As we walked down West Main Street in Louisville I glanced at my map to make sure we were heading in the right direction to find the Louisville Slugger Museum, home of the classic Louisville Slugger bat factory. I need not have worried about missing it because the world’s biggest bat, weighing in at over 68,000 pounds and 120 feet tall, guards the entrance. My first words were, “Wow! Look at that bat!”
I am not a sports buff, although the men in the family are, and expected to be slightly bored inside the museum. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find interactive fun for all ages and degrees of sports fans. We began our tour in the Grand Slam Gallery. Offered the chance to hold a bat by both past and present sports legends, Bryan thrust all the papers he was holding in my arms and went to stand in line. “Get a picture of me holding Cal Ripkin’s bat,” he told me. “I’m going to send it to my friends.” I agreed, on the condition he take my picture holding Derek Jeter’s bat. Before Bryan had been able to satisfy his longing to hold several bats by baseball legends, we were called on the tour.
We were not allowed to take pictures on the tour due to competition from fellow baseball factories, but it’s a fascinating walk through history. The Louisville Slugger factory was founded by J. Frederick Hillerich, whose son “Bud” wanted to make professional bats. Mr. Hillerich was against this idea, believing the future was in the item he was making: state of the art butter churns. Bud prevailed and the Louisville Slugger was born. When the bat making process was begun many years ago, each bat was handcrafted and took around 30 minutes to carve by a master woodcarver. These days the bats can be mass produced, allowing one bat to be made every 30 seconds.
We stopped by the special exhibit, on display until August 3rd, Play Ball, Doc! – The Art of Warner Bros. This exhibit cludes more than 70 original drawings, paintings and related objects used in the making of Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1930s through the 1960s. The kids can enjoy virtual photo opps and interactive fun with Bugs Bunny. When our tour was complete, we received a mini bat as a souvenir. It was a fun keepsake to help us remember a special day of sports memories.
If you go:
Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for ages 5-12. Children under 5 are free.
The Louisville Slugger Museum is a short walk or free trolley ride from the Galt House Hotel.
The museum is located on “Museum row”, meaning it is a short walk to other museums in the area, including the Frazier museum.
We received complementary passes to the Louisville Slugger Museum, but all opinions are my own.
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit us! We are so glad you enjoyed Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. As a heads up for any potential future visitors, you can get a 10% off coupon to our Museum store by visiting http://sluggermuseum.com/coupon-form/.
Hope to see you soon!
Shannon Siders
Marketing Communication Associate
Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
That would be so much fun to go check out.
Oh my goodness my dad would love this! I didn’t know you could tour the factory.
What a fun museum!! Looks like something for everyone in the family!
I totally would have expected to be bored as well. Glad to hear it wasn’t awful!
I haven’t been to a museum in forever! This looks like a total blast!
Wow, that it is the biggest bat I have ever seen! What a fun museum!
You can’t really miss the museum with that ginormous bat outside, huh? That sounds like a very cool place to visit.
I would love to go visit this museum. I collected baseball cards as a kid so places like this have a special place in my heart.
Wow! This place looks like so much fun!!
What fun. I would love the Louisville Slugger Museum. My daughter currently is working for the Mets and we are huge Yankee Fan Family. Yes that definitely means a trip. I have been following your St.Louis trip and I have to say you make me want to pack up and go now. Thanks for sharing.
I love the Loony Toons! I’d go to this museum for that exhibit alone!
This looks like a ton of fun.I love museums of any sort, especially when they have really fun exhibits. I absolutely LOVE the are of Warner Brothers exhibit.