Issue 2: Bat Outta Louisville
Two bat sculptures, alike in dignity, in fair Louisville where we lay our scene
Most people from Louisville probably spend effectively no time walking on its Main st, a common symptom of sprawl. It’s a shame since it’s where most of Louisville’s cultural institutions, high and low, reside. If you were to walk down Main st, from the exit to 65 to the West, the many museums, parks, and bourbon distilleries might not make much of an impression. But then, you get to the bats.
The first is a 120-foot Louisville Slugger baseball bat that leans against the Louisville Slugger Museum at 800 W. Main Street. The second is a 30-foot sculpture of the nocturnal animal attached to the side of Caufield’s Novelty at 1006 W. Main Street. Provided you can clear a highway overpass, these bats sit a literal stone’s throw away from each other. The artistic merit of each, similarly, remains intertwined.
The Louisville Slugger is an absolutely fine bat with superlative marketing. The wooden bats are beautiful—especially the really old ones you see on the very expensive and boring tour of the museum—but there’s no evidence that the Slugger was a much better bat than anything else made in the early 20th century. What is abundantly clear from the museum is that the Slugger manufacturers were incredibly savvy businessmen. They became the first sporting goods company to sign a professional athlete, some guy named Honus Wagner. Things really got going in 1918, when they signed a guy who played so well that over 100 years later, two of his records still stand. Later, he sued a candy company that stole his name and lost.
The Louisville Slugger bat sculpture is an inflated replica of the bat the candy bar guy would have used. The carved wood is replaced with painted carbon steel. When you accidentally knock into it while your family member attempts to get a photo, the tall bat rings hollow. It is hard to have higher expectations for a monument to good marketing.
The Largest Bat in the World: Plop
The second bat is just down the street, on the side of Caufield’s Novelty, a charming store in its third location. In a pre-Amazon and pre-temporary retail store universe, Caufield’s was the main place Louisville denizens would go to buy Halloween costumes, though it offered a lot more. The massive store is genuinely weird, filled with dumb, potentially racist costumes, but also genuine expertise. It was the kind of place a kid could turn a passive interest in sleight-of-hand into a lifelong passive interest in sleight-of-hand. (Hey, no one’s a magician.)
The metal mammalian resident of Caufield’s was built and installed after the gigantic Slugger down the road. Kerry Caufield, grandson of the original Caulfield and bat designer, builder, and installer, said he built it as a kind of a prank. “I thought it’d be funny to have the other big bat on Main street.” The sculpture itself is infinitely charming, likely because the bat is rendered upside down and at rest. One can imagine the terror that would fill any passerby if the bat had its arms outstretched, fully in flight. The bat’s red eyes somewhat undermine the bat’s serene visage, but again, that’s all part of the fun. Still, as much as I love the Caufield’s bat (which is a lot!) it simply doesn’t do much beyond make me want to buy some face paint.
The Other Largest Bat in the World: PlopHave something you’d like me to review? Please reply to this email.