Cork This: Louisville Gets Slugger Back
Louisville Slugger bats came home in a big way.
Hillerich & Bradsby Co. Inc., the 111-year-old company famous for making the bats, marked Opening Day of the World Series by installing what it boasts is the biggest baseball bat in the world outside its new headquarters and plant.
The slugger stands six stories high - 120 feet - and weighs 68,000 pounds. It’s made of steel but painted to look like wood.
The installation of the huge sculpture signifies something bigger: The bats that helped put Louisville on the map will be made in Kentucky once again.
In 1974, Hillerich & Bradsby decided to keep its corporate offices in Louisville but move its bat manufacturing plant to Indiana. The plant needed more room, said Vice President Bill Williams.
But with the increased popularity of aluminum bats, the company makes far fewer wooden bats than it did back then, Williams said. So space was no longer an issue, and the company decided to return the plant to its birthplace, he said. The bat-making plant will start operations in January.
The decision came as great news to Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson. The company’s 250 employees will help the city in many ways, not the least of which will be through Louisville’s occupation tax, he said.
But Abramson had personal reasons to be pleased, too.
His father and grandfather owned a small grocery across the street from Hillerich & Bradsby’s old Louisville plant. The businesses were neighbors for 53 years.
Hillerich & Bradsby President John A. Hillerich III said Louisville is where the company plans to stay.
xxxx Big bat facts The bat is patterned after an R43, 34-inch wooden bat, designed to specifications requested by Babe Ruth in the early 1920s. It is self-supporting and will look as if it’s leaning against another building. The 120-foot-long bat is 9 feet in diameter at the base; 3 feet, 6 inches in diameter at the handle; and has a 6-foot, 6-inch diameter knob. The bat is made of ASTM A36 carbon steel. The bat’s hollow interior can hold 30,000 gallons.