Sports & your teeth? Kentucky's long history with baseball?

As parents across the state make their annual pilgramage to the local sporting goods store for that (no so cheap) sports equipment, one (not-so expensive) item often gets overlooked and it could prevent the most damage. What is it? Also, on this all-star baseball week, several local players were called to the big leagues in this week's MLB draft. We'll take a look at Kentucky's history with baseball!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Coming up this week on Kentucky Focus. Fall sports will be ramping up around
the Commonwealth, and parents all aroundthe state we'll be heading to their favorite
sporting goods store to buy some notso cheap athletic gear. Well, one
thing that could go a long wayin preventing injuries for your kids. Well,
that's the subject of our conversation thatcoming up. Plus, it was
Major League Baseball's All Star Break.Several local college players also were drafted by

(00:24):
Major League Baseball over the week,and low and behold, the Commonwealth of
Kentucky is home to one of baseball'smost iconic treasures. We'll talk about the
history of baseball in and around theCommonwealth as we take a field trip.
I'm Scott Fitzgerald. That's all comingup this week on Kentucky Focus. Welcome
to Kentucky Focus on the Kentucky NewsNetwork, the show that looks at issues

(00:45):
affecting the Commonwealth and its citizens.We cover state politics, in history,
human interest stories, sports, andeven entertainment. It's Kentucky Focus on kNN.
Well. According to the American GeneralAssistance Association, some fifteen million Americans
experience some type of sports related dentalinjury. Each year, as school gets
ready to get back into session andfall sports ramp up practice, parents and

(01:07):
athletes again will be making their annualpilgrimage to their favorite sports store for their
shoulder pads, helmets, and shinguards and typically the last item to go
that would be the mouthguard. DoctorPat Carroll, with the exceptional dentistry here
in Kentucky, joins us to talkabout why your teeth are just as important
as the rest of your body dot. Carroll has served as the team dentist
for the Loobal Bats, the BellomentKnights, the Lobal Panthers hockey team,
and you can find more information atKentucky and a dentil dot com dot Good

(01:32):
morning, thanks for joining us.Oh great, Scott, thanks for having
me. I appreciate it outstanding.I appreciate you taking the time. I
know you're well versed in this andone of the things, Doc, we
don't pay enough attention to when itcomes to our bodies in the fall sports
season, that are our teeth.So tell me a little bit about what
are the top injuries you've seen oryou will see when it comes to your
teeth in sports and starting good athing I'd like to point out is I've

(01:52):
been in dentistry now about forty years, and I've been, as you said,
the team dentist for many teams,hockey teams, basketball teams, nocer
teams. And the one thing Iwant people to hear right now, listen
to this. In those forty years, I have never treated a dental injury
on anyone that is wearing a mouthguard. So, if you take nothing away
from this is forty years, allthese teams, if you wear the mouthguard,

(02:14):
I've never treated a dental injury.Now, other people that weren't wearing
mouthguards lots of dental injuries. Thething with mouthguards is you were talking in
the opening about you know you're goingto the store to beat kitch for helmet,
getcher whatever. The mouthguards should be, in my opinion and most general
opinions, should be part of theequipment, just like the helmet, the
shoulder pads. And we hear alot of excuses of why people don't wear

(02:38):
them. People say, well,they're they're not comfortable, or I can't
breathe. Well, the first thingI want to let people know is there
is no oxygen passed through teeth.I promise a mouthguard is not keeping different
breathing. And if you think abouthow many of us walk around with a
helmet on our head, right ofus, right, So yeah, it's
inconvenient to put the helmet on toplay hockey or football. But you know

(02:59):
you used to it the same waywith the mouthpiece. You know the statistics
and looking at the research, you'resixty that's six zero times more likely to
have an oral injury without a mouthguardthan if you're wearing the mouthguard. Academy
General Industry estimates mouthguards prevent more thantwo thousand oral injuries a year. If
you think about mouthguard protects you froma lot of things. It protects you

(03:20):
from chip te it protects you fromknocking a tooth out. If you knock
a tooth out, and I've seenthese, you know, the tooth isn't
all by itself. It sits inbone. So if you get a traumatic
injury that knocks your tooth out,chance you're going to break some bone.
If the mouthguard helps prevent al veelerfractures, it to some extent helps prevent
concussions. Now it's not going toprevent a concussion. If you get knocked

(03:43):
down and you slam your head,you know, hit your head on the
turf or hit your head on theboards at the hockey rink. But if
you take a blow to the chinwhich knocks the mandible, if you think
about the lower jawbone blocked up intothe skull, that's another way people get
concussions. Well, if you havea math guarding between there, you stop
those two bony pieces from hitting,so you can prevent concussion from those kind

(04:05):
of things. And then one thingthat people talked about, and you and
I are talking about youth sports rightnow, have you treated belopment and hockey
people. I've treated a valse teeth, which is the tooth getting knocked out.
Yes, we can fix it asa dentist. But if you get
a tooth knocked out, a coupleof things you need to think about is
it's not going to be cheap toreplace it. Well, these days,

(04:26):
the best way to do it iswith an implant, which is where we
actually put something into your bone andwe put a tooth thought it. However,
you sports, like your son ifhe was playing and he got a
tooth knocked out, we can't doan implant in a sixteen or an eighteen
year old kid, because they've gotthree or four more years, five more
years of growing to dude, whenthat bone in your face grows, the

(04:47):
implant may not come along with it. So we have to wait boys till
they're about twenty one, twenty two, girls twenty because they mature quickly both
mentally into the las right son.So if you get a tooth knocked out
in this time frame, you're gonnahave to wear something removable for four or

(05:08):
five years. That's an inconvenience.It's never quite as esthetic. And so
those are things that kids don't thinkabout that they really should. Again Doctor
Pat Carroll with the exceptional dentistry herein Kentucky and for more information just visit
Kentucky and a dental dot com dotWhat about it? If I have braces?
Can I wear a mouthguard? IfI have braces, yes, you
can, and you really should.You know, you take a blow in

(05:30):
football, lacrosse, hockey, field, hockey, whatever, and you don't
really hit your teeth, but youknow, you send that lower lip through
your front teeth and you get thisreal soft teeth. You just mastery each
your lip if you wear a mouthguard over that. You know, you're
not going to send your teeth throughyour your lip. Same thing with braces.
You've got lots of little sharp wiresand stuff. You take a blow,
you got a lot of soft tissuetrauma. There used to be the

(05:50):
types of mouthguards you know a lotof us. You know, you go
to Dicks and you buy the onethat kind of sticking in, or you
go to Dicks or whatever forty goodstore is and buy the boiling bo and
those all work pretty well. TheAmerican Dental Association I actually has given their
seal of approval to a thing calledgame on mouthguard. You know, instead
of boiling, you actually kind ofmicrowave it and it forms really easily to

(06:11):
the teeth. It's a really goodone. And then you can get a
little more fancy. Go to yourdentists, have them make impressions or scan
your teeth and have a custom madeone. And that's what I used to
do for a lot of the professionalathletes and some of the college athletes.
But quite honestly, most of thecollege athletes that I work with now have
gone to something like the game onmouthguard, and they seem to work really
fine. My thing is It's kindof like anything. We want to make

(06:32):
it easy to get them. Sothe easierness get them, the better they're
gonna wear. So if you cango find a game on mouthguard or even
the boiling bites, those will servea good function. Doctor Pat Carroll with
exceptional dentistry talking with this Kentucky anda dental dot com is the website if
you want more information. Okay,Doc, So I've convinced my kid to
wear one. Now got them fitted, looks great? How important one is

(06:53):
it to clean? And how doI clean out a mouthguard? What I
always tell people, honestly is thebest thing is either just some like hand
and so being anybody material dial soapyou have in your in your bathroom,
just get a toothbrush that you don'tuse, brush it real well with that
and if you want to rinse itwith some listening or something to make it
taste better. But yes, youdo want to clean them because they do
get nasty. I mean I playedfootball in high school and you know I

(07:15):
remember when my mouthpieces by the endof the summer. One thing Steph Curry,
arguably one of the best basketball playersever guy wears a mouthpiece has warn't
a mouthguard forever. Now people say, the dude never has it in his
mouth. If you watch stuff,yeah, you know he's always got to
say, but you've watched it.The only time he has a sticking out
is when he's like shooting a freethrow or he's walked back. When he's
actually doing something, the mouthguard isin there. So you know, I

(07:39):
fay coach to say I don't likehim, because the kids are always playing
with like, dude, as longas they keep them in their mouth during
the action, we're okay. Becausepeople like, well, basketball, if
you're six foot and you're never sixtysix, the elbows right at your chicklate
level, you know, taking elbowor a vaults. So we've done many
implants for some college athletes. Baseball, people like a baseball You know what
what am I worried about? Inbaseball? They're and second basements and short

(08:01):
stops. People that play for thebats went to the majors and stuff.
Somebody comes in sliding spikes out secondbasement, kitching the mouth. So yeah,
I mean, people think I reallyneed to wear one in baseball,
Yeah, I really think you should. In soccer, we really don't make
them wear. As you know.I've referee to high school and competitive soccer
for about twenty five years, andtwo instances where I left a game and

(08:22):
brought a kid back to the officebecause two guys are going up the top
of the box for a header andone I'm shorter and in the chint.
I remember one time I was andeverybody stops and you can just see the
tooth just flying through the air.You know, we stopped the game.
We find the tooth. I said, guys, we want to three man
to a two man year, bringthem back to the office and bring them

(08:43):
playing it. Those kinds of thingscan be done. It's just that,
you know, if you wear themouth guard, we don't have to do
that. You know. That's thething. You know. It's like anything
people say, I can't get yousir, Like man, when I was
going up, we never wear aseatbelt. I can't get in the car
now that I putting my seatbelt on. So like you get used to wearing
that mouthguard, you will wear it. Doctor Pat Carroll's joining us now with

(09:05):
of Course Exceptional Dentistry Kentucky and adental dot com. If you have more
questions for Doc Carroll and what aboutsingular sports dock like cycling Sking definitely,
And here's something that I think wouldbe interesting on those same lines. There's
been some articles in the dental journalslately something that I didn't see around four
or five years ago. Now we'reseeing more facial and tooth travel from and

(09:26):
it's like, what could that be? Bird scooters? The scooters everybody,
Yeah, get around, Yeah,they're having racks. People are fall with
facial trauma. So anytime you've gotthat risk, it's not a bad idea.
It's like that, what's your commerciallypay me now or pay me later?
If you come to the dentist,it's gonna cost you time money.
I think I'm really good at whatI do, but I'm not as good

(09:46):
as the guy that gave you youroriginal equipment, guy Gal. With everything.
It's gonna be good, but it'snot gonna be that good. So
you know, that's why Preserve prevents. That's the Monstra doctor Pat Carroll joining
us again with Exceptional Dentistry Kentucky anda Dental dot com is where you want
to go if you have any questionsfor doc Whatevera's my Dynasty's Tony's cruises.
Dynasty's putting my mouth back together.He makes it fun to go to the

(10:09):
dentist again. For sure, docswitching gears, families will now be get
adjusting to sleep schedules to accommodate inthe school year. How important is it
to making oral healthcare a part ofmaybe that new sleep routine. And how
young should folks start with their kids. The American Pediatric Dental Association will tell
you when you've got a baby that'syou know, one one and a half,
you should start with a little goalsand wiping their gums down and those

(10:31):
kind of things. And you know, all of us know during pretty school.
But like you said, when youget started getting school and practices and
a couple of things you think about. The first thing, eating schedules get
a little different. And so Ihad to school and I went at grab
hersy bar or whatever, give mesome energy or an energy drink. You
know. The one thing got sports. I forgot to think about this since

(10:52):
we're time about this gatorade, allthis stuff full of sugar. It's good
for you, but if you're chuggingdown the gatorade, you gotta rush your
teeth. That's important. Snocks thingslike that. Change, you know,
for old care becomes really important becauseof not just the schedule change, but
the eating change. If you canjust give me twice a day, give
me two minutes twice a day,that's the important thing. Now, if

(11:13):
you said my kid is to themost important time to brush, if you're
going to annoint pick one is beforebed, because that's when you sleep at
night. The kid's mouth drives outusually all this stuff to sugar. They
hate. All during the day,it just sits there, percolates, causes
the decay. So if you needto get that off before you go to
bed. What I always stuck peopleis, you know you brush at night

(11:35):
for yourself. You brush in themorning for your friends because you know you
don't want to you know, youwant to be in the same room with
you. If a night gets skipped, you know, don't beat yourself up
about it, but try to getin that routine. It's like, I
know your sixteen year old son andyou're five minutes from twenty pounds heavier than
me, But get upstairs and brushyour teeth. Doctor Pat Carroll joining us
having a great conversation about our teeth. A head of the New School year
in the new sports season again heis with Kentucky and a dental dot com

(11:58):
Exceptional Dentistry if you have questions forhim here in Kentucky and final question for
you down before you let you go. A lot of terns may be listening.
They're getting to that, Oh,the kids are a little older in
creeps, the braces, conversation andmore expensive oral care. How important is
it to not wait to act onthat when your child needs care like that?

(12:20):
A couple of things there. It'sreally important Doctor Shoemaker and doctor Welfare,
doctor Hammond, Hammond and myself andwith Exceptional the Dentistry, we're really
really clued into. There's so manythings that impact truth development at those six
to seven to eight to nine.We're really looking because, believe it or
not, away, tongue, posture, tongue ties, all those things.

(12:41):
Your tongue is so important in thedevelopment of your art just and how everything
comes in together. So we're askingparents, you know, you know,
if your kids snore in when yourkids watching TV, is his mouth playing
it open? So that kind oflets us know there may be an airway
problem. There's an airway. Theproblem the tongue is not going to the
right position to start forming the job. So that young we should start looking
at. Then maybe everything's okay,but there's a kid's getting to be eighteen

(13:05):
to eleven, we're looking like there'sreally not enough room to get everything in.
Maybe at that time we do somethingthat's called phase one or denancia,
which general dons really don't get intomuch. It's mostly the orthodnis. We're
trying to do something to expand thearts, to give them enough room before
they get into that gross but beforethey hit puberty, so that the bones
aren't solid and we can create enoughroom to get the teeth in so that

(13:28):
the old days when you and Iwere growing up, Oh there's not enough
room, Let's pull a permanent toothand then you know, we'll get enough.
But what we know that that's notgood. So what we do at
this real young age just try tobe sure that there's enough room to get
all everything at proper arts development,proper phase development, and then everything's going
to have room to come in andit's just not gonna be good. Well,
then, you know, kids usuallytwelve fourteen, fifteen, that's when

(13:50):
they'll start getting into the traditional bracesthere's just to kind of straighten everything up.
So but there is something to belooked at from the time they're four,
you know, if you know it'syour kids ignoring reading, those are
really important things to that kind ofstuff. I'm gonna tell you one quick
funny story that when I was workingwith the AHL team here for the Panthers,
one of the guys had a permanentbridge. He'd been in the NHL
and it had got knocked out,so we made him a nice temporary bridge.

(14:13):
So he's out there skating and Iwas actually sitting behind the glass behind
the goalie at the time. Theguy gets pinned against the glass and he
sees him there and he just smilesbig, and the temporary bridge has gone
like, oh crap, you know, Carl, Shoot, what's going on
here? So then he goes skatingdown and I'm sitting behind the goalie and
all of a sudden, you know, he's looking around. He's fun to
see the goalie because I actors onthe other end. He kind of skates

(14:33):
out a few feet, pick somethingup, skates back to me, holds
it as the guy's temporary bridge flipsit over the glass. In between.
I'm resummitting the temporary bridge in here. I thought that was pretty good.
I think that might have been.And then the other thing when we were
doing hockey, just to get forpeople who don't wear mouthpieces, I would
sit with the physicians for the Tuckieteam. Guy goes down on the ice,

(14:54):
you know he's laying down. Well, if he gets up and they
just kind of skated him off,then we looking. I'd look at the
doc as they doct us for you. If he got up and they started
looking on the eyes, that wasfor me because they're looking for tea.
So you know those are things themup and put them back to in so
where are the mouth guards? Butwe don't have to do that, Doc,
You're you are the absolute best,my friend. You did miracles on

(15:16):
my mouth, got me over myfear of dentists, which ultimately cost me
a lot in the long run,but unfortunately you've been able to salvage most
of my mouth. Thank you somuch and always great to catch up what
we did, Doc, and nowwe appreciate all your time and folks again
want to see you over at ExceptionalDentistry, Kentucky and a Dental dot Com
is the website and folks can reachout to you. Guys do fantastic work.

(15:37):
Thank you Doc Well, Thank yous, guys. Good to talk to
you. Coming up. Baseball inKentucky. It has a long and rich
history. Also is home to oneof the most iconic baseball items, She'll
ever imagine. We'll talk about thatand more coming up next. They are
our love bugs and companions. Theyare our pets, our family, and
they make life better when we faceunexpected challenge. So do our pets.

(16:00):
That's why we're un amission to supportpeople and their pets. Whether donating a
bag of kibble, sharing an Instagrampost of a lost cat, or welcoming
a foster pet into your home,every bit of kindness counts. Visit Pets
and People Together dot org to learnhow to be a helper in your community.
Brought to you by Maddie's Fund,the Humane Society of the United States,

(16:21):
and the ad Council. Two down, here's a two two swinging in
as he struck him out, Camberrillcloses it out, and the National League
wins it. Alias Diaz with thehome run to give the NL the lead,
and the National League coming into Seattleand winning the All Star game for

(16:45):
the first time since two thousand andtwelve. Earlier this week, Major League
Baseball's nationally get into a nine gamelosing street with a dramatic three to twin
over the American League in the ninetythird edition of MLB's Midsummer Classic that would
be the All Star Game. Baseballhas a rich tradition in our areas.
We witnessed numerous players from the Commonwealthgo in the MLB Draft. But just

(17:07):
how deep is America's past time inour state. For answers to this and
more, we're on a field tripdown at the Louibal Slugger Museum down on
Main Street in downtown Louisville. Orwe're catching up with Nick Fuchs, marketing
manager with the iconic Baseball brand,standing in front of what they call the
Bad Vault here at the Slugger Museum. Nick Fuchs is joining us, and
Nick, first of all, thanksfor taking time to talk to us.
Tell me a little bit about thebad Vault here. Yeah, of course,

(17:30):
no problem. Happy to share someof our history with you. So
the bat ball is this room herethat has over three thousand original bat models
in it. When we used tomake bats by hand, the way that
our mastercraftsmen would do it. Sothey would get their order for whoever the
player is. They would come inhere and then they would take one of
these models down and then they wouldput it in front of their late and
kind of use it to measure theirprogress as they were carving the bat.

(17:55):
And these are all different models thatplayers have created. There's over three thousand
in here. Players like Babe Brews, Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, King,
Grimy Junior, They've all got modelsin this back ball. Is that
what they did in the old days. They come down here and actually get
their own bats. So Ted Williamswas actually the one that came down here
a lot. He would like tocome and actually pick out the wood that
we used to make his bat.I'm sure Babe was here a couple of

(18:18):
times as well. They didn't allalways come down here. There was a
lot of correspondence through you know,mail and stuff like that. But yeah,
Ted Williams is the one, probablythe most famous player that visited quite
often. Oh down here talking withNick Fugs at the Louisville Slugger Museum talking
about the history of baseball in Kentuckyand Nick how did hill Rich and Bradsbury
become involved with baseball and how didLouisville get to be sort of the epicenter

(18:40):
of the bat world. So wewere located in Louisville. Before we ever
even started making bats. We werea wood shop called JF. Hillerk and
Sons. We just made typical woodproducts of the age. This was mid
eighteen hundreds, so we were makingyou know, bedposts, butter churns,
port trailings, stuff like that.And then it was eighteen eighty four when
and Jay Frederick's son, but whowas an a princess, would worker with

(19:03):
him at the time, he waseighteen years old. He was a big
baseball fan, and we had ateam in Louisville called the Louisville Eclipse.
But went to a game one day. They had a player, star player
named Pete Browning, who at thetime was in a little bit of a
slump. Budd, being a woodworkerand a fan of baseball, liked making
bats. So they connected and PeteBrowning came with Bud back to the wood

(19:26):
shop, but turned him out acouple of bats, and then Pete turned
a season around using the rest awayand that's how we got started making baseball
bats. And you know, Pete'snickname was the Louisville Slugger because he was
a power hitter for the Louisville baseballteam. So that's kind of where we
got our name from. On therest of Sister, you guys get very
busy, not only the start ofthe year, but then you'll get busy
again in the fall. Tell uswhat your bat production is like throughout the

(19:48):
season here. Yeah, so we'realways making bats. You know, We've
got tons of orders that always comein. Players typically order one hundred bats
a season, so we make abouttwo million bats a year. So you
know, now as we're kind ofshifting in here into the second half of
the season, we're still making batswith players. A lot of them already
have had their orders, you know, obviously for the first half of the
season, but we're making them forthem. We're making them for minor league

(20:11):
players. You know, the MLBdraft just took place, and now there's
a whole bunch of new players thatare coming in that need wood bats.
There's always something you know, goingon here. And then we've got retail
bats as well that we make souvenirbats, you know, we're always turning
them out. So how does thatwork? And we just had the MLB
draft a lot of local players goingin the draft. How does that work?
Now? Does a players sign acontract and then once he decides,

(20:32):
okay, why do you Loival Slugger? Did they reach out to you?
So it kind of depends on theplayers. Some players know right away that
they want to swing a Louiville Sluggerbat, but there are other brands out
there too, so players might taketheir time and shop around a little bit,
and once they find one that theylike, if they want to sign
a contract, great, If not, they don't have to. We still
make bats for players that don't havecontracts with us. The main difference that
you'll see on the bat itself isplayers that have a contract with us will

(20:56):
get their signature on the bat.If they don't have a contract with us,
it'll just be a block lettering.Their name will just be in block
lettering on the end of the bat. We have a dedicated team that is
in contact with all these players,and we'll have players reach out to us
that just want to try our bats, and we'll have players that want to
try and design their own models.So we work with them on that.
There's various ways that we that weget that. We're down here at the

(21:18):
Louiville Slugger Museum with Nick Fuchs talkingall things the history of baseball in Kentucky
and standing in front of us,Nick is a pretty popular item, a
pretty heavy bat for a well knownbaseball player. Tell me about it.
Yeah, So this is one ofour premier artifacts here, the Babe Ruth
bat that he used in nineteen twentyseven. And for baseball history fans out
there, they might recognize nineteen twentyseven is the year that Babe Ruth set

(21:41):
the home run record for most homeruns in a single season. And so
this bat that we have here isthe bat that he used for the first
twenty one home runs of the sixtythat he ended up hitting that year.
And it's called the notch bat becauseif you look at the center brand there,
you'll notice that there are little marksabove the Louisville Slugger logo. It's
because after every home run that hehit, he put a little carved a

(22:03):
little notch in the bat to keeptrack and uh, and eventually when it
broke, he sent it back tous and he said, hey, you
know, I'm doing pretty well withthis this season so far, so make
me more. And and we did. And you know, he set that
record sixty home runs that stood foryou know a while until it was broken.
Have they have they put a valueon that bat and all? There's

(22:23):
a priceless it's priceless us. Imean, you know, this is this
is one of the artifacts that wejust love sharing with Guts. I mean,
it's really is such a rich pieceof baseball history. Wow. Yeah,
it's a great it's a great piece. All right. We're working our
way through the Louisville Slugger Museum,talking the history of baseball, not only
just in Louisville, but in Kentuckyin general. Nick Fuchs joins us with

(22:45):
the Slugger Museum, walking us throughso much to look at here, so
much to see. If you evercome down to Main Street in Louisville,
this is the place to be,that's for sure. What do we have
here, Nick, So this isanother one of our new permanent exhibits called
the Best Black Baseball Team You've Neverheard of? Back in around twenty eight
team, I think we got somephotographs that appear to depict players on Louisville's
old Negro Leagues team of the LouisvilleWhite Sox. Upon further investigation by our

(23:11):
curator, Bailey Mazi, and shedidn't really feel like that story made a
lot of sense, so she duga little bit deeper and actually found that
these were from a pre negro Leaguesteam called the Louisville Unions who were only
playing for just like a year ortwo. It was a team that had
kind of been lost to history,but we got these photographs and just through
some digging we found some old newspaperarticles and some stats from some of their

(23:34):
games. So we just felt likethis was an important story to share,
kind of a pioneer of baseball inLouisville that was kind of forgotten. We're
down doing Nick Feux down at theSlager Museum. Very busy time this time
of year, for sure. Nick. Do you get a lot of people
that have baseball artifacts turned into herein Louisville and Kentucky to sort of reach
out team and say, hey,by the way, we have this.

(23:55):
Yeah, we do get quite afew messages people having old bats or whatever
that they want to know what thevalue of is. We work with a
company called Hunt Auctions faced out ofPennsylvania. We have an annual auction with
them here every year, so theyare kind of our main partners that we
used to help identify some of thatinformation. But yeah, there are definitely
people that that love bringing their artifacts. Do you get a lot of former

(24:17):
family members that like to come downand see some maybe their old family members
that play ball. Yeah, yeah, we get that. We get that
pretty often as well. We've gotyou know, the signature wall out front.
There are so many people that justcome in and spend you know,
a lot of time just trying tofind their family member or maybe like an
old family friend that they know played. It's it's got all the signatures of
all the players that have ever hada contract. And I thought that you

(24:38):
is William play that they hide liveboy, Beep beep, get hold on
the old that boy in free Run. I'm trying what look to me?
I'm actually went and who I don'tAerica they und up five When Nick Fuchs

(25:00):
is taking us around here at theLouill Slugger Museum, is well continue to
talk to history of baseball in Kentuckyon this All Star weekend and so much
going on with the MLBACH draft andso many local players being taken in the
MLBA draft and a lot one playerthat got drafted, and he's come through
the Louiville quite a bit. We'restanding in front of his exhibit, that
would be Ted Williams. Tell UsNick a little bit about Ted's stay here
in one of the greatest hitters ofall time. I mean, you just

(25:22):
look at some of his stats.Five twenty one home runs, three forty
four batting average. He was thelast player to hit over four hundred for
a full season. People are keepingan eye on Louise Rise this year because
he's kind of approaching that mark,but Ted was the last player to do
it over a full season. Wehad a great relationship with Ted. He
would come to the factory quite often. He was just so fascinated with the

(25:45):
process of making bats. He wouldcome and he would pick out the wood
that we would use for his batshe designed. I mean, I don't
even know how many bad models thatare in our bat ball. There's a
story that I always love sharing aboutTed that just goes to show how particular
he was and how much he knewabout bats. There was a time that

(26:06):
we sent him a bat that hehad ordered, and he sent it back
to us and said that the handleis too thin. Our CEO at the
time, who was one of thehill Ricks, took that bat and then
they made another bat and he tookit up and met with him actually in
a hotel, and gave him aTed and he said, Ted, I
want you to take these bats.I want you to tell me what the
difference is. And so Ted tookboth of them and he picked him up

(26:27):
and he felt him and he said, this one is a tenth of an
inch on the handle. So hewas able to Yeah, he was able
to tell just that. I mean, you know, he could just how
men, you know, in thisday and age, when we have so
many precise instruments. I've seen thelathes you all use. I mean,
you get that down to a sciencein there, and he's able to pick

(26:48):
it up and go, hit thisis a tenth of an inch on Yeah.
Yeah, he was able to justtell by field, whereas most people
that would pick that bat up,they would think there was absolutely no difference
at all. Do you ever getany major leaguers, current major leaguers that
like to come through here every nowand then every now and then. None
of them do with the regularity thatye Ted did, but we do have
some major leaguers that come through everynow and then. Caller Kin Junior was

(27:08):
just here a couple of years ago. Every year we have a Living Legend
Award where we give an award toa former players. So this past November
we gave it to Jim Tomy,so he was here for that year.
Before that it was Derek Jeter.You know, we've given that a word
to the King of Junior, AndreGassin, Hank Aaron, Dave Winfield,
guys like that. But yeah,you know, every now and then we

(27:29):
will get former players or performer managersor just people like that. They just
want to come through and we gothrough the tour and every time it's going
to wrap it up for us forthis week on Kentucky Folks, is a
big thank you to doctor Pat Carrollwith exceptional dentistry here in Kentucky and for
more information or if you have questionsabout your teeth and sports, just all
gone to Kentucky and a dental dotcom. And thank you to Nick Fuchs

(27:51):
with Hillar Rich and Bradsbury or theLouisville Slugger Museum for talking all things,
of course baseball and Kentucky. Andmost importantly, thank you who the listener,
for taking time to join us foranother weekly edition of Kentucky Focus.
And again, if there's anything youhear and you'd like some fun to offer
some feedback, I'm what you hear, feel pretty shooting email. It's very
simple. Scott Fitzgerald at iHeartMedia dotcom. Scott Fitzgerald at iHeartMedia dot com

(28:15):
for all of us here at theKentucky News Network and Kentucky Focus, make
it a great week. We'll talkto you next week. I'm Scott Fitzgerald
Kentucky Focus on the Kentucky News Network, the show that looks at issues affecting
the Commonwealth and it's citizens. Wecover state politics, in history, human
interest stories, sports, and evenentertainment. It's Kentucky Focus on kNN.

(28:38):
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