The long-anticipated groundbreaking for Majestic Park, a five-field baseball complex located at the site of former Hot Springs Boys & Girls Club, will take place Aug. 14 with several retired Major League Baseball players in attendance.
MLB veterans Ted Simmons, Lee Smith and Al Hrabosky, who will be in town for Hot Springs' Third Annual Baseball Weekend, are scheduled to attend the short ceremony.
The groundbreaking will be at 6 p.m. at Carson and Belding streets and will be more or less a "photo op," Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said.
"The public is welcome, but it's going to be a very quick ceremony, more of a photo op, but we'd love to have the public involved in every aspect of the project," Arrison said. "It's August at 6 p.m., it's going to be very hot, so there will be two very, very, very quick speakers, and then photos of the groundbreaking, and then we'll get started."
Also participating in the groundbreaking ceremonies will be members of the Majestic Park Committee who led the campaign for voter approval of the complex's construction, the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, Mayor Pat McCabe, City Manager Bill Burrough and members representing Ritter Communications and the Oaklawn Foundation, according to a VHS news release. Hot Springs baseball historian Mike Dugan and ad commission Chairman Elizabeth Farris will speak briefly.
The second groundbreaking will be a dusting off of the home plates, with key people who have really helped with the project, such as the construction committee, and the Oaklawn Foundation and Ritter Communications, which gave grants to the project, Arrison said.
He said for what seems like years since the project first began, he's excited to get it started.
"The project will be five fields for youth baseball; they'll all be totally artificial turf, (have) lights, one field will be a large field with more seating where we can play college (and) high school (baseball)," Arrison said. "And it's on historic baseball ground; this was one of the first sites for spring training in Hot Springs. Babe Ruth, when he was a rookie with the Red Sox, he actually participated in his first spring training right where Majestic Park is, so that's just another added flavor to it.
"I think the economic impact that it will have on the community that we're missing right now because we really don't have any sports income to speak of, when we start getting those traveling baseball teams the tourism impact with be great, and I think the impact on our local children who want to play baseball is really great because right now we don't have the fields in Hot Springs outside of the schools. We're really looking forward to it."
According to the news release, the Third Annual Hot Springs Baseball Weekend will continue Aug. 15 with a full day of activities at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
"All the Baseball Weekend events are absolutely free, and the public is welcome for all of them," Arrison said in the release. "We have arranged for proper social distancing during all of the events in Horner Hall at the Convention Center, and face coverings will be mandatory at all our events.
"It's going to be a great weekend for fans. In addition to our three baseball legends and the Majestic Park groundbreaking, we'll have a really great Major League Baseball photo exhibit that opens that Saturday and runs through Oct. 21 at the Convention Center. It'll be a baseball lover's dream."
Simmons, Hrabosky and Smith will participate in panels and question-and-answer sessions with the public.
According to the release, the revised schedule for Aug. 15 is as follows:
• "Picturing America's Pastime" will open to the public at 10 a.m. in the Exhibit Hall Concourse.
• A Baseball Card Show will begin at 10 a.m. in Plaza Lobby.
• A Society for American Baseball Research, or SABR, meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 208.
• A panel on Local Baseball History will begin at 1 p.m. at a location to be determined.
• A conversation with Smith will begin at 2:15 p.m. in Horner Hall.
• A baseball talk with Simmons and Hrabosky will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Horner Hall.
• Audience members can ask questions and get answers from Smith, Simmons and Hrabosky at 4:30 p.m.