Take me out to the baseball bat manufacturer. Behind-the-scenes plant tours showcasing the production of our favorite consumer products can be interesting, but combine the experience with an interactive baseball museum and a century of nation-defining history and you’ve got the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in Louisville, Kentucky. Be on the lookout for the 120-foot bat leaning outside the building, and you can’t miss the place.
Opened in 1996, the facility stands eight blocks from where the first Louisville Slugger was turned in 1884. Since then, these iconic bats have been swung by the best and are still in use today. During the guided plant tour, you’ll see where the pros get their custom-designed bats, and you too can buy your own slugger branded with your signature. Order online before you arrive and it’ll be ready to take home when you get there. Visitors will be thrilled with the newly renovated museum that allows them to interact with some of baseball’s most memorable treasures. One new exhibit allows guests to touch the bats actually used by such famous players as Mickey Mantle, David Ortiz, Rod Carew and Jim Thome. Babe Ruth’s legendary bat has a revamped and more prominent exhibit, and the never-before-displayed Louisville Slugger bat used by Joe DiMaggio for his 56 consecutive game hitting streak in 1941 is also featured.
The museum still has some of its old favorites as well, including the wall of autographs — featuring 6,000 famous signatures burned into the white ash wood. Finally, don’t forget to check out the 90 miles per hour fastball exhibit. But be warned, the definitive, almost deafening, slam into the catcher’s mitt-like padding is enough to provoke butterflies in anyone but aspiring major leaguers.