All Around Arkansas: The Longest Home Run

                These days on St. Patrick’s Day, Hot Springs is famous for its “World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.” But on St. Patrick’s Day in 1918, the Spa City was famous for something much different — the home run that made baseball history, by one of the all-time greats, George Herman "Babe" Ruth.

                Hot Springs hosted more than 300 major leaguers, including 137 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, for spring training between the late 1800s through the early 1940s. What initially attracted athletes to the city was the warm climate and the city’s thermal spring water, which supposedly cured a variety of ailments. Illegal gambling, bars, horse racing and other forms of adult entertainment also lured teams to the “Valley of the Vapors.”

                Major league teams began holding spring training baseball games in Hot Springs in 1886, when businessman A.G. Spalding brought his Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs) to the city to “boil out the winter,” according to The Sporting News. The White Stockings practiced on a hastily built field at what's now home to the Garland County Courthouse. When the White Stockings won the National League championship that year, several other clubs took note. As a result, more and more teams came to Hot Springs for spring training, and more fields were built, including Majestic Park and Whittington Park.

                It was Whittington Park where the most baseball was played in Hot Springs. Built in 1894 and used until 1942, Whittington Park (later renamed Johnson Field) was the hub of spring training. Future hall of famers who played there include Cy Young, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker and Babe Ruth. Today, Whittington Park is now the employee parking lot at a Weyerhaeuser Co. office.

                On March 17, 1918, then Boston Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth was pitching in a game at Whittington Park, when the team needed someone to bat. Ruth wasn't considered much of a hitter, but walked up to home plate and launched the ball over the fence, out of the ballpark, across the street, over a wall, and into the farthest pond of the Arkansas Alligator Farm. The hit changed Ruth's career. He became known for being a power slugger and not just an average pitcher. Ruth went on to play for the New York Yankees and become arguably the most famous baseball player in history.

                By all accounts, everyone knew that day that Ruth’s home run was special, but exactly how far Ruth’s home run traveled was unknown until 2011. Thanks to modern technology, it was determined the ball traveled about 573 feet. 

                The location of the Whittington Park home plate, where Ruth swatted his record-setting homer, was marked in the Weyerhaeuser parking lot. Eventually, as part of the Hot Spring Baseball Trail program, a marker was erected there too, as well as across the street at the alligator farm where the ball landed. And if you look behind the Whittington Park marker, pieces of the old concrete bleachers are still visible among the weeds and trees.

                On Feb. 6, what would have been his 186th birthday, a bronze statue of Ruth was unveiled and dedicated at the main entrance to the city’s newly expanded Majestic Park baseball complex. Pennsylvania sculptor Chad Fisher created the statue, estimated to weigh 1,500 pounds. It's believed to be one of only three Ruth statues in existence, with the others at Camden Yards in Baltimore and Tokyo.

                For a state that’s never been home to a major league team, it's amazing that Arkansas has played host not only to some of its most legendary players, but also to one of its most historic events.

All Around Arkansas: The Father of Our Capitol

    

                If you’ve been paying attention to the local news, you might have heard that Arkansas’ new governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, removed the portrait of George Donaghey from the Governor’s Conference Room in the state Capitol, replacing it with a portrait of her father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee. You might also wonder about the significance of George Donaghey. Well, wonder no more.

                George Washington Donaghey was born on July 1, 1856, in Oakland, Louisiana, to C.C. and Elizabeth Donaghey. The Donagheys were farmers and had six children. In 1858, they moved to the small community of Lapile (Union County). Young George worked on the family farm and later moved to Texas in 1876, where he worked various jobs for the next three years. In 1880, he moved to Conway to live with an uncle. Donaghey would end up living in the town for 30 years.

                Donaghey would spend just one year at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville before he dropped out and became a carpenter. He later used his carpentry skills to become a full-time contractor, erecting homes and other buildings in Arkansas and Texas. By 1890, he had built a successful business.

                In September 1883, George Donaghey married South Carolina native Louvenia Wallace, whose family had moved to Faulkner County when she was 17. The couple lived in Conway, where Donaghey became a major proponent of bringing colleges and universities to the growing city. He contributed $1,500 (about one-third of his assets at the time), to a fund started by the citizens of Conway to move Hendrix College from Searcy to Conway in 1890. He also donated $5,000 to bring Central College for Women (now Central Baptist College) to Conway. Donaghey also led fundraising efforts to move the Arkansas State Normal School (later Arkansas State Teachers College, and then the University of Central Arkansas) to Conway. 

                George Donaghey became active in local politics. He was one of the leaders of a campaign to drive saloons and taverns out of Conway, as no higher learning institution at the time wanted to operate in a town with such establishments. The anti-saloon campaign was successful, and Conway outlawed them in 1888. Donaghey successfully ran for town marshal in 1884 but was defeated in 1885 when he ran for mayor.

                Donaghey then got into the railroad business, working as a railroad contractor from 1899 to 1903. He and his family moved to Little Rock in 1908, where he ran in the Democratic primary for governor the same year. In the primary, Donaghey defeated former Arkansas Attorney General William Kirby, who had been endorsed by a former governor and U.S. senator, Jefferson Davis. Donaghey handily defeated his Republican opponent, John Worthington, in the general election of 1908.

                During his administration, Donaghey continued to support the establishment of colleges and universities throughout Arkansas. Along with the support of the Democratically controlled Legislature, Donaghey was able to create and fund four agricultural high schools, which later became Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

                Donaghey ran for a second term in 1910, defeating challenger C.C. Kavanaugh with 69% of the vote. After promising he would not run for a third term as governor, Donaghey changed his mind and was defeated by U.S. Rep. Joe T. Robinson.

                Donaghey is best remembered for leading the completion of the Arkansas State Capitol. Since its beginning in 1899, construction had been plagued with problems, legislative scandals and political opposition. Donaghey, with his construction background, led the new Capitol to its successful completion in 1915 by hiring architect Cass Gilbert and appointing a non-partisan commission to supervise construction. 

                For his work, Donaghey is known in Arkansas history as “The Father of Our Capitol.” For decades, his official gubernatorial portrait was permanently displayed in the Governor’s Conference Room in honor of his efforts.

                So the next time you just happen to walk into the Governor’s Conference Room at the Capitol and look at the painting to your left, remember that’s the father of our governor — not our seat of government.