National Baseball Hall of Fame Screens Professor's Documentary; Upcoming Viewing in Tulsa

DVDs of The First Boys of Spring are available at the U of A Bookstore and uapress.com.

The First Boys of Spring is narrated by Academy Award winning actor Billy Bob Thornton.

The First Boys of Spring has been shown on the MLB (Major League Baseball) Network, and aired on public television in Arkansas (AETN) and Kansas City (KCPT).

Filmmaker and professor Larry Foley, who wrote, directed and produced The First Boys of Spring.

Larry Foley, filming with photographer Jim Borden at the National Baseball Hall of Fame for The First Boys of Spring.

An early spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Filmmaker and professor Larry Foley, left, interviews author Leigh Montville at Boston's Fenway Park for The First Boys of Spring.

The Arlington Hotel Team in the late 1800s in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Filmmaker and professor Larry Foley, center, directing a scene from The First Boys of Spring.

A scene from The First Boys of Spring being filmed at Little Rock's Lamar Porter Field.

Submitted

DVDs of The First Boys of Spring are available at the U of A Bookstore and uapress.com.

When Larry Foley fell in love for the first time he fell hard and completely — baseball was his whole world.

The documentary filmmaker recalls, "As a boy, I lived for baseball. In teenaged summers, before I learned to drive, I helped carve out a makeshift neighborhood ball field, on an abandoned soybean field in Union City, Tennessee, with borrowed mowers and scavenged chicken wire. There we played, every day, even on the hottest of afternoons."

It's fitting then that Foley's latest award-winning documentary, The First Boys of Spring, takes on the topic. And, since his storytelling is steeped in a passion for the sport and its rich history, it was only right that the film was shown as the formal conclusion of last week's 28th Annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

"Having my film screened at the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a high water mark for a boy who loved the game, but struggled to play it well," said Foley, professor and chair of the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The one-hour documentary has also been shown on the MLB (Major League Baseball) Network, and has aired on public television in Arkansas (AETN) and Kansas City (KCPT).

The film's Oklahoma debut will be in Tulsa at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 23 at the Circle Cinema Theatre. The viewing is presented by the Tulsa Chapter of the Arkansas Alumni Association and tickets range from $8 to $12 and can be purchased online at http://www.circlecinema.com/tickets. All proceeds will benefit the Tulsa Area Chapter Scholarship Fund.

The one-hour film is narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton and recounts the origin of spring training in the Arkansas resort town of Hot Springs which started in 1886. The First Boys of Spring tells stories of baseball Hall of Famers who worked out, gambled and partied there, including Rube Foster, Cy Young, Satchel Paige, Honus Wagner and baseball's first superstar, Mike "King" Kelly.

Foley said a central figure in the film is a young Babe Ruth, who belted a 573-foot home run into the Arkansas Alligator Farm in March of 1918, while trying to convince Boston Red Sox management to play him every day, even though he was already one of the game's dominant pitchers.

Other highlights include:

• The story of the 1886 Chicago White Stockings, the first team to travel to Hot Springs for spring training, an event was chronicled in the first edition of The Sporting News.
• John McGraw's 1901 effort to get around the unwritten color barrier by trying to pass off African-American infielder Charlie Grant as an American Indian named Chief Charlie Tokahoma of the Cherokee Nation. Charles Comiskey of the White Sox foiled the plan.
• Tales of what the players did in Hot Springs during the spring training heyday, including betting at the Oaklawn Park horse racing track, ostrich races and trips to the alligator farm.
• Stories of Negro League stars who trained in Arkansas including Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston.  
• Rare 1934 sound clips of Rogers Hornsby.  

The documentary was written and produced by Foley, shot by Jim Borden, edited by journalism professor Dale Carpenter, and the original musical score was composed by U of A professor emeritus James Greeson. The First Boys of Spring also recently received the 2016 Best of Competition award from the International Broadcast Association's Festival of Media Arts.

For Foley, the film will always hold a particularly special place.

"There is a line from the script that is autobiographical," he said. "'Baseball remains an American obsession for those who once played the game, and wished they still could.' This film was the project of a lifetime, and I'm grateful for this opportunity."

To view the film's trailer, please click here or for more information please visit http://thefirstboysofspring.weebly.com/.

About the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with 19 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students and is named for J. William Fulbright, former university president and longtime U.S. senator.