Batter up! Louisville Slugger museum celebrates a king of swing.

At 120 feet tall, the world’s largest baseball bat leans against the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. It’s a metaphor, perhaps, for how the long-cherished pastime of baseball towers over the United States – and this city.

“People pass by our Big Bat every day and know that major league ballplayers are swinging our bats made right here in Louisville,” says Andrew Soliday, the museum’s director of marketing.

Some of the game’s greatest heroes, from Jackie Robinson to Ted Williams, have wielded Louisville Sluggers since the Hillerich & Bradsby Co. began making them in 1884. For more than a century, these wooden Excaliburs were the undisputed go-to bats for Major League Baseball players.

Up to 85% of players who use Louisville Sluggers prefer ones made from dense maple, but birch and ash are options, too, says museum tour guide Hailey Bower. The 20-step construction process, with six quality checks, is partly automated with a lathe that whittles down a wooden billet into a 37-inch-long bat in 30 seconds. But the process also includes old-school craftsmanship.

For the final steps, the bat is branded with the Louisville Slugger mark and hand-dipped in paint for a two-tone finish. Contracted players, such as power-hitter Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies, get their signatures engraved on the stem. (Fun fact: Reject bats are ground to sawdust and used as bedding at a turkey farm.)

At the end of the tour, each visitor receives a small, forearm-sized bat. It’s mercifully less hefty than the Louisville Sluggers that Babe Ruth touted for their “driving power” and “punch that brings home runs.”

For more visual storytelling that captures communities, traditions, and cultures around the globe, visit The World in Pictures.