Legends at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Tour

“Legends never die.” A great quote from the late Babe Ruth as he visited Benny in a dream about an autographed baseball that landed in the backyard of The Beast. I grew up quoting lines from The Sandlot movie and even pointing to the outfield when I stepped up to the plate in a baseball game with some friends (Spoiler alert: I struck out). But visiting the Louisville Slugger Museum brought new perspectives about the game of baseball and the history of a well-crafted chunk of wood.

When someone says Louisville, there are probably two things that come to mind: Kentucky Derby and a Louisville Slugger. Both of those destinations are something you should check out when you’re in town. The museum and factory tour are interesting and engaging when it comes to the world of baseball.

If you’ve got plans to visit Louisville, here’s what you can expect at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Tour.

COVID-19 UPDATE: The museum and factory tour is open. Masks are required in the building. Tours are best booked online in advance, as tours are filling up quickly. It’s best to plan in advance. Hand sanitizing stations are available throughout the museum as well.

Before You Arrive at the Louisville Slugger Museum

As you plan your trip to Louisville, I recommend planning out a general itinerary and including about 1.5 hours for the Louisville Slugger Museum. By planning in advance, you can book your tickets for the tour time that works for your itinerary. Tours run every 20 minutes starting at 9:40 a.m. The last tour of the day starts at 4 p.m. However, on Sundays, the first tour time is 10:20 and the last tour is 3:20, since the museum has adjusted hours. NOTE: The museum is closed on Wednesdays, so no tours are available that day.

If you’re a really big fan of baseball, the museum offers two All-Star Experiences. In short, they’re private tours that go more in-depth than the regular tour. You can check out machines closer up, and parts of the factory the other tour doesn’t include. You can also access the bat vault, which houses bats used by players throughout the company’s 134 years of bat-making. These extra tours also include a full-sized, personalized Louisville Slugger baseball bat for each tour participant. Plan a little extra time at the museum if you’re wanting to go on these All-Start Experiences.

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Regardless of which tour you select, plan to arrive 30-45 minutes in advance of your tour. That will give you a chance to check out the museum exhibits prior to our tour. If you don’t catch everything in the museum before the tour, you can visit it following your tour.

What You’ll Find in the Museum Area

When you arrive, stop in at the ticket desk to show your tickets. Then proceed into the museum. You can spend roughly 45-60 minutes reading about baseball and the Louisville Slugger history. Here are the exhibits of note:

• Learn about the first baseball bat made by the Hillerich family for Pete Browning in 1884 – Pete played Major League baseball in Louisville and was known as the Louisville Slugger.
• See Babe Ruth’s famous notched baseball bat from 1927 – each notch represented a home run for that season.
• Read about Dotty and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – It’s not just a great movie known as A League of Their Own starring Tom Hanks.
• Grab a selfie with wax figures of some of baseball’s most famous players – Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr, and Ted Williams.
• See what the umpire sees while standing behind the catcher when a 90 MPH pitch comes hurling towards you.
• Read about how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947 when he signed on with the Dodgers.

If you want to hold a baseball bat from some of the more current baseball players, check out the wall of bats. A guide there will grab a bat from your favorite team. I picked the Boston Red Sox and my son picked the Arizona Diamondbacks. You can’t swing it around, but you can hold it. We were surprised with how heavy the far end of the bats were.

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After checking out the exhibits listed above, and several others, we heard the overhead page for our tour start time and headed to the starting point.

Enjoy the Factory Tour and Take Home a Mini Louisville Slugger

The guided tour of the factory takes about 30 minutes. A short video shows the forests in Pennsylvania and how the wood for the Louisville Sluggers is harvested and prepped. The wood billets (cylinders of wood) are then shipped to this factory where they are made into the famous and well known baseball bat.

The first stop on the tour is all about the types of wood used in the bats. Each wood type has its advantages and disadvantages. And each Major League Baseball (MLB) player has there preference. For example, one type of wood has some flexibility to it, but that makes it a little more brittle. Other woods are very hard, and actually get harder the more it’s used.

The second stop shows you the automated machines that turn the billets into bats. Watch as a cylinder of wood is shaped into a Louisville Slugger. They have different templates they use for the bat, depending on which MLB player they’re making it for, or if it’s just a general bat. The machines can make a small or large knobs, a long handle or a thick barrel. If you’re a fan of baseball and know some of the players, you may recognize the signatures of the MLB players who have visited the factory and autographed the machine.

The next few stops along the way show you how the bat is sanded, stained and painted. Each person is given a mini Louisville Slugger baseball bat (a $7 value). It’s a great little momento from the tour.

After grabbing your bat, you can head back into the museum area to finish learning about the history of the company and legends in baseball, or you can head to the batting cage.

Take a Swing at the Batting Cages

I can’t remember how long ago it was when I tried swinging a bat at a batting cage. But my son and I figured we’d give it a try at the museum. The batting cage is down the main hallway past the bathrooms. You check in at the cashier and pay the $2 for 10 pitches. Then, you can select which bat you want to use. I thought it would be fun to try swinging the bat of “The Sultan of Swat! The king of crash! The colossus of clout! THE GREAT BAMBINO!”

I stepped into the cage with my batting helmet on and the balls started flying. Of the 10 pitches, I had at least three strikes. I had a few foul balls, but I’m proud to say that I also had a few line drives. No homeruns, but I’m definitely no baseball legend just because I was using Babe Ruth’s bat.

My son used Ted Williams’ bat, which was heavier than he thought and tough to swing. But he gave it a try while I grabbed some photos of him swinging the bat. It was a fun way to end our visit to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Although we did hit up the gift shop on the way out to look at t-shirts, baseball bats, collector items, patches, baseballs and more. They even had a shirt with the quote, “There’s no crying in baseball!” Haha!

The Details:

Address: 800 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202

Cost: $16 for adults; $15 for seniors (60+); $9 for kids 6-12. Children 5 and under are free.

Hours: Mon-Sat: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but closed on Wednesdays. Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Website: https://www.sluggermuseum.com/

Phone: (877) 775-8443, option 5

Disclosure: I received two complimentary admission tickets to the Louisville Slugger Museum for the purpose of review. All opinions are my own.

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