Alicia Reeves' summer job makes a big hit

Madeline DeJournett photo Alicia Reeves shows off some of the "Louisville Slugger" bats which she got when she worked as a tour guide at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory this summer. The bat on the left is a personalized "Louisville Slugger" which she got for her Advance High School classmate Trenton Moses, who plays for Southeast Missouri State. Moses requested the "smith" finish.

That was the beginning of the "Louisville Slugger" bat factory. According to the legend, J. F. Hillerich thought the future was in swinging butter churns, and his son Bud had to talk his father into specializing in baseball bats, rather than the item which was popular at the time but which has since passed into the obsolete past.

Such are just some of the facts which Advance 2007 graduate Alicia Reeves had to learn for her summer job as one of twelve tour guides at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory in Louisville, Kentucky.

For two months, Reeves, who was one of only two female guides, gave seven tours a day. Each tour took 30 minutes, which Reeves filled with miscellaneous details about baseball, baseball bats, and the history of baseball.

"I know everything useless about major league bats!" said Reeves, who is attending Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama in the fall.

These details include the following:

* The plant in Louisville makes 1.6 million bats a year, or 2500 bats a day.

* They make about 60 percent of the bats being made in the U.S.

* They are crafted from a solid piece of maple or white ash wood called a "billet" 37 inches long and weighing 80-90 ounces. The longest bat is being used by Alfonso Soriano of the Chicago Cubs.

* There are four stations in the mill room: 1) Special brands, where the Louisville Slugger bat can be personalized, 2) All retail and minor league bats, which are cut out in 30 seconds. 3) the "pro bat" line for the major league players' bats. 4) the branding station, where they burn the brand on the bat. The plant has over 8500 players under contract, and their signatures are permanently stored in the facility. The signatures start with Honus Wagner, in 1905.

In fact, Reeves tells an interesting story of a man who came through the factory to see if he could get a bat with his grandfather's signature on it from 1941. The signature was still on file, and the grandson got his wish for a bat personalized with his grandfather's signature.

The different bats which Reeves got to handle include those of Derick Jeter of the New York Yankees, and those of Brendan Ryan and Alex Rodriguez.

The last step of the five-step process of making bats is the finish. All bats are hand-dipped to put a lacquer finish on them, and there are four finishes named after major league players: Tony Gwynn, eight-time batting champ of the San Diego Padres; and three former St. Louis Cardinal players - Andy Van Slyke, Rogers Hornsby, and Harry "the Hat" Walker.

The four finishes are hickory, black, smith, and clear. Interesting, there is a pink bat for use on Mother's Day, and Reeves had a neat story connected with the pink bat. It seems that Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers hit a couple of home runs with the pink bat, and he wanted to use the same bat the next day. This was not allowed, so he sent the bat back to the factory, where they re-dipped into the "smith" finish and rushed it back to Braun by the next day. He used it in the game, and no one ever knew that it was the same bat. That is the only bat which has ever been sent back.

Another interesting bit of trivia was Reeves' account of what they do with the sawdust, which is stored in a two-story grain bin. Forty to fifty pounds of sawdust is hauled away every day by a turkey farmer, who uses it for bedding.

"There are fifty to sixty workers on the floor at a time," Reeves explained. "A vacuum sucks up the sawdust as each bat is made, so the plant is very clean."

Reeves says that the highlight of her summer was that she got to give tours to the minor league players after the Triple A All Star Game, hosted at Louisville Slugger Field.

"I was sad to leave the museum and factory on the last day," Reeves said. "I had gotten attached to seeing some of the same people every day on my tour. There was a man named Danny Luclett, who had been working there for 40 years, from the time when the bats were hand-turned. He knew everything. I knew that I'd probably never see all these people again."

College will be starting soon, however, and Alicia Reeves will be concentrating on a degree in graphic design.

"I want to be an art teacher," said Reeves. "Mrs. (Jewell) Berrong, my art teacher, is my inspiration."

Who knows? Maybe Alicia Reeves can go back and work in the Louisville Slugger Plant next summer!