Early on Friday morning, a coworker and I walked the five blocks to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum.
We had about 25 minutes before our tour, which was just enough time to see everything in the museum. As we walked in , a guy invited us to pose with bats used by famous Major League players in actual games. I picked Cal Ripken, Jr.
The museum told the history of the Louisville Slugger and explained how bats are made.
The bat-mobile hanging from the ceiling was strangely impressive.
There were cases with bats from famous players.
Babe Ruth made notches on his bat whenever he hit a home run. My bat when I was a kid was a Babe Ruth model, and I remember it being thicker and heavier than the bats the other kids had. It’s long gone.
One end of the room was filled with a display that demonstrated how fast a 90 mph fastball travels. It was almost too fast for my eye to pick it up and showed me just how wise I was to stick to church-league softball. I couldn’t help but notice that it was a Chicago Cub who was perpetually striking out.
The tour took 30 minutes. We saw the automated lathes where bats are made for the minor leagues and for sale in stores. The machine that makes Major League bats is computer programmed to meet the specifications of every player. We weren’t allowed to take photos on the tour, but there were windows all around the factory, so I was able to get some shots later from outside.
You can see the next tour in the distance in the next shot.
We exited through the gift shop, but I didn’t buy anything because they’d already given me a souvenir bat. The walls of the lobby were filled with the signatures of Major League players as they appear on bats. The signatures are taken from the contracts the players sign with the manufacturer. I found Ryne Sandberg’s autograph.
Other stuff included a giant glove sculpture and a peek into the vault where a sample of every style bat ever made is stored.
It was all very impressively done. So much so that I wouldn’t mind returning sometime.