Johnny Cool
Cooler than You
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2001
- Posts
- 1,216
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Here's a yarn about how the Louisville Slugger Museum got the point.
When the baseball museum put up a billboard proudly proclaiming that it had "more old bats than a needlepoint convention," irate needlepointers swung back -- and connected.
Workers painted over most of the phrase on the billboard this week, leaving the words "old bats" above a picture of a century-old bat. The museum has an extensive collection of baseball bats.
The billboard was visible from Interstate 64, one of the busiest routes into town.
"We really didn't want to offend anyone," Bill Williams, the museum's executive director, said Wednesday. "We just learned our lesson -- that there are a lot of needlepointers out there."
The museum happens to share Louisville with the headquarters of a national embroiderers' group, whose members cried foul.
"I personally don't like the reference of needlepoint convention attendees being referred to as 'old bats,'" said Bonnie Key, office manager at the headquarters of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. "I'm sure they saw humor in that, but I know our membership would not."
The organization has 20,000 members, Key said, adding, "Our membership is from probably 6 years old up to 100 years old."
Plenty complained to the museum, which is owned and operated by the Hillerich & Bradsby Co., maker of Louisville Slugger bats.
Williams wasn't even safe at home. His wife is a partner in a uniform and embroiderers' shop, and "she let me know she didn't think it was funny," he said.
When the baseball museum put up a billboard proudly proclaiming that it had "more old bats than a needlepoint convention," irate needlepointers swung back -- and connected.
Workers painted over most of the phrase on the billboard this week, leaving the words "old bats" above a picture of a century-old bat. The museum has an extensive collection of baseball bats.
The billboard was visible from Interstate 64, one of the busiest routes into town.
"We really didn't want to offend anyone," Bill Williams, the museum's executive director, said Wednesday. "We just learned our lesson -- that there are a lot of needlepointers out there."
The museum happens to share Louisville with the headquarters of a national embroiderers' group, whose members cried foul.
"I personally don't like the reference of needlepoint convention attendees being referred to as 'old bats,'" said Bonnie Key, office manager at the headquarters of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. "I'm sure they saw humor in that, but I know our membership would not."
The organization has 20,000 members, Key said, adding, "Our membership is from probably 6 years old up to 100 years old."
Plenty complained to the museum, which is owned and operated by the Hillerich & Bradsby Co., maker of Louisville Slugger bats.
Williams wasn't even safe at home. His wife is a partner in a uniform and embroiderers' shop, and "she let me know she didn't think it was funny," he said.
