Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum

Keith and I were in Louisville, KY last week for a regional youth leader’s gathering for the Wesleyan Church called FUEL. While we were there, we managed to get to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory right there on main street during out lunch hour. It was real convenient because it was only about 4 blocks from our hotel. GREAT place to see and hold some history as I’m sure you can see here. The visit was educational and exciting. If you’re any kind of baseball fan and you happen upon the Louisville area, I highly suggest it. Compared to other tourist attractions, it’s very affordable. The adult price for the museum, a factory tour, and an included mini bat was only $10. Kids were about $4 or $6 I think.

In this video, you see me holding a bat that Mickey Mantle used somewhere in the 1961-1964 seasons. Back then they used the same bat for longer than they do now. This one was worn smooth and had a pretty good heft to it. Just imagining that I was holding the same bat that he stroked a bunch of those home runs with was surreal. You have to wear the sissy white gloves to keep the oil from your hands off the bat to help them last longer. I could have also chosen to hold one of David Ortiz’s bats (gag me), or Rod Carew (never really cared for the Twins either). In the end, I chose Mickey’s bat for the historic value, though I would have tripped over my own jaw had they had one of Stan the Man’s bats or even Lou Brock.

Me standing by the World’s largest bat (120 feet) the factory churns out 1.8 million bats a year!

Louisville slugger is actually just the name of the bats they make. The actual company players sign contracts with and that makes the bats is called Hellerich & Bradsby.

This is the “Bat Vault” filled with historic bats from hall of famers as well as an old school bat lathe.

This was the factory floor on the side where all the “Pro” bats are made. Only 5 workers run the machinery that makes all the bats for the big leagues every year. 1 mature Ash or Maple tree can produce anywhere from 40-60 bats, and the entire factory requires 40,000 trees per year to produce their required output. All of lumber comes from Pennsylvania.

I had this sick starstruck grin on my face because I thought I was holding Albert Pujols’ bat. This was actually one of Derick Jeter’s. Oh well, he’ll probably be a hall of famer one day too.

Me and Lou Brock. I LOVED seeing so many Cardinal players represented at the slugger museum. I may have even been more giddy at how few Cubs players were displayed. Well, except Ernie Banks, “Let’s play two!”

Keith eyeing up a stick of lumber made to commemorate the 2008 World Series Champs the Philadelphia Phillies. This was the part of the factory where they make all the special edition bats, including the Mother’s Day breast cancer awareness bats (you know, the pink ones), as well as the All Star bats for the upcoming 2009 All Star game in ST. LOUIS!!!