that's a big bat: the louisville slugger museum

there was really only one thing on my list of things to do in louisville: see the big bat. luckily our hotel was pretty close and we could walk to the museum. as we walked we passed tons of little bat statues that tell the history of the louisville slugger. each statue had a plaque next to it describing the model number, year of creation, and baseball player who used that model. it was pretty neat to see the differences in the louisville slugger over time or depending on players' specifications.

what's cool about this museum, is that it's a factory as well. so while we didn't have an opportunity to go through the museum itself, we did get a chance to see some of the bats get branded with the louisville slugger logo through the factory windows.

  

 

facts about "the big bat": it is a replica of model R43, the 34" wood bat that was designed to Babe Ruth's specifications in the 1920s. it's 120 feet tall, 9 feet around, and weighs 68,000 pounds.

inside the museum, they have a large wall of all of the baseball players who've signed a contract with louisville slugger throughout the years. i tried to capture the enormity of this wall by taking a picture of one square, nolan ryan, rcg's favorite player. as you can see, his one small square is just one of hundreds on a panel, and there were over 20 panels on the wall. it's pretty impressive.

 

can you find nolan ryan's square in these two pictures?

on the left: middle column, fourth up from the bottom
on the right: fourth column from the right, eleven up from the bottom.