baseball games and tournaments. In its previous incarnation, beginning in 1909, Majestic Field (as it was called at that time) hosted one of the first spring training sites in Major League Baseball (MLB). It attracted teams including the Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, and St. Louis Cardinals, bringing celebrities such as Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner to Arkansas. Across more than a century of its history, Majestic Park has also been known as Dean Field, Boys Club Field, Jaycee Park, and Bathers Field.

Most sources state that spring training for baseball first came to Hot Springs in 1886, when the management of the Chicago White Stockings decided to give the team a pre-season warm-up. Chicago’s trip to Hot Springs is usually credited with starting the spring training trend in the Spa City, especially after a reporter publicized the effort. With players often overweight and out of shape after the winter layoff, spring training was also intended to “boil out the alcoholic microbes” when necessary through the therapeutic baths in Hot Springs.

In 1909, the property comprising today’s Majestic Park was leased by the Boston Red Sox. The team’s training headquarters was at the Majestic Hotel at downtown Hot Springs. Harry Jones, then owner of the Majestic Hotel, had worked with Boston’s team management to lease the land south of downtown that they ultimately called Majestic Park. A major part of its appeal was that the land was flat, which was somewhat rare in the hilly Hot Springs area. The site was therefore ideal for a baseball diamond.

In 1910, the Cincinnati Nationals made a deal with Boston by signing an agreement for joint use of Majestic Park. The players seemed to enjoy Hot Springs, bathing in its restorative thermal baths, building themselves up physically by hiking on mountain trails, and sightseeing.

Hot Springs attracted other MLB teams, and the Majestic Park facility brought in spectators from other ball clubs to watch practice. In 1910, one such occasion had potentially dangerous consequences when team members from the Brooklyn Dodgers, including its star pitcher, Cy Young, were watching an exhibition game between Boston and Cincinnati. They sat with about 200 spectators on a newly built stand, which collapsed, pinning a number of people, including some Brooklyn players, under the broken planks. One Brooklyn teammate landed on top of Cy Young, but there were no injuries reported.

In 1911, the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Browns moved to Majestic Field after Boston chose to end their spring training there. The Browns and Reds played several exhibition games there but ran afoul of Arkansas “blue laws” when they tried to play on Sunday afternoons. Along with the sale of alcohol, activities such as baseball were prohibited on Sunday. When the teams threatened to abandon Hot Springs as the site of their spring training, city and law enforcement officials worked to accommodate them despite the laws that had been on the books since 1837.

Boston returned to Majestic Park in 1912, with the team manager telling reporters that the grounds at Majestic Park were the best in the South. Players were saying that the Hot Springs location was outstanding, based on climate, the thermal baths, walking trails, and team quarters at the Majestic Hotel.

By 1915, Majestic Park had made some improvements, including paint on the fences and a huge sign announcing that it was training grounds for the Boston baseball team. It was a good time to do so, because in the spring of 1915, when the Boston Red Sox arrived in Hot Springs to train at Majestic Park, they brought arguably the most famous baseball player in the game’s history: Babe Ruth.

Ruth ultimately left the Red Sox in 1920 after being sold to the New York Yankees, but during the years when he and the Red Sox trained at Majestic Park, the Boston team won four World Series championships, in 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918.

From 1919 to 1932, Majestic Park was not used by any Major League Baseball teams as a training camp. However, throughout later years, it was utilized by such entities as Ray Doan’s Baseball School, an umpiring school, a Boys Club facility, an athletic field called Jaycee Park, a Cotton States League team called the Hot Springs Bathers, and a Boys and Girls Club facility. It also served as grounds for carnivals, circuses, and fairs. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, it hosted greats from the Negro Leagues including Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson. In 1952, a promotional game billing itself the “Negro World Series” was played at the park.

The property continued to change hands through several decades, and in June 2018, Steve Arrison of Visit Hot Springs announced the vision of creating Historic Majestic Baseball Park under the aegis of the City of Hot Springs. A five-field Majestic Park baseball complex was approved for funding by a $7.8 million bond issue approved by Hot Springs voters. The fields have modern lighting and artificial turf infields and outfields. In the twenty-first century, Majestic Park has accommodated professional play as well as regional high school and college games and tournaments.

For additional information:
Blaeuer, Mark. Baseball in Hot Springs. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2016.

Duren, Don. Bathers Baseball: A History of Minor League Baseball at the Arkansas Spa. Plano, TX: Xulon Press, 2011.

———. Boiling Out at the Springs: A History of Major League Baseball Spring Training at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Dallas, TX: Xulon Press, 2006.

Duren, Don. “The Legacy of Majestic Park: Majestic Park Stories.” The Record (2022): 1.1–1.62.

Majestic Park. https://www.majesticpark.org/ (accessed July 19, 2024).

Nancy Hendricks
Garland County Historical Society