Many Greenbelt residents enjoyed participating in sports and other recreational activities. Some include football, rollerskating, basketball, tennis, horseshoes, and of course baseball. The Greenbelt Museum contains several artifacts that were used in these activities, such as a tennis racquet, a baseball mitt, and a baseball bat.
The baseball bat is an authentic Louisville Slugger wooden bat. The bat in noticeably old, but it is a fairly good condition. The color of the wood has become darked some over the years, but details such as the logo, the trademark signature, and the weight of the bat on the knob are still easily legible.
The baseball bat measures 35" in length, and is 2 1/2" in diameter at its thickest point. On the knob at the base of the handle, the inscribed number "35" indicates that the bat weighs 35 ounces, which is just over two pounds. For a child playing baseball in Greenbelt, a 35 inch, 35 ounce bat is seems extremely large, however there was not a sporting goods store in Greenbelt. Therefore, sharing bats with each other was common among baseball baseball players in Greenbelt.
All over the bat, marks from where the baseball struck the bat can still be seen. Some of the marks are clear enough that you can determine where the seams of the baseball when the ball struck the bat. Another sign of use is the dirty tape that had been wrapped around the bat, between the handle and the barrel. Underneath the tape the bat had been cracked, and putting the tape on the bat was probably done so that the bat could still be used.
Although the bat has been repeatadly marked by baseballs, the Louisville Slugger logo can still be clearly seen. The logo is an oval that is 4" long and 2.5" tall, and runs lengthwise along the bat. The inside of the logo contains the general company information. The top line of text inside the logo says "Louisville Slugger", and underneath that is the number "125". The next line says "Hillerich & Bradsby Co.", which is the name of the company that manufactures the Louisville Slugger baseball bats. Below that is the phrase "Made in the USA," and the bottom line says "Louisville, KY", which is where the Hillerich family has lived since 1842, and also where the first Louisville Slugger bat was made. Finally, on the outside of the oval, on the side closest to the barrel, is the word "Powerized", with lightning bolts over the letters. This is the same logo that has been imprinted on every baseball bat ever since the name Louisville Slugger became a registered trademark in 1894.
Another trait of a Louisville Slugger baseball bat is the signature of the player that the bat was made for, which is positioned about three inches from the end of the bat. On the bat in the Greenbelt Museum, the signature belonged to the famous New York Giant, Mel Ott. All of the professional ball players had their names engraved on their bats, but for the children that played baseball in Greenbelt, the signature on their bats were often those of their favorite player. The child who owned the Mel Ott bat in Greenbelt probably looked up to him greatly, and it probably made the child feel proud to own a replica of one of his bats.