♥ Louisville Slugger Museum/Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown ♥

I took a trip today to visit the Louisville Slugger Museum. I know many native Louisvillians who have never set foot inside this tourist landmark, but I thought I would break the mold and go learn something new about my city!

The iconic giant bat (It is 120 feet high and an exact scale replica if Babe Ruth's bat!) at the entrance to the museum is one of my favorite parts of Main Street. I'm not really a fan of baseball, but something about the bat just grabs my attention every time I drive or walk by. I think its a really cool landmark!

The museum is actually much smaller than I expected. There is only one main exhibit room, and there is not much to it. I'm sure that fans of baseball will get more out of the exhibits than I did. Still, I did learn some interesting facts about how the size and makeup of baseball bats has evolved over time and how they are made.

The best part of the museum is the tour through the factory. For about 30 minutes, I got to see where every official bat in MLB is made. This factory is also responsible for crafting the bats for college baseball, little-league teams, and for sale in sporting goods stores. It was so impressive to see a piece of wood carved into a perfect bat in 30 seconds flat! Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed during the tour, but I snapped this one through the window in the museum lobby.

Everyone leaves the tour with their very own souvenir-sized wooden baseball bat! Pretty cool!

Here are a few more photos from the museum.

34,000 pound limestone baseball glove sculpture.

For those interested, there are also batting cages at the Slugger Museum (for an extra fee).

Special for the holiday season, there is a Peanuts display at the Museum through January 2 called, Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

No photographs were allowed inside, but it was essentially a collection of copies of Peanuts comic strips dating back to its creation in 1950. There is also a television playing A Charlie Brown Christmas. Next to it is a display with letters written by children after the first airing of the holiday classic cartoon in 1965, pleading to have it shown every year. That was pretty neat to see.

So, that's basically it! All in all, a worthwhile venture! And now I'm a Louisvillian who can proudly say that I have, in fact, been the the Louisville Slugger Museum!