HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — The three Hot Springs businessmen who funded the eight-foot Babe Ruth statue at Hot Springs’ Majestic Park baseball complex were honored at the Hot Springs Country Club Friday before the start of The Friends of Majestic Park Annual Golf Tournament.
The Majestic Park statue is one of only three bronze statues of Ruth in the world.
Lee Beasley, Dr. Robert Muldoon and Scott Hamby (representing the Hamby Family) were presented with maquettes — a smaller model of the sculpture. The replicas were created by Pennsylvania sculptor Chad Fisher, who created the eight-foot,1,500-pound bronze of Ruth that stands at the entrance to Majestic Park.
The bigger-than-lifesized bronze statue shows Ruth in action as he watches another home run soar toward the outfield fences. Ruth, who trained and played at the Majestic Park location starting in 1915, went on to become the most famous baseball player in history. One of the other two bronzes of him is outside Camden Yards in Baltimore and the other is in Japan.
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said the statue, which was dedicated in 2022, has become a tourism attraction in its own right.
“Baseball fans from everywhere have come to see this monument to the most famous man who ever played the game,” Arrison said. “It will stand tall in front of Majestic Park for future generations to remind them of the history of the site and our community.”
No public funds were used to create the statue. The Friends of Majestic Park nonprofit that supports events and programs at the complex, spearheaded the vision and fundraising that led to the statue’s creation.
Dr. Robert T. Muldoon, M.D., Ph.D., graduated from Hot Springs High School in 1984. He currently practices at Genesis Blood and Cancer Institute.
The Hamby Family, represented by Scott Hamby, Daniel Banks Hamby III and Maggie Hamby, owns and operates Sigma Supply of North America, which has 351 employees at 13 branch locations spanning the United States.
Lee Beasley is a lifelong resident of Hot Springs who has over his career created numerous commercial real estate projects as well as many residential rental properties. He also has developed or acquired multiple restaurants and has a passion for that industry. Through all of his many ventures in real estate and restaurant venues he has created hundreds of jobs in Hot Springs.
The idea for forming The Friends of Majestic Park was that of Mike Dugan, the late Hot Springs resident who was one of the country’s leading baseball historians and the person who led the effort to establish Hot Springs as The Birthplace of Major League Baseball Springs Training. Dugan passed away in 2021.
Majestic Park is a five-field complex located on the site of the former Hot Springs Boys and Girls Club and was the site of one of the first spring training sites in Major League Baseball history. The Detroit Tigers first used it for spring training in 1908 and Babe Ruth attended his first training camp as a member of the Boston Red Sox on this site in 1915.
Henry (Hank) Aaron, Jackie Robinson and many other Hall of Famers played and trained at the Majestic Park site. Nowhere else in the country can a young person playing baseball say he or she played on the exact site where the legends of the sport played.
For more information contact Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.