国家地理:Louisville Slugger 棒球球棒

（单词翻译）

Branded on the American conscious and burned into the national psyche¹, since 1884 Louisville Slugger has been turning out bats for some of the best players in baseball. Today a museum surrounds the factory in downtown Louisville Kentucky. One version of slugger lore² has it that the first Louisville slugger was turned out by John Hillerich. One day a visiting pro-player, Pete Browning from the Louisville Eclipse³ Team came to town.

Hillerich was (was) playing hooky from work one day, and went to the game to watch the Eclipse play. And Pete broke his bat, and according to legend, anyway, er, he told Pete, or asked Pete to come down to a shop after the game -- He'd make a bat for him. So he turned a bat for him. And the next day Browning supposedly once again went 4-for-4 and that sort of started the trend.

And the tradition was born. The name Louisville Slugger became a registered trademark⁴, one of the oldest in the country. And almost immediately it was marketed with star power.

In those days sporting goods were sold through hardware stores and he would go up to these guys and say how would you like to sell the exact model that Honus Wagner uses and (and) exact in every detail. And so that was really the beginning of our success, and since that time, probably, er, I know over eighty percent of the hitters in the Hall of Fame were under contract to Louisville Slugger.

Nearly a million wood bats roll out of the Louisville plant each year with some 200,000 designed especially for professional baseball. But more important than even the trademark name, is what many players know as the sweet spot, carefully marked on each bat.

We brand it on the flat, ninety degrees off, so if you hold the bat up with the trademark facing up, no matter if you are a right or left-hand batter⁵, the strongest part of the bat is facing the pitcher⁶.

There are many exhibits at the museum but the main attraction is still the process that turns sticks of wood into wonders, where the boys of the summer can dream of base hits and grand slams and world series all year long.


psyche: The spirit or soul. 精神或灵魂
pitcher: 【棒球】The player who throws the ball from the mound⁷ to the batter. 投手