Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum

Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory

Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
Hours: 9 am - 5 pm
Cost: Museum =  Free
Factory Tour = $14.00
Time: 2-3 hours
Rating:  6

The Louisville Slugger Museum is located at 800 West Main Street.  You don't need an address, just look for the 120 foot tall, 9 foot diameter giant baseball bat reaching high into the skyline. The bat is considered the worlds largest and is an exact-scale replica of the model R43,34 wood bat designed by specifications for Babe Ruth in 1920. It weighs 68,000 pounds and is made from a carbon steel, not wood. The Slugger factory tour ($14.00) allows you to walk the production line where you can learn the fabrication process of baseball bats and physically see the bats in various stages of the manufacturing process.  The museum (free) contains informative interactive exhibits where you can learn more than you every wanted to know about baseball bats and their history.  As you enter you'll notice the signature wall of names showing a piece of bat with the signature of each contractual player who used a Slugger.   There is a ton of MLB history in the 8,000 wooden plate signatures on the wall.  Look for the more popular names in the hall of fame section containing dark wood bats.

Progress to the Bat Vault containing over 3,000 unique models of baseball bats created throughout the factory's history.  It's considered the Fort Knox of Louisville Sluggers.  Each bat is stamped with a letter and a number.  the letter represents the first letter of the name of the player it was created for.  The number is the number the player was within his letter.  For Example, Hank Aaron was the 99th player with a last name beginning with the letter A.  Thus the model A99.

Signature Wall

Vault

Literally, strike out in the batting cages where you can experience the feel of a 90 MPH fastball whizzing by you.  As they say, you'll never hit a home run if you don't swing away.

The facility contains a Ripley's believe it or not museum. This was an interesting addition to the baseball museum however seemed like an irrelevant space filler.

Several nearby corporations have attempted to capitalize on the world's largest bat.  The Kentucky Mirror and Plate Glass factory has a large baseball appearing to smash a giant window as their facade.  A nearby costume store also claims to have the worlds largest bat on their facade.  This bat is the winged and flying type.

Kentucky Mirror & Glass

Costume Shop

As you walk West Main Street you'll encounter a fascinating addition to the museum called the Louisville Slugger walk of fame.  The walk of fame starts at the Louisville Slugger Museum and spans approximately one mile to the KFC Yum! Center and contains 60 bronze bats and used by Major League Baseballs greatest hitters.  Each memorial contains a home base plaque with information on the hall of fame hitter and specific bat used.  Pick up a walk of fame brochure for a listing of each player honored with a star and its location.

Walk of Fame - Lou Gehrig

Walk of fame - Babe Ruth