By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Employees at Louisville Slugger spent Thursday finishing pink bats for Major League Baseball players to use on Mother’s Day, May 8, as part of the “Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer” initiative created by Louisville Slugger and Major League Baseball in 2006.
Louisville Slugger getting ready for Mother’s Day with pink bats. (Photo from Kentucky Today)
MLB stars who will use the pink bats include Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays; Dodgers Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner and Will Smith; as well as Braves stars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Adam Duvall.
Smith and Duvall are former University of Louisville stars. Other U of L alums getting pink bats are Nick Solak of the Rangers and Adam Engel of the White Sox. All told, Louisville Slugger is making pink bats for more than 100 MLB players this year.
The purpose of the pink bats is to raise awareness, encourage breast cancer screenings and raise funds for research. In addition to MLB players’ pink bats, Louisville Slugger sells personalized versions to the public via sluggercustombats.com, with $10 from each bat going to MLB charities for further support of the fight against breast cancer.
Statistics show that about 1 in 8 U.S. women, nearly 13%, will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime, according to figures from Louisville Slugger. In 2022, an estimated 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 51,400 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer. About 2,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2022. About 43,250 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2022 from breast cancer.
Since the program began in 2006, Louisville Slugger says they have donated nearly 4,000 custom pink bats for MLB players to swing in games played on Mother’s Day.
Louisville Slugger is the Official Bat of MLB and is celebrating its 138th year in baseball in 2022.
