For 45 years, 9 months and 8 days, Danny Luckett's office consisted of a spinning machine and a cloud of sawdust.
Before retiring Friday morning, Luckett turned his final baseball bat, one of an estimated 2½ million he created during nearly half a century making Louisville Sluggers for so many of the moments burned into the sport's history.
Hank Aaron's 715th home run came with a 35-inch, 33-ounce Model A99 run through Luckett's lathe. Ozzie Smith's "go crazy folks" home run in the 1985 National League Championship Series? Luckett and a K75 model. Joe Carter's World Series-winning home run in 1993 was a Luckett-spun J93 model, and nearly every Derek Jeter plate appearance came using a P72 turned by Luckett.
Every day, Luckett stepped out the door at 4:50 a.m., into the office at 5:30, inhaled the rich smell of metal shaping wood for 10 hours and witnessed his work as quickly as the same evening.
On Oct. 11, 1972, a request came in to the office that Johnny Bench needed new bats. Long before the advent of the computers that today dominate bat-making, Luckett made each bat by hand. Two representatives of Hillerich & Bradsby, the parent company of Louisville Slugger, drove 100 miles to hand deliver them to Bench.
In the ninth inning of the deciding game of the NLCS later that night, Bench hit a game-tying home run. Cincinnati went to the World Series thanks in large part to Luckett's bat.
"I take pride in what I do," Luckett said. "It's not just throwing a piece of wood in there and turning it."
Making baseball bats today is nothing like it was when Luckett started in September 1969. He was out of the Air Force and had bounced from job to thankless job. When Luckett went into the Kentucky state employment office and inquired about other opportunities, the veteran representative asked what he thought about making baseball bats.
"I don't care," Luckett said. "I need a job."
His apprenticeship lasted about a year, and he found peace in making something substantive out of billets of wood. Though Luckett wasn't the biggest baseball fan, he appreciated the history of Louisville Slugger.
"I'm in the Hall of Fame," Aaron once said. "I hit 755 home runs with that bat. I met Danny, who made just practically all of them. I need to carry him in with me."
Give me 20
With his team already leading 6-1 in the eighth inning, Los Angeles Dodgers phenom Joc Pederson tattooed a ball to deep center field at Marlins Park. So deep, in fact, that he thought it was a goner.
Turns out it didn't have the distance. Instead, it hit off the top of the wall as Pederson cruised into second with a double.
"Cruised" is the operative term there because Pederson didn't exactly get on his horse right out of the gate, instead trotting a bit as though he'd gotten all of that Jarred Cosart offering. So, after he came around to score on a Howie Kendrick single later in the inning, Pederson had to atone for his lack of hustle with dugout pushups.
Headlines
From sportspickle.com: "Sixers petitioning NBA to raise baskets to 13-feet"
From theonion.com: "Frustrated David Ortiz breaks bat boy over knee"
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Sports quiz
What team did Babe Ruth play for before joining the Boston Red Sox?
Sports answer
Ruth signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles in 1914.
Sports on 06/28/2015