Baseball and Horses -- TWO of My Favorite Things!

We couldn't be in Louisville, Kentucky, without going to visit the factory that makes baseball bats -- the Louisville Slugger!  The factory -- and museum -- is right downtown on Main Street, not too far from the Ohio River.

It's easy to spot -- all you have to do is look for this gigantic baseball bat! It's actually made of steel and stands 120 feet high (see how small Forry is beside it?).

 Unfortunately, they don't allow you to take pictures during the tour of the factory.  I took this one from a mannequin display of the original factory (which began as a factory for making butter churns).

The bats are made out of either ash or maple, grown in upstate New York or northeast Pennsylvania.  Today they were making the bats for Game 7 of the World Series  (just in case it goes to that many games!). Everyone on the factory tour was given a miniature baseball bat as a souvenir!

In the corner of the building is a neat store where you can buy an actual personalized Louisville Slugger bat just like the ones the big leaguers use. I decided to buy a personalized bat with the Seattle Mariners logo on it.  We went to see a short movie, The Heart of the Game, during the twenty minutes it took them to personalize the bat.  When I took the bat out of the box to show Forry, I realized they had made it with a Florida Marlins logo instead of the Mariners!   I took it back to the counter and they realized it was their error and offered to redo it while I waited.  BUT, they couldn't find any more Mariners bats made up! The young clerk said they had had a couple of big tours of Westerners during the last week.

Then they offered to ship it once the factory produced more Mariner logo bats, said it would be within a couple of weeks.  Well, what to do?  I agreed, darn, I wanted that bat!

Then while I was re-filling out the order sheet with a mailing address, the guy asked me if there were any of the bats hanging on the wall that I particularly liked (It was a display that had all of the different lacquer colors of the bats, but without the team logos.).  I thought he was just making small talk, but when I said I thought the two-toned reddish ones were really neat, he took it down from the wall and proceeded to personalize it for me! He not only gave me that one, but also the one messed up with the Marlins logo (said they would just scrap it if I didn't want it...)!  So when the Mariners one gets shipped, I will end up with THREE big league bats! Talk about great customer service!!!

Next we headed to Churchill Downs.  It is just off of I-65, on our way back to the KOA --

This bronze statue of the thoroughbred Barbaro is just outside the grounds.  (Barbaro was the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who broke his leg while running the Preakness and fought a valiant battle for survival until he was finally euthanized in 2007.) The way it is mounted, it shows him with all four feet off the ground as he runs --

The Kentucky Derby Museum is located just to the left of the track entryway --

Part of the museum had some actual full-size starting gates.  Forry couldn't resist trying them out --

The year and name of every winner of the Kentucky Derby since the first race in 1875 are posted along the buildings in white. A very few are in gold.  This is the first of the gold ones, the very first horse to win the Triple Crown, Sir Barton --

A statue of Aristides, the winner of the 1875 race guards the entrance to the paddock area --

Our General Admission to the Museum included viewing the film, The Greatest Race, which is shown in 360 degrees around you in the Great Hall.  You sit on stools and keeping turning yourself around to see what's going on around you.  The film includes black and white footage from the very earliest races up to the colorful movies of the present day.  Our admission also included a 30 minute guided Historic Walking Tour, which actually took us down to the mile-long oval track.  It's very sandy feeling with small amounts of clay loam. There are approximately 700 horses in the area barns that work out on the track on a regular basis all year-around.

This is the Winner's Circle where the blanket of roses is draped over the winning horse -- but only the winner of the Kentucky Derby (Other races have another area closer to the grandstand.). The grassy area is the infield where thousands gather to party during the race ($40 admission ticket).

This is looking back up at the famous grandstand with its historic twin towers. Chairs in the bottom "boxes" are plain old metal folding chairs.  The seats in "Millionaires Row" are up in the sixth floor on the far sides of the grandstand ($20,000 ticket with a minimum purchase of three years worth).

The Fall racing season starts next month with the Breeder's Cup.  The writing along the balconies is advertising the sponsor, Emirates Airlines.

We drove back to Sheperdsville to an excellent -- but hole-in-the-wall -- Mexican restaurant we found on Urban Spoon, an iPhone app recommended to me by my friend Leslie.  We had their steak frijoles plate for two.  We both worked on it, but still had enough left to bring home for lunch tomorrow.