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LOUISVILLE, KY and ST. LOUIS – Yesterday morning I took 20 cuts in a batting cage using the same model bat used by Ken Griffey Jr.

Tony and I woke up in Louisville, Ky. on Monday and started our week with a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, a building that just sort of pops up in the business district out of nowhere.

A guide, definitely schooled in the history of the game and the bat-making process, led us on a roughly 45-minute tour of the company’s history. The current employees helped out a lot too, as one guy demonstrated the old process for making a bat that included carving tool and lathe.

It used to take Louisville Slugger workers 30 minutes to carve a pro model bat. Now in the automated machines, they can do one in 30 seconds.  Lacquering and finishing pro model bats is still done by hand—they were working on an order for Alex Gordon while we were there.
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PITTBURGH – It’s been about 10 days since the Pittsburgh Pirates finished the latest chapter in their rebuilding project – yeah, the one that has lasted nearly 20 years now.

Tony and I made our first journey through PNC Park this afternoon It was interesting seeing the jerseys on sale in the team’s souvenir shop – the most recognizable name was Ryan Doumit.

The flags flying on light poles outside the ballpark featured guys like Garrett Jones and Ramon Vazquez. This is a team seemingly intent on trading every position player on its roster.

As we wandered PNC Park, with its jutting outfield and views of several bridges and the skyline in the outfield, it’s almost as though ownership thinks the beauty of the ballpark outweighs the need to spend the money to put a major league product on the field. Yes, Delwyn Young might be a perfectly fine role player. But he batted third in the lineup today.

I said to my brother “Any team with Delwyn Young batting third doesn’t have a good immediate future.”

He reminded me that Young was leading the team in some hitting categories. Again, I said “Any team with Delwyn Young leading the team in major hitting categories doesn’t have a good immediate future.”

It’s not that the cupboard is completely bare. Stephen Pearce hit two homeruns today. And Andrew McCutchen has been as good as advertised since the team brought him up.

But deals like the one that allegedly cleared space for McCutchen – Nate McLouth to Atlanta for three prospects – are the reason I am suspicious of team ownership’s motives. If they had a history of turning those deals into an improved product or at least into improved prospects for the future, one might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But that’s not the case with these guys.

Out of curiosity I rewound through yahoo to find out what the Pirates’ starting lineup was on April 2, 2008. It is listed below. Shockingly, seven of the eight position players are no longer with the team. A look at the team’s first five starting pitchers of the 2008 season revealed that two are still on the team, two have been traded, and one is out of baseball. There was talk that one of the guys that is left, Zach Duke, was on the block before the deadline.

The lineup and where those players are currently is below:
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TOLEDO, Ohio – The players’ names are less recognizable but the sights, sounds and smells are the same and the setting is even a bit more intimate.

When Tony and I planned this trip we started by picking a couple of main stops (Canton for the NFL inductions and Pittsburgh for the renowned ballpark) then started filling in some blanks.

We decided to make a stop in Toledo because Fifth Third Field was once named the Best Minor League Ballpark in America. Because of traffic, we arrived for the Toledo/Gwinnett game in the middle of the third inning. Before we saw a pitch, we’d made friends with a quartet of seniors in the row behind us, two of whom will be celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary tomorrow. Congratulations, folks.

Located in the middle of downtown Toledo, we found parking about five blocks away for $5 and bought tickets for $9 each. The neighborhood has some vacant buildings, but also has a couple lively restaurants and bars. Then suddenly across the street we saw people milling around a decorative fence and we realized we had arrived at the park.

The game itself was a little less than exciting – a scoreless tie was quickly broken with an eight run inning for the Mud Hens. More impressive to me were the great viewing points – even our seats in deep right field faced the pitcher and batter, though our view of the right fielder was obscured a bit.

We wandered around the park, visiting standing room areas in centerfield and picnic tables between left and center. The concessions weren’t anything incredibly out of the ordinary, but their two souvenir shops – one of which (The Swamp Shop) appeared to be the main store and one of which was smaller, were both staffed by friendly people who appeared to be enjoying their employment at the ballpark.

And we saw Brent Clevlen, a second round pick of the Detroit Tigers in 2002 who has excelled in the minors but just not quite made it yet in the bigs, hit a moon shot homer that first landed on an awning in deep right center field and then kept bouncing until it landed likely in the street outside the park.

It was a nice way to relax after a six-hour drive from the outskirts of Milwaukee. As my brother put it, “if I lived here, I’d have season tickets.”

RACINE, Wis. – Destination Canton, Ohio started after work this evening. About six hours on the road took us to Milwaukee, where we hunted down Miller Park.

The team was out of town and, save for some street lights, it was dark. We stopped and snapped a few photos but didn’t really get a true sense for the park.

But we took a brief drive around Selig Drive, getting as much of a peak at the exterior of the ballpark as we could. One observation my brother made was that in an era where ballparks are being built in smaller, more intimate settings, Miller Park appears to be larger than life – and somewhat resembling a spaceship from at least one angle.

We’ll make it back for a game at some point.

Actually, one aspect of the area we were both intrigued by is Helfaer Field, which according to Wikipedia is a little league park located where the infield at the Brewers’ former home, Milwaukee County Stadium, used to be. There was someone finishing up maintenance work there when we drove the perimeter of Miller Park, so the lights were still on. It was a nice, well-kept spot for little leaguers and a fitting tribute to the former park.