A 160-foot full-color mural depicting five legends of Major League Baseball’s history who helped make Hot Springs the Birthplace of MLB Spring Training is complete and ready for the public to enjoy.

“This mural, titled ‘Playing Cards,’ by Texas artists Chris Arnold and Jeff Garrison of Dallas documents five iconic baseball greats — Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and Lefty Grove — who all had intimate ties to Hot Springs in the late 19th and 20th Centuries when the city was known worldwide as the place where Major League players got ready for the baseball season,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs.

“The mural, which is at the intersections of Broadway, Convention Boulevard, Malvern Avenue and Bridge Street, will be a significant addition to our Historic Baseball Trail, which traces the places where Spring Training had its birth,” Arrison said.

“Playing Cards,” which covers the south wall of the Craighead Laundry Building, depicts pitcher Grove at the far right firing a baseball past and through the cards of Paige, Robinson, Ruth and Wagner. The ball then lands in a catcher’s mitt at far left.

The trading card depicting Jackie Robinson is unique among the five. The lower edge of the card is in black-and-white, then shades into full color toward the top of the card.

Arnold and Garrison explained the artistic choices involved in the Robinson card thus: “The bottom of Jackie Robinson’s card starts out in black and white and morphs into full color representing the groundbreaking moment in 1947” in which Robinson broke Major League’s color barrier by becoming the first African American player allowed to play on a Major League team — the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The mural is lighted so that it is easily visible at night, and two coats of a protective clear-coating were applied by Visit Hot Springs employee Toby Faust to protect the painting from harmful ultraviolet sun rays and the elements. The clear-coating was furnished by Peters Paint Company.

“We are extremely grateful to Peters Paint Company and the Best Court Motel on Ouachita, which helped us house artists Chris Arnold and Jeff Garrison while they completed the mural,” Arrison said.

Mike Dugan of Hot Springs, one of the five esteemed baseball historians who have consulted with Visit Hot Springs in establishing the Historic Baseball Trail, gave these explanations on the links to Hot Springs of the five players depicted on “Playing Cards”:

“The Honus Wagner card is the most iconic card in the baseball collecting hobby.  It is a T206 Honus Wagner from 1909, the first large set of cards ever issued.  It consisted of 524 different cards issued between 1909 and 1911.  The story behind the Wagner card is that he asked for it to be pulled because he didn’t want kids buying cigarettes to get the cards.  There are only about 50 to 55 known examples of the card and a nice copy would sell at auction for over a million dollars.

“Wagner was with the Pittsburgh Pirates on 20 different visits to Hot Springs between 1901 and 1926, with the post-1917 visits coming as a coach.
Was very popular with the locals due to his friendly personality, he engaged people all over town, many locals considered him a friend.

“In 1908 he was joined by future Hall of Fame pitcher Walter “The Big Train” Johnson in teaching the Hot Springs High School boys how to play basketball.  That team went on to go 10-1 with their only loss coming to Hendrix College.  They were led by center Leo Mclaughlin, who later became an infamous mayor of the city, and forward Vern Ledgerwood, who was a notorious judge in the city.

“Wagner led the National League in batting average eight times, stolen bases five times and triples three times.  In the ‘deadball era’ of baseball only Ty Cobb was considered Wagner’s equal in the game.”

• “The Babe Ruth card is a 1933 Goudey gum card from the first large gum card set ever issued.  The Goudey Gum Company put out a set of 240 different cards.  Reflecting Ruth’s popularity there were four Ruth cards in this set.  A nice example would sell for about $1,500 today.

“Ruth loved Hot Springs.  His first trip came as a rookie in 1915 with the Boston Red Sox and his annual trips as a player continued through 1925 spring training.

“On March 17, 1918, his 573-foot home run at Whittington Park off of Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Al Mamaux cleared not only the park’s fence and Whittington Avenue but also cleared the wall at the Arkansas Alligator Farm, landing in a pool.  That swing not only convinced Red Sox ownership that pitcher Ruth’s bat should be in the lineup every day but it is universally accepted as the event that changed the game from the ‘inside game’ of a base hit or walk and then steal a base to a game of swinging for the fences.  A week later several newspapers reported that Ruth hit an even longer shot in Hot Springs, also against the Dodgers.

“Ruth’s visits to Hot Springs were legendary. More than one season started with Ruth having borrowed his entire year’s salary from ownership before the team returned from Hot Springs to Boston.

“After Ruth’s trade to the New York Yankees he continued to start his own version of spring training in Hot Springs, usually joined by several of his Yankee teammates through 1925.  During that 1925 visit the Babe enjoyed Hot Springs a little too much.  Reports say the Yankee ownership got wind of this and ordered him to join the team in Florida.  On the train trip Ruth became very ill and was hospitalized in Asheville, N.C., with an ‘intestinal excess’ in what quickly became known as ‘The Bellyache Heard ‘Round the World.’  The problem forced him to miss half of the season and gave cause for the team to add a clause in his contract that forbade him from returning to Hot Springs.  That problem was  remedied in retirement when Ruth once again returned to town to enjoy the golf, gambling and night life.”

• “Both the Jackie Robinson and the Satchel Paige cards are from the 1953 Topps set, which was the second year for Topps to issue large card sets.  These are the most cards for each player.  Paige was only on three regular gum cards.  These cards go for between $200 and 400 each.

“Robinson stopped in town, I believe, twice with his post-season barnstorming teams.  We have quite a bit of info on his 1953 stop, which included Gil Hodges and Luke Easter.  I think he was here in 1952 with Roy Campanella, Easter and Don Newcombe as they formed a touring team.  It was during this 1952 trip that Campy and Jackie had a falling out on Campanella’s refusal to become active in the civil rights movement.

“During the 1953 trip the team played a group of Negro League all-stars on October 22 at Jaycee Park.

“Paige came often during the late 1920s and into the 1940s with various teams and apparently on his own.  He enjoyed the thermal hot springs and gave the ht water credit for ‘keeping his juices jangling’ heading into the season.  It has been reported that many famous black entertainers enjoyed his company so much that they made sure to schedule visits during Paige’s trips to Hot Springs.  This included the legendary tap-dancing entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who was part owner of several Negro League teams through the years.  Robinson famously tap-danced the length of Central Avenue during one of his trips to the city.’

  • “The Lefty Grove card on the mural is a fantasy creation designed by our artists.  We needed a left-handed pitcher and this was a perfect fit.  It is based on the 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack cards.

“Grove was the starting pitcher of the great Philadelphia Athletics teams of the 1929-31 era.  Grove was an overpowering strikeout pitcher who led a staff that included future Hot Springs resident George Earnshaw.  While Ruth’s 1927 Yankee team is considered baseball’s best ever, the 1929 Athletics are a close second.  In both 1929 and 1930 the Athletics trained in Hot Springs before beating the Cubs in the 1929 World Series and the Cardinals in the 1930 series.

“After being traded to the Red Sox in one of Connie Mack’s classic dumping of salaries, Grove became the star of the Red Sox staff.  Problems began for Grove in 1935 went his arm went dead, leaving him with just eight wins and only 109 innings pitched.  He returned to Hot Springs and praised the early-morning thermal baths and 36 holes of golf each afternoon with bringing life back to his arm.  He went on to win 20 games in 1935.  Another bout of arm soreness in 1938 brought him back to town and saw him have a very successful 1939 campaign.  He praised the hot waters for saving his career twice.”

Arnold and Garrison’s firm, Eyecon, has created murals for a diverse client list that includes the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau; Southwest Airlines; Hunt Oil’s world headquarters; the Texas Christian University athletic complex; the Dallas Cowboys football stadium; State Farm Insurance’s corporate headquarters and Murchison Oil and Gas.

 

 

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