Al Hrabosky Joins Descendants Of Babe Ruth, Others To Celebrate Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail

 

By Suzanne Corbett, STLSportsPage.com Travel/Food Editor

Descendants of baseball immortal Babe Ruth and Major League legends Ferguson (Fergie) Jenkins and Al (The Mad Hungarian) Hrabosky will help celebrate with Hot Springs on its completion of its internationally famous Historic Baseball Trail March 23 and March 24.

The Hot Springs Baseball Weekend will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Babe Ruth’s historic 500-foot home run during spring training at Whittington Park in Hot Springs. In addition, a dedication of two Baseball Trail markers honoring legendary Arkansas-born catcher Bill Dickey and legendary pitcher Lefty Grove will take place.

“We will be joined at this celebration by three generations of the Babe Ruth family, including his grandson, Tom Stevens, great-grandson, Brent Stevens, and the Babe’s great-great granddaughters,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs. “Babe Ruth’s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, was invited but will be unable to attend. She will celebrate her 102nd birthday July 17.”

On Friday, March 23, the final two plaques on the Historic Baseball Trail will be dedicated. The Trail honors the scores of pitchers and catchers who trained in Hot Springs, which is now widely known as The Birthplace of Major League Spring Training.

The weekend begins with the Friday, March 23 dedication of Baseball Trail Plaques and Playing in the Major Leagues, a panel discussion featuring Hall of Famer Ferguson (Fergie) Jenkins and player-turned-broadcaster Al (The Mad Hungarian) Hrabosky at 6 p.m. at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

Events continue on Saturday, March 24 with the ceremony commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Babe Ruth’s 500-foot homerun at Whittington Park along with a screening of the documentary film, The First Boys of Spring, documenting the birth of Major League spring training in Hot Springs more than 100 years ago. Fans of the immoral Babe, won’t want to miss The Life of the Sultan of Swat, another panel discussion featuring members of the Ruth Family and noted Babe Ruth historians Bill Jenkinson and Tim Reid. Reid has completed two websites that commemorate Ruth’s First 500-foot Home Run and the legendary catchers who trained in Hot Springs (www.firstfivehundredfoothomerun.com and www.hotspringscatchershalloffame.jimdo.com.

The Historic Hot Springs Baseball Trail traces the locations, activities and information about the hundreds of Major League baseball players and staff who trained in Hot Springs long before spring training became associated with places in Arizona and Florida.

For more information about the Historic Hot Springs Baseball Trail and it’s celebration weekend check out http://www.hotspringsbaseballtrail.com

About Rob Rains 191 Articles
Rob Rains , who runs STLSportsPage.com was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, St. Louis Media HOF 2018, and is a former National League beat writer for USA Today’s Baseball Weekly. For three years he covered the Cardinals for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat until its demise in the 1980s. Rains was awarded the Freedom Forum Grant to teach Journalism for a year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State. Now based in St. Louis, Rains is often a guest on Frank Cusumano’s Pressbox Show on 590AM and has been writing books, magazine articles, and covers the Cardinals and Blues for STLSportsPage.com. He has written or co-written more than 30 books, most on baseball, including autobiographies or biographies of Ozzie Smith, Jack Buck, and Red Schoendienst. Rains volunteers his time helping run Rainbows for Kids, a 501 (c)(3) charity for families of children with cancer in the Greater St. Louis Area.

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