HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — With more than a month left in 2021, a full schedule of 2022 baseball and softball tournaments is already being booked for Hot Springs’ new five-field Majestic Park Baseball Complex, according to Derek Phillips, the facility’s general manager.
“We have tournaments already scheduled beginning in February and running into late July,” Phillips said. “We have both baseball and softball tournaments already on the schedule, and we’re booked solid for the spring and summer. We’re still in contact with other tournament organizers for the dates we still have available next fall.”
“Of course,” Phillips said, “we have plenty of spaces left for our local kids to play in locally organized games at Majestic. That’s the beauty of the facility: we have space and time for a whole lot of baseball in Hot Springs.”
The 2022 tournament schedule as of Tuesday included:
• February 3 – 6 — Dugan Invitational (Collegiate Tournament)
• February 25 — United States Specialty Sports Association tournament (Play to Advance)
• March 1 (all week) — Ryan White High School Baseball Invitational
• March 5 — First leg of the Everett Triple Crown (CTS)
• March 11 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (P2A)
• March 18 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (CTS)
• March 27 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (South Arkansas Sports)
• April 1 — Second leg of the Everett Triple Crown (CTS)
• April 8 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (P2A)
• April 15 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (SAS)
• April 22 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (P2A)
• April 29 — Third leg of the Everett Triple Crown (CTS)
• May 7 — Great American Conference Championship
• May 13 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (P2A)
• May 20 — USSSA FastPitch Tournament
• May 27 — 40th Annual Wally Hall Tournament of Champions
• June 3 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (P2A)
• June 10 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (CTS)
• June 17 — USSSA Baseball Tournament (SAS)
• June 24 — USSSA State Championship (8U&9U – A State)
• July 1 — Cal Ripken State Championship (5 & 6 years old)
• July 8 — Cal Ripken Regional Tournament
• July 15 — USSSA 16 – 18 World Series
• July 24 (all week) — FastPitch America Softball Association Tournament
Majestic Park sits on the site where Babe Ruth first attended spring training in 1915 with the Boston Red Sox. Ruth, along with scores of other Baseball Hall of Fame members, spent many years in Hot Springs getting ready for the upcoming major league season.
Majestic Park is a five-field complex located on the site of the former Hot Springs Boys and Girls Club and was the site of one of the first spring training sites in Major League Baseball history. The Detroit Tigers first used it for spring training in 1908 and Ruth attended his first training camp as a member of the Boston Red Sox on this site in 1915.
Henry (Hank) Aaron, Jackie Robinson and many other Hall of Famers played and trained at the Majestic Park site. Nowhere else in the country can a young person playing baseball say he or she played on the exact site where the legends of the sport played.
All five of the Majestic Park baseball fields have artificial turf infields and outfields with MUSCO Lighting. The Championship Field will also accommodate college, high school and professional play.
The history of Majestic Park, located at Carson and Belding Streets in the center of Hot Springs, is a rich and colorful one.
In 1909 the Boston Red Sox leased the property and it was named Majestic Park after their spring training headquarters downtown in the Majestic Hotel. Ruth attended his first spring training as a Red Sox player at the site in 1915.
From 1908 through 1918 the site hosted spring training games for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Browns. Twenty Major League exhibition games were played at the park.
The Ray Doan Baseball School and the George Barr Umpire School were held at Majestic Park. Instructors included Dizzy and Paul Dean, Grover Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Cy Young, Tris Speaker and Schoolboy Rowe. Legendary female Olympic gold medalist and LPGA champion Babe Didrikson attended one of the schools. Didrikson was universally regarded as the greatest female athlete of all time, excelling in track and field, baseball, basketball and golf.
Jaycee Park was built on the site in 1947 and served as the home field for the Hot Springs Bathers (Cotton States League) from 1947 to 1955. Jackie Robinson played in an exhibition game there in 1947.
In 1952, a game in the Negro League World Series was played at the site when the Indianapolis Clowns faced the Birmingham Black Barons. The Clowns featured an 18-year-old shortstop named Henry (Hank) Aaron.
Majestic Park is part of Hot Springs’ rich history as The Birthplace of Major League Baseball Spring Training. The Historic Hot Springs Baseball Trail includes a guided tour of locations throughout the city that were the sites of significant events during the late 19th Century and up until the mid-20th Century when Hot Springs was the favored training site for 50 percent of the members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Historical markers at these locations guide visitors through the colorful history of the game as it played out in Hot Springs. A block-long mural at Convention Boulevard and Malvern Avenue in the downtown area illustrates the legends of the game who played in the city.
For more information contact Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.
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