Welcome to the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia, a free online resource documenting the history of how Arkansas has influenced baseball and how baseball has influenced Arkansas. Moreover, this project hopes to remind Arkansans of a shared heritage of sport that transcends era, age and race by reconnecting Arkansans to family lore; by illustrating both our need for equality and our failures to achieve it; and by celebrating the simple goodnesses of community and play that are innate to the people of Arkansas.

Be sure to also check out Yakker: A Journal of the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia for thoughts and reflections on Arkansas baseball history.

Features

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Among the major projects of the Encyclopedia are to document the history the Professional Baseball and Negro League Baseball in Arkansas.

Professional Baseball History

• Professional Baseball Players from Arkansas: Arkansans have played professional baseball for more than 135 years. The Encyclopedia’s database includes hundreds of both major leaguers and minor leaguers with connections to Arkansas, dating from the 1880s to the present.

• Spring Training in Arkansas: One of Arkansas' greatest contributions to baseball history is the development of spring training. Originating in the city of Hot Springs, pre-season baseball camps were once hosted in numerous cities around Arkansas. The Encyclopedia includes year-by-year details of when and where those spring training camps occurred.

• Minor League Baseball in Arkansas: Almost every sizable town in Arkansas once hosted minor league baseball, and some parts of the states even had their own minor leagues. The Encyclopedia’s year-by-year lists break down when and where those teams and leagues operated.

• Professional Baseball Records Among Arkansans: Records are an essential and well-known part of baseball history. But who holds the top marks for Arkansans? The Encyclopedia details both Single-Season Records and Career Totals Records, as well as Career Totals Records by non-major leaguers from Arkansas.

Negro League Baseball History

• Negro League Baseball in Arkansas: A major area of emphasis for the Encyclopedia has been to piece together the nearly lost history of black baseball in Arkansas. This includes a record of Negro League Teams in Arkansas and Negro League Spring Training in Arkansas, as well as a detailed list of Negro League Exhibition Games in Arkansas.

• Negro League Baseball Players from Arkansas: Often overlooked are the black Arkansans who were never given the opportunity to compete in professional baseball. The Encyclopedia includes details for more than a hundred of these players and their careers in the Negro Leagues, as well as a list of the First Black Arkansans in Professional Baseball.

Other Features

• The Encyclopedia also includes information on the history of Women in Arkansas Baseball, Nisei Baseball in Arkansas, Baseball Parks in Arkansas, and much more. The Encyclopedia's information on Amateur Baseball in Arkansas is thus far largely undeveloped.