Largest Baseball Bat In The World

The Louisville Slugger Museum is distinguished from surrounding buildings by the 120 ft. tall baseball bat leaning against it. Erected in 1995, the bat is 34 tons and made of hollow carbon steel, simulating the wooden bat used by Babe Ruth in the early 1920s -- which was all of 34 inches long.
Louisville will always be a classic baseball bat choice, although nike baseball bats and other brands with advanced technology are starting to emerge

The handle of the World's Largest Bat pokes above the five-story brick edifice of the Slugger Museum.Other businesses advertising on Main Street have attempted to cash in on the Slugger's brisk photo op traffic, with varied degrees of cleverness. A three-dimensional baseball appears to smash a giant window in a sign for Kentucky Mirror and Plate Glass. A few blocks further on, another huge bat -- the leathery flying kind -- hangs upside down and clings to the brick wall of Caufield's, a costume and decoration store.

The Louisville Slugger, America's most famous baseball bat, has been manufactured since 1884. In 1974, bat production was moved to a factory in Jeffersonville, Indiana, then returned to Louisville when owner Hillerich & Bradsby Co. opened the factory and museum complex in 1996.

The museum, dedicated to the story of baseball and the art of hitting, includes a short film, a replica dugout, interactive displays and baseball memorabilia. The tour allows visitors to see Hillerich & Bradsby bats and golf clubs in production (golf clubs were first made in a Louisville factory in 1916).

The museum and factory tour apparently succeed in generating the same must-see status possessed by great ball fields, and Cooperstown, NY's Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball lovers travel from out-of-state, and even other countries, pilgrimages to understand what manufacturing mojo separates immortal, home run heroes from forgotten foul line bums.
We stood next to a 40-ish man who was reverently touching each baseball bat in a display, muttering the model names from memory.A final mighty tribute to baseball sits in the building's atrium -- a sculpture of a baseball mitt and ball, made from 15-tons of limestone.

World's Largest Bat
Address: 800 West Main Street, Louisville, KY
Directions: Hillerich & Bradsby Co., I-64 exit 4. Right onto River Rd, which runs under the freeway. Left at stop sign onto 8th St., right at the light onto Main St.
Hours: Daily 9 am - 5pm, closed Sundays. (Call to verify)
Phone: 502-588-7228