Hot Springs Arlingtons

The Hot Springs Arlingtons were a Negro baseball team circa 1896-1904. The team was sponsored by the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, AR.

History

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David Wyatt Excerpts

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Negro baseball sportswriter David Wyatt played with and later wrote about the Arlingtons. The following are related excerpts.

"Some well-known players who have played with the Arlingtons of this city are: Campbell of the Minneapolis Keystones, Miliner [sic] of the Gophers, “Herm” Evans, catcher once of the Philadelphia Giants; Rube Foster, David Wyatt, Julian Ware. This club has defeated Gatewood, “Dago” Davis, Foster."¹

"It is not generally known but anyhow Hot Springs had at one time one of greatest colored baseball teams in the country. They speak with much pride of the games in which they defeated Rube Foster. They have won above three or four games from Rube Foster, one a 17-inning affair and a 1-0 game."¹

"About thirteen years ago the writer landed in this little burg and noticing some boys with uniforms on I asked for a chance to 'butt it' on the practice. I made a hit with the gang and became a member of the team known then as the Arlingtons. We had some warm contests, usually winning. Mr. Al Holden, formerly an old minstrel man from up around Boston, was head waiter at the Arlington at the time and as he had a sufficient supply of this world's goods, he was picked as the real "angel" to back the club. We were in a strained condition owing to the location of the Springs, which made opponents hard for us to get. So we organized a league of the following cities: Hot Springs, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham and Pensacola. The season opened in Hot Springs, our opponents being Little Rock, who to our surprise had covered the distance of 64 miles between here and Little Rock in a wagon. I thought if this was going to a wagon-road league we would have to have a lightning calculator to get up our schedule for us. Hot Springs started on the first swing around the circuit, playing four games in Little Rock, four at Memphis and seven at Birmingham. The attendance in all cities was good. Of course, there were separate grandstands in all places for whites and colored spectators --strange to me, but the whites were in the majority at all times and were greatly interested in our players. In getting up this league we had overlooked the mileage end of the "biz", and it later proved to much for us; we had one jump of about 300 miles, one 250, one 210, and 60 was the smallest. We finished the series with the Birmingham and disbanded"¹

"Dave Wyatt, ‘Rube’ Foster and Fred Fields are living members of that famous team [Arlingtons] who are still active."²

Schedule/Results

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Date	Location	Opponent	W-L	R	RA	Notes
7/3/1896	Association Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	9	5
7/4/1896	Association Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L	9	11
8/21/1896	Association Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	13	11
5/10/1897	West End Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L			Forfeit
5/11/1897	West End Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L	11	12
5/21/1897	Hot Springs, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L	8	11
6/25/1897	West End Park, Birmingham, AL	Birmingham Unions	L	5	6	3
6/26/1897	West End Park, Birmingham, AL	Birmingham Unions	L	13	19	4
6/28/1897	West End Park, Birmingham, AL	Birmingham Unions	W	9	8	5
6/29/1897	West End Park, Birmingham, AL	Birmingham Unions	W	21	14	6
8/4/1897	West End Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L	11	12
8/5/1897	West End Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	4	3
8/6/1897	West End Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	8	2
9/10/1897	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Hot Springs	L	10	11	Interracial Game7
9/11/1897	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Hot Springs	L	5	10	Interracial Game8
?/?/1897		Little Rock Quapaws	W	6	4	9
8/21/1898	Association Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	13	11
9/9/1898	Association Park, Little Rock, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	20	9
7/24/1899	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	14	1
7/25/1899	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	4	3
7/26/1899	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L
8/7/1899	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Memphis	L	9	21
8/14/1899	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	L	7	8
8/15/1899	Whittington Park, Hot Springs, AR	Little Rock Quapaws	W	8	6
?/?/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Palestine (TX) Tigers	L			10
?/?/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Palestine (TX) Tigers	L			10
?/?/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Palestine (TX) Tigers	W			10
?/?/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Palestine (TX) Tigers	W			10
?/?/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Palestine (TX) Tigers	W			10
7/29/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	L			11
?/?/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	W	10	4	12, 13
8/2/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	L	1	6	14
8/12/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth	L			15
8/15/1901	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth	W	3	1	16
6/2/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	L	3	7	17
6/3/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	L	1	2	18
6/4/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	L	0	9	19
6/?/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Fort Worth Colts	W	12	6	20, 21
6/?/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Waco Wonders	W	14	2	22
6/?/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Waco Wonders	L	4	6	22
6/?/1902	Hot Springs, AR	Waco Wonders	W	5	3	22
5/?/1903		Memphis	W	2	1	23
5/?/1903		Memphis	W	12	3	23

Players

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Player	Birth	Death	Notes
Brandom			24
Bryant			25
S. Butler		Little Rock, AR	26
R. Butler		Little Rock, AR	26
Andrew Campbell	1875 in TX		27
Sol Chew			28
Walter Collier	Abt. 1872 in MS	11/13/1902 in Hot Springs, AR	24, 26
Davis			6, 24
Dodd			29
"Herm" Evans			30
Fertiller			31, 3
Fred Fields			32, 2
Rube Foster	9/17/1879 in La Grange, TX	12/9/1930 in Kankakee, IL	30, 2
Henderson			25
C. Huff		Hot Springs, AR	26
Jackson			4
Baby Jones			25
Jones			25
Lewis			8
Alex Miller			33
Gabbie Milliner	11/27/1878 in AR	1/15/1921 in Denver, CO	30
Murphy			24
Zack Patillo	Abt. 1878 in AR	3/5/1908 in Hot Springs, AR
Simpson			25
Skinner			25
Rowell			24
Willie Smith			33
Julian Ware	8/7/1874 in AR	7/8/1946 in Los Angeles, CA	30
Dave Wyatt	Abt. 6/19/1874 in OH	12/10/1950 in Chicago, IL	30

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