This was a pretty neat museum in downtown Louisville KY. This the the Hillerich & Bradsby baseball bat factory. They produce baseball bats! Many pro baseball players help design their own bats for this company to produce. Their story is very interesting.All of the wood for the bats come from the region along the Pennsylvania-New York border. The wood from the trees is cut into “billets”… …which are then cut into baseball bats using this special lathe, which spins at 50,000 rotations per minute! It was amazing to watch this machine do its work. Here, it has already cut the handle and is spinning toward the barrel of the bat. This machine is used to make all the bats for the major league baseball players.This lathe, called “Hempel tracer lathe”, is used to cut all other bats for “normal” people.This machine takes each bat and cuts off the knob from the barrel, stamps the bat’s length, sands the end of the barrel, and airbrushes the bat to clean off dust particles.Many bats at various stages of completion.Cool three-legged stool.The museum part has some neat statues. Here is their newest, Roberto Clemente.Jackie RobinsonTed WilliamsDerek JeterBabe RuthMajor Leaguer Pete Browning used this bat in 1887. His nickname was the “Louisville Slugger”, for whom the bat is now named.Babe Ruth’s bat. The story of this bat is pretty cool…Jersey and bat used by Honus Wagner in 1915.Joe DiMaggio used this bat during his 56 game hitting streak in 1941.Hank Aaron used this bat to hit his 700th career home run.Hillerich & Bradsby made this special chair to honor Hank Aaron becoming the all-time home run king.They call this the Fort Knox of Louisville Slugger. It contains over 3000 different bats created by the players who used them, including many of the greats of the game, like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, et. al. It also holds their signature plates and bat patterns.After you tour the factory you get a free miniature bat souvenir. Of course I had to pose in front of the big bat! The big bat is an exact scale model of Babe Ruth’s bat from the 1920s. The model is 120 feet high, with a 9-foot diameter, and weighs 68,000 pounds. It is made of carbon steel.
