If one were to walk along the streets surrounding downtown’s Louisville Slugger Museum they might not be aware of just what the idea was surrounding the bats and home plate plaques, however it’s actually quite an honor that the museum and Louisville Slugger has been distributing now for some time.
This is Louisville Slugger’s Walk of Fame, surrounding the museum to a mile out the “Walk” honors inductees who were under contract with the iconic brand and made notable contributions to the sport, the brand, or both.
Each honoree receives a statue of the model bat used by that athlete and a plaque, made to look like a home plate which tells about just why that athlete is being honored; these sports art pieces are all designed by Wyatt Gragg; inductees are decided on by the Louisville Slugger management team.
If you happen to be around the museum why don’t you keep your eyes open for these displays, right outside of the museum look for Pete Browning, Josh Gibson, Honus Wagner, Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth and Dr. Dot Richardson.
Going out to Eighth Street is Ty Cobb, Lou Gherig, Hank Greenberg, James Bell, Rogers Hornsby, Hank Wilson, Napoleon Lajoie, Oscar Charleston, Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, and George Sisler.
Go up a street to seventh and you will be greeted by Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Robin Yount, Roberto Clemente, Tris Speaker, George Brett, Frank Robinson, Eddie Matthews, Johnny Mize, Cal Ripken Jr., Al Simmons, Billy Williams, Al Kaline, and Ralph Kiner.
Then at sixth the honorees are Mel Ott, Joe Jackson, Joe Morgan, Carl Yastrzemski, Ernie Banks, Andre Dawson, Tony Perez, Ken Griffey Jr., and Carlton Fisk.
Meanwhile fifth street shows reverence to Roger Marris, Eddie Murray, Willie Stargell, Rod Carew, Pete Rose, Tony Gwynn, Fred McGriff, Jeff Bagwell, Willie McCovey, and Dave Winfield.
The walk then continues on first street with nods to Lisa Fernandez, Wade Boggs, and Kirby Puckett.
Down Floyd Street is Monte Irvin, Harmon Killebrew, and Duke Snider and Preston Street has displays for Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, and Joe Dimmagio, all that said this walk appears to be expanding so while it’s difficult to tell just who will be the next in the walk it is certainly something to look out for downtown.
Image courtesy of Traveling Canucks
