Hall of Famer Ted Simmons, Hall of Famer Lee Smith, Hall of Famer Steve Carlton and Al (The Mad Hungarian) Hrabosky will be on hand for autographs and discussion.
Personal appearances by four baseball legends will highlight the Third Annual Hot Springs Baseball Weekend, August 14 – 15 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. The weekend was postponed from its scheduled May celebration because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All the Baseball Weekend events are absolutely free, and the public is welcome for all of them,” said Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison. “We have arranged for proper social distancing during all of the events in Horner Hall at the Convention Center, and face-covering will be mandatory at all our events.
“It’s going to be a great weekend for fans. In addition to our four baseball legends — Hall of Famer Ted Simmons, Hall of Famer Lee Smith, Hall of Famer Steve Carlton and Al (The Mad Hungarian) Hrabosky — we’ll have a groundbreaking for the new youth baseball complex at historic Majestic Park and a really great Major League Baseball photo exhibit. It’ll be a baseball lover’s dream.”
“Steve Carlton, Ted Simmons, and Al Hrabosky are returning for this year’s Baseball Weekend because of the overwhelming response to their appearances at last year’s Baseball Weekend,” Arrison said. “It turned out that the fans who attended last year did not have sufficient time to finish their discussions with these baseball legends, so we thought we would bring them back for more opportunities for the fans to discuss baseball in the past and the present.
“The addition of Chicago Cubs legend and former Cardinal Lee Smith should really take those conversations to the next level. Smith is known as one of the greatest relief pitchers of all time, and Carlton is recognized as one of the greatest pitchers of all time,” Arrison said. Simmons was elected to the Hall of Fame earlier this year, and his installation ceremony will be held in 2021.
“Al Hrabosky is returning for his third Baseball Weekend. A great Cardinal pitcher and a fan favorite during his playing days, ‘The Mad Hungarian’ has entertained Baseball Weekend fans tremendously.” All four players will participate in panels, question-and-answer sessions and autograph sessions with the public.
Dozens of baseball legends came to Hot Springs in the early years of the 20th Century to train on the city’s mountain trails and “boil out” the residue of the off-season in the city’s world-famous thermal waters.
Hot Springs became known as The Birthplace of Major League Baseball Spring Training because of the presence of scores of future Hall of Famers up into the 1940s and early ‘50s.
For more information about Hot Springs Baseball Weekend, call Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027, or visit Facebook: Hot Springs Baseball Weekend.
The schedule for the weekend:
Friday, August 14
• 6:00pm Groundbreaking at Majestic Park, new youth baseball facility at Carson and Belding Streets, featuring Carlton, Smith, Simmons Hrabosky along with local dignitaries.
Saturday, August 15
• 10:00pm Picturing America’s Pastime, National Baseball Hall of
Fame Photography exhibit opens to the public (Convention Center Exhibit
Hall Concourse)
• 10:00pm Baseball Card Show (Convention Center Plaza Lobby)
• 10:00pm Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Meeting (Room
102)
• 1:00pm Ted Simmons and Al Hrabosky: A Conversation (Horner Hall)
• 2:00pm Autograph Session with Ted Simmons and Al Hrabosky (Horner Hall)
• 2:00pm Panel on Hot Springs’ Baseball History (Horner Hall to be determined)
• 3:00pm The Evolution of Pitching with Hall of Fame Pitching Legends Lee
Smith and Steve Carlton (Horner Hall)
• 4:45:00pm Autograph Session with Lee Smith and Steve Carlton (Horner Hall)
