When we had the opportunity to tour the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, we did. We ordered our timed tickets online and found parking directly behind the museum. Just look for the giant baseball bat in downtown Louisville. It's kind of hard to miss, though Harold did get a bit distracted noting all the distilleries in the area.
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| World's largest baseball bat |
The thing that surprised me was that most of the wood for the bats comes from forests in Pennsylvania and New York. The family that started the company had an established wood turning business in Louisville, and a teenager who played amateur baseball and made his own bats. They used hickory, which is prevalent in Kentucky, to make the bats. Eventually, they turned to ash, maple, and birch, which grow better up north. Hickory was too heavy.
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| Most pros use birch or maple |
The tour of the factory takes you through the stages of making a bat. We found the tour very visually appealing with its symmetrical stacks of wood and bats and machines in action. The company makes around 3000 bats a day, 5000 during spring training. Pro players order 100 to 120 bats per season. The team pays for the bats. Each bat is somewhere in the $80 to $120 range, depending primarily on the type of wood used. At the end of the tour, they give you a mini bat as a souvenir. Cool!
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| The bat vault |
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| Ready to be turned |
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| Machine precision turning |
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| Billets of wood for bats |
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| Turning non professional bats |
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| Ready for the next phase |
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| Drying after staining |
The Louisville Slugger was the nickname of Pete Browning, who played for the Louisville Eclipse. You can guess who made the bat he used. : ) The Louisville Slugger, soon a registered trademark for the bats made by Hillerich, was the first athletic item to be endorsed by a professional athlete.
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| The Louisville Slugger |
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| Endorsement |
While arguably football could be considered the USA's sport, there's something about the crack of the bat as it connects with the baseball. Maybe we'll go to a baseball game this year.
Where Are We Going Next?
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