Mom, Where Do Baseball Bats Come From?

While on my recent trip to Louisville, Kentucky for the Archery Trade Show, my friends and I decided to stop in to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory owned by Hillerich & Bradsby. It's not hard to find with it's 120ft tall Louisville Slugger outside of it.

This is the place where the majority of the Major League Baseball players get there bats. All made on special lathes and to their exact specifications. The place that has made baseball bats for almost as long as when Abner Doubleday organized the first game. Historic pieces of memorabilia from Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson and  many more of the greatest of the game.

On the day we went, we were treated to the tour of the factory and watched them make baseball bats from start to finish. The turning of the wood, to the branding of the familiar Louisville Slugger logo, all the way to packaging. It's hard to imagine that such a small facility  can turn out so much finished product but they do. So if you're ever in the Derby City, I highly recommend the tour. It was a fond look at a big part of America's Pastime.