Comments on: Making bats the Louisville Slugger way

For any fan of baseball, the name of the bat says it all. But getting a chance to watch how they're made is a treat to be savored.

[tenbosch]

G Gestalt, I am really enjoying your road trip articles and pictures. Keep up the great work. It puts news.com in a new light.

[Crunchy Doodle]

It's nice to see that the Louisville Slugger is made in Louisvile by an American company, and not just a brand name with all manufacturing done overseas.

[pkron]

funny you mention that. As reported they certainly have manufacturing in the US but I sat next to a Louisville Slugger employee while on a business trip leaving Vietnam. They were moving some manufacturing from China to Vietnam. This is a good business decision as US based companies need to stay competitive regardless of where their manufacturing is located.

[Captseadog]

The maple over the white ash explains why so many bats are being broken in the majors.

[RenoDavid]

I'm not sure they break MORE, but when the maple bats DO break they tend to shatter into several pieces, rather than just cracking.

[junk64]

RIght next door is a glass factory. The outside has a baseball breaking a glass window! haha I am right across the street right now! A wonderful place to see. Even on the street outside are markers that are diamond shaped and a bat standing. It has the players name on home plate!

[alegr]

>"We happen to think that the maple is too brittle," Dellinger told me

It's not only brittle, but also when it breaks, it explodes to sharp shards that can fly far and may cause significant injuries.

[alegr]

By the way, why this P.O.S. forum engine removes line breaks? Does CNET care to find REAL forum engivne instead of crappy Jive? For example, the one that is able to display responses instantly, not after indeterminate time? What's wrong with that? TheDailyWTF, for example, works OK. Isn't it time to feature Jive there?

[benjaminstraight]

Good article. I think the factory was featured on 'How It's Made' or some show like that.

[masterz13]

Wow, I didnt think you would come to KY! I live there. I went to that museum on a school field trip. Its awesome.

[MartinMar]

This tour is indeed a good tour.

However, I would caution anyone who has not been on the tour or is looking for information about the tour to check carefully before you fork over the $10 per person for this tour. During several periods of the day and during SCHEDULED TOUR HOURS there is NO BAT PRODUCTION TAKING PLACE ON THE FACTORY FLOOR. Yes, you would pay $40 for a family of four and see NO bats being made. What do you see? VIDEO of bats being made. And lots of Louisville Slugger infomercials. On Louisville Slugger's website they use the phrase "NO BAT PRODUCTION" verbatim 15 times. Some version of "you will probably not see bats being made" appears another 3 or 4. BY UNION AGREEMENT, all the union factory workers' workdays end at 3:30pm EST. The factory continues tours for another hour and a half, until 5pm. We were unlucky enough to purchase 5 tickets for our family to go on the 4pm tour ? and were NEVER notified by the ticketing agent that we were not going to see any bat production. When I asked why we were not told prior to purchasing tickets, they pointed out a roughly 8 inch by 10 inch sign that was on a stand about 8 feet from the ticketing counters and said: "YOU should have seen the sign." Like I said, yes, this is indeed a good tour...WHEN BATS ARE IN PRODUCTION. Ask specifically.