Tag Archives: Major League Baseball

Role of Arkansas in development of MLB focus of documentary at Clinton School

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The-First-Boys-of-SpringTonight at 6pm at the Ron Robinson Theater, the Clinton School will screen the new documentary The First Boys of Spring. 

Beginning in 1886, baseball spring training was held for the first time, not in Florida or Arizona, but in the Arkansas resort town of Hot Springs, and that’s where the annual rite caught on. For parts of eight decades, many of the best who ever played the game, came to Hot Springs to shake off the rust from winters to prepare for long seasons ahead, with such teams as the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Pirates—and the Negro League’s Monarchs, Crawfords, and Grays.

The First Boys of Spring is a one-hour documentary by award-winning filmmaker Larry Foley, narrated by Academy Award-winner Billy Bob Thornton. The film tells stories of baseball Hall of Famers who worked out, gambled and partied in Hot Springs, including Cy Young, Satchel Paige, Honus Wagner and baseball’s first superstar, Mike “King” Kelly. A central figure is a young Babe Ruth, who belted a 573-foot home run into the Arkansas Alligator Farm in March of 1918, while trying to convince Boston Red Sox management to play him every day, even though he was already the game’s dominant pitcher.

The First Boys of Spring is made possible by Visit Hot Springs, Arkansas Humanities Council, University of Arkansas, Munro Foundation, Morris Foundation, The Arlington Hotel Resort Hotel and Spa and the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

 

Heritage Month – Lamar Porter Field

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Lamar PorterLamar Porter Athletic Field is located in the Stifft Station neighborhood. Construction started in 1934 and continued for 18 months by the Works Progress Administration on a 10 acre site.

The 1,500 seat grandstand included club rooms, shower and locker rooms and a concession stand. It was first used by Boys’ Club teams in 1936. By 1937, City leagues and American Legion teams used it.  A playground, softball field and tennis courts were constructed next to the baseball field.

Lamar Porter Field is remarkable not only for its architecture, but also for its history.  Thousands of boys growing up in Little Rock played ball here.  One of those was future Baltimore Oriole Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson.  He has come back numerous times and has aided in fundraising efforts to restore the field.

The baseball sequence from A Soldier’s Story with Denzel Washington was filmed at Lamar Porter Field.

The field is named in memory of Lamar Porter, whose family donated the land and some money to help with the construction.  A Little Rock native, he was killed in May 1934 while he was attending Washington and Lee University.

Today Lamar Porter Field and the multipurpose field are home to RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner-city) which is an official program of Major League Baseball. Both Catholic High School and Episcopal Collegiate use Lamar Porter as their home field.

Lamar Porter Field was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1990.

Play Ball!

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Major League Baseball started the 2012 season last week.  The St. Louis Cardinals began their defense of their World Championship!

“Play Ball! The St. Louis Cardinals” opened at the Clinton Presidential Center last month.  The exhibit features more than 100 items from the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame Museum, a collection the team owns and has improved in recent years despite not having a place to publicly display it.

“This is going to be something that kids, adults, women, men, baseball fans, non-baseball fans alike will all enjoy,” says Jordan Johnson, spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton Library and the Cardinals have been working on this exhibit for several years, and it’s only by coincidence that the library will have the Cardinals-based display immediately following a World Series championship. Among the items that the Cardinals lent to the library are several Dizzy Dean-related artifacts, including one of four known game-worn jerseys from the Hall of Fame pitcher and Arkansas native.

The trophies from the 2006 and 2011 World Series are also featured.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 16.