SEEING THE SIGHTS IN LOUISVILLE, KY

Saturday, September 24 – We are having another day of rain, but that won't stop us from discovering Louisville.

Marsha loves to visit churches. Off we went to visit the Cathedral of Assumption in downtown Louisville.

The seat of the first bishop, Benedict Joseph Flaget, moved from Bardstown, Kentucky, to Louisville in 1841. The Cathedral of the Assumption was completed in 1852.  It is the fourth oldest public building in Louisville as well as the third oldest Catholic Cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

Ceiling as we entered the Church.

As you face the altar, you are facing east to Jerusalem, the direction in which many Cathedrals face.  The bronze candlesticks around the altar are the original candlesticks used on the high altar of the Vatican II.  “There’s a great symbolism of the baptismal font being near the entrance and the altar being in the center in the front because through baptism we come to the Eucharist which comes from the table of the Lord." 

The ceiling fresco depicts cherubs surrounding Mary at the time of her assumption into heaven.  Through different restorations of the interior of the church, the fresco remained untouched until 1964.  After plaster started falling from the ceiling, the fresco was painted over when the ceiling was repaired.  As part of the 1994 renovation, the fresco was painstakingly restored to its earlier beauty.

The magnificent pipe organ was built by the Steiner-Reck Company of Louisville in 1983.  The organ is a mechanical-action tracker organ with 43 ranks and 36 Stops.  The casework is hand carved mahogany and reflects the Gothic style arches of the church.

We also stopped in to the Glassworks factory and shop. They had so many…according to Marsha…awesome items.

Aliens for a mere $40/each.

Marsha wanted to buy one of these for the holidays but thought twice. Not a practical buy when traveling.

Beautiful wine glasses but again impractical.

Below the shop, the doors are open. How neat to watch the artists make these beautiful works of art.

Putting the hot glass in a mold.

Squirting water on the hot glass. He then broke the bad part off the vase.

Footnote to our Louisville Slugger blog.
In our blog about our visit to Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, we forgot to tell you that our visit was FREE! While visiting the Apple Festival in Nappanee, Indiana, we visited the Louisville Visitor Center display. We told the worker that we were going to visit Louisville and headed to the Slugger Museum. He reached into his magic bag and gave us two free tickets…Now that is a great Visitor Center!

Also, at the end of our visit, we were each given a mini Louisville Slugger bat. In the picture, the top bat shows the end stubs that are taken off each professional bat. The bottom picture shows the bat without the stubs.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

BATTER UP!

Friday, September 23 – We visited another great museum today....The Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum. What an interesting tour. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed on the tour but they were permitted in the museum.

Check out the "Big Bat" leaning against the building. The total weight of the bat is approximately 68,000 pounds, height 120 ft. and diameter 9 ft. The bat is constructed of ASTM A36 carbon steel. The "Bud Hillerich" signature is a tribute to John A. "Bud" Hillerich, who turned the company's first bat in 1884. Called the world's largest bat and I believe it!

 

We started out holding bats actually used by the greats. Paul held Mickey Mantle's Model B220 used sometime between 1961 ns 1964. It measures 35" and weighs 32 ounces.

Marsha chose Johnny Bench's Model B278 bat that he used between 1980-1983. It is northern white ash 35" and weighs 32 ounces.

The factory tour takes you step by step through the production of a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Our guide was very knowledgeable and informative. We did find one window that we could take a picture through.

Each year 40,000 northern white ash and maple trees supply the logs for Louisville Slugger bats. Ideal trees for bats are at least 80 years old.

You can see bats used by almost every famous professional baseball player like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Derek Jeter, and Barry Bonds. We saw bats in production for the likes of Jim Tome and Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians. Marsha went crazy!

Each year a professional player goes through approximately 100 bats at a cost between $60-$80/bat. Approximately one million bat are made per year.  During peak production times about 1500 bats are made per day at the factory in Louisville.

Babe Ruth carved a notch in this bat for every home run he hit with it in 1927. During that historic season, Ruth smashed a record 60 home runs in 154 games.

During WW II, Louisville Slugger reduced bat production and began manufacturing wooden gunstocks and tank pins for the war effort.

We stood behind a glass enclosure and watched a 90 mph ball come towards us. We actually were able to capture the ball before it reached the catcher. That thing flies in!!!

The was an awesome tour and museum. There is tons of memorabilia for those dedicated baseball fans. When you are in this area, don't miss it! We will leave you with a few fun"extremes" used by players… 

Edd Roush of the Cincinnati Reds used the heaviest bat, a 48 ounce piece of timber.

Billy Goodman, who won the batting championship in 1950 while with the Boston Red Sox, used the lightest bat.  He used a 30 ounce bat to win the batting crown.

Joe Morgan, former Most Valuable Player of Cincinnati Reds, also used a 30 ounce bat.

The longest bat in our history was used by Al Simmons, a 38” bat.  Simmons played with Philadelphia and Boston in the American League during the 1940’s.

The shortest bat ever ordered for regular play was a 30 ½” ordered by Willie Keeler who played with the Yankees.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!