Camp Christensen - Day 3 (Wednesday, July 8th) - Part 2

After bidding good-bye to the Marx's, we drove into Louisville. We ate lunch at Subway. Then we crossed the street and in the next block we visited the Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum. This is where the Louisville Slugger bats are made. As you enter the Museum along the sidewalk are models of the bats used by famous baseball players. I chose to take a picture of Honus Wagoner because I knew that name. I know enough about baseball to be dangerous. At the entrance door there is a HUGE baseball bat that towers over the 2 story building. Claude purchased tickets to tour the factory and visit the museum. You can't take picture inside the factory. But there are lots of interesting facets to how they make baseball bats. They were making them as we toured so we were able to watch the machinery at work. They have older machines that a template is placed in, the machine is started and it grinds down the wood to fit that template. They also have a huge machine that runs on a computer. They can program into it exactly how a professional baseball player wants his bat made (length, weight, etc.) and it spits one out in no time. There are several finishes to choose from. The name of the kind of bat has a letter and some numbers. The letter is the 1st letter of the last name of the baseball player who 1st asked for that kind, the number is something else (I forget...imagine that!!). Each professional player who has a contract with Louisville Slugger has a die made of the signature on their contract. This die is then burned into their bats. At the end of the tour each tourist receives a miniature bat with the Louisville Sluggle logo on it. Paul and Aubrey loved getting the bats. We then toured the museum. Aubrey had her picture taken holding Mickey Mantle's bat. They have you put on white gloves and pick the pro player's bat you want to hold. We also saw Babe Ruth's bat that he carved a notch around the logo every time he hit a home run. Paul and Aubrey tried their had at the batting cages. They have a 'bat vault' with bats made for pro players. Way cool!! And Aubrey made me a Christmas ornament out of the nub from the end of the bat that is only cut off the bat at the end of the process. After swatting our way through the bug fest under the bridge by the river where we parked, it was off for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Sadieville. I don't know what kind of bugs these were. They were like giganormous gnats. They covered the bridge and cars. One managed to ride home on Claude's shirt. Again, we were grateful to be out of the car and enjoyed pizza with Paul and Aubrey and watched Men In Black for the movie before bedtime.