One night before we leave Massachusetts, the hubby was talking to his grandma about where we were going next and she was like are you going to Churchill Downs? It never crossed my mind to visit Churchill Downs but since we were struggling with finding her something from our trip, I figured she would love something from there.
Before going to the Bat Factory, we made a detour and stopped at Churchill Downs. We didn’t pay to go on the museum but checked out the gift shop. The hubby says they wrecked Churchill Downs because only a small portion of the original buildings still remain. Like everything else, it has been modernized. We couldn’t get into Churchill Downs because it was off season but at least we saw it.
The Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum is located downtown Louisville. Street parking was free on Sundays but we couldn’t find a close place to park and parked in the ramp that took us right into the museum. It was $14/person to tour the bat factory and museum.
While we waited for our tour, we perused the museum. The hubby put on special gloves to actual touch and swing bats from Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and other Hall of Famers. He was more interested in looking at them than swinging them. I would have liked to swing the bats but decided against it.
Also in the museum are other really old bats… like the one Babe Ruth notched every time he hit a home run or Hank Aaron’s bat he broke the home run record with. There were bats in drawers and bats in cases. You might miss something cool if you don’t open all the drawers.
When it for our tour, we were informed we couldn’t take pictures inside which is understandable since it’s a working factory. At least I didn’t have to wear a hard hat or closed toed shoes. Our tour guide was fantastic. He explained how the bats used to be made as well as showed us how to make a bat manually. Then we watched how they do it on machines now. I learned that the Major League Bats are made different and to specification of the player where minor league bats are 1 size fits all. We even got to take the “nubs” of a bat if we wanted. We now have several nubs of mini bats sitting on our bookcase.
After the tour we finished checking out the museum, hit up the gift shop for some postcards, and the hubby took a few practice swings. He should stick to calling the game and not playing since he missed every pitch. I would have tried but the bat he picked would have been too heavy for me.
The hubby says the Bat Factory was his favorite part of the trip. This definitely a must see if you are ever in Louisville.
No comments:
Post a Comment