Louisville Slugger

Since I arrived in Louisville a little early for my conference, I've been walking about this city, enjoying the mid-60s weather, and admiring this Louisville's Main Street. And the room I have here at the Galt House Hotel has a great view overlooking the Ohio River.

As if I haven't been anticipating baseball season enough, this afternoon I toured the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

It's a tour about bats and baseball, so it's mainly of interest for true believers. I found it striking that 53 employees (if I remember the figure correctly) churn out 1.82 million bats a year. Of course, computer-mediated machinery do most of the hard work nowadays, but it was interesting how bats have changed with the game, moving from thick-handled and heavy models to the thinner handled and lighter models.

In what lurched me back toward boyhood man-love, visitors get to check out and hold the bats of baseball stars. During my tour we got to grasp the balance and heft of bats made for Alfonso Soriano, Yogi Berra, Ryan Theriot, and Alex Rodriguez. And of course Hall-of-Famers' bats are on display too--Ruth, Wagner, Hornsby, DiMaggio, Aaron, Cobb, and many others.