Description: Being a minor league batboy as a teenager, which means I have an absurdly large collection of broken baseball bats from players, I was very excited to see the place where many of my bats were created. Situated in the western part of downtown Louisville, near the river, is the Louisville Slugger Museum. The museum itself is actually in the working factory. The building is an old, typical factory loft. Normally, such a building would blend in with the surrounding buildings. But this place has a humongous replica bat at the entrance. If you miss it, you might need to make an appointment with your optometrist.
You can visit the museum for free, which includes several rooms with displays that talk about the history of the bats and the technology behind them. I had the most fun with the life-sized mannequins of players. Also, there is a batting cage to test your hitting skills. For $1, you can get 10 pitches from a machine, though I think the cage is intended for kids since the maximum speed of the pitches was only 40mph.
For $8, however, you can get a behind-the-scenes tour of the actual factory floor where the bats are made today. My first impression when walking through the factory was, “Wow, this is it?” It seems small, very small. During the tour, you basically learn how the wood is transformed from a regular piece of wood into an aerodynamic piece of wood used by little leaguers and professionals alike. Unsurprisingly, the bats today are all made by machines, and they take 30 seconds to carve. The factory has a handful of employees who monitor the production and help with the production of bat details (i.e. name carving, coloring of wood, etc.).
At the end of the tour, everyone is given a miniature replica bat approximately 15 inches long. Of course, within 2 minutes of receiving such a souvenir, you will probably see kids hitting each other with them.
This is an interesting place to visit if you are a fan of baseball. The time it takes to tour the whole museum is not long; a couple hours inside is sufficient. And, if you’re a super-fan, you can order a real bat with your name on it. I controlled myself and left with only my souvenir bat from the tour.
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