VOA标准英语2010年-German Immigrant Family Makes Iconic A

The successful immigrant story is one of the touchstones of American culture.

For 126 years a family of German immigrants has been making a product that's become an icon¹ of American sports.

It was in Louisville, Kentucky, along the banks of the Ohio River, that the Hillerich family opened a wood turning shop in 1855. Family patriarch J.F. thought there was money to be made shaping bed posts and butter churns.

 
Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
His father wanted to make bed posts and butter churns but Bud Hillerich convinced him to make bats instead.
 

His 16-year-old American-born son, Bud, was an avid² sportsman. He wanted to make baseball bats and an American tradition was born.

Louisville Slugger

"We make 2,500 bats here a day on average," says P.J. Shelley, spokesperson for the company now known as Hillerich and Bradsby. "During peak production, around spring training time, we can make as many as 5,000 bats a day. We make 1.8 million wood bats here every year. Fortunately for us the young son prevailed and we're not making butter churns here any longer."

After being introduced in the late 1880s, the bat was quickly dubbed³ a Louisville Slugger, and has been a favorite of American baseball players for more than a century.

"I think Lou Brock, the great Hall of Famer for the St. Louis Cardinals⁴ said it best when he said, 'If you didn't have a Louisville Slugger in your hands, then you weren't playing baseball,'" says Shelley. "I mean when people think of baseball bats, or certainly wood baseball bats, they're thinking of a Louisville Slugger."

Bat treasures

Danny Luckett's been turning bats at Hillerich and Bradsby for four decades.

A product that once took 15 minutes to turn by hand now pops out of a computer controlled lathe⁵ every few seconds. But every bat still has to pass Luckett's inspection⁶ before the Slugger name gets burned on.

 
Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
Master copies of the company's more famous bats are kept in a special vault⁷. This slugger is signed by baseball great Hank Aaron.
 

Nine-thousand master copies of the company's more famous bats are kept in a special vault. Luckett knows many of them by sight, including the model used to make Babe Ruth's bat.

"When Babe Ruth would order his bats, they would come and get this out of the model room," says Luckett. "Figure out what weight he wanted, figure out what weight it took to make the bats and turn his bats off of that one."

The Yankee's home run king - known as the Sultan of Swat - is just one of the 8,000 professional baseball players Hillerich and Bradsby contracted with over the years. That allows the company to sell autographed copies of the bats the pros⁸ use to the general public.

Given the number of bats players at all skill-levels go through in a baseball season, Luckett never has to worry about staying busy.

"Everyday-players will probably go anywhere from, 12 to 14, 15 dozen bats in a season," he says. "When they get them, they go through them and they pick out the ones they want for the game, and they pick out the ones they want for batting practice."

Looking ahead

Hillerich and Bradsby continues to innovate⁹, recently developing a line of hi-tech sports gloves.

Marketing¹⁰ Director Vickie Boisseau says special pads fill in the low spots on the palm and finger joints¹¹, giving players a better grip with less strain.

"The pads are going to pull that stress and strain away from your joints," says Boisseau. "You're going to be able to swing the club with a lot more ease where you're not putting a death grip on it."

The Louisville Slugger has risen to the level of cultural icon. Mentions of the bat are common in American books, movies and popular music. Singer Carrie Underwood referenced it in her hit country song about using a slugger to bash a cheating boyfriend's car.

 
Michigan State University
The Emerald Ash Borer threatens to destroy the White Ash trees sluggers are traditionally made from.
 

Encroaching threat

However, a tiny beetle¹² now threatens to destroy the iconic baseball bat.

The Emerald Ash Borer is slowly spreading across North America. The invasive Asian Beetle destroys the White Ash trees sluggers are traditionally made from. While the bug¹³ hasn't reached the Ash Forests owned by Hillerich and Bradsby yet, company spokesperson P.J. Shelley says the company is keeping a close eye on research aimed at stopping the beetle.

"They've introduced a non-stinging wasp¹⁴ that's a natural predator¹⁵ of the Emerald Ash Borer, and we're kind of seeing how that, these experiments, go," says Shelley. "And maybe that's something that we can bring over to our forest, if and when the Emerald Ash Borer does ever come over there."

Baseball players - known in the sports world for their strong superstitions¹⁶ - would certainly mourn the loss of the original slugger. 

But should the worst happen, the slugger name will survive.  Hillerich and Bradsby now produce a popular line of Aluminum¹⁷ bats and a second line made of widely available Maple¹⁸ wood.
 

1 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

2 avid   

adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的

参考例句：

• He is rich,but he is still avid of more money.他很富有,但他还想贪图更多的钱。
• She was avid for praise from her coach.那女孩渴望得到教练的称赞。

3 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 cardinals   

红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数

参考例句：

• cardinals in scarlet robes 身披红袍的枢机主教
• A conclave of cardinals was held to elect the new Pope. 红衣主教团举行了秘密会议来选举新教皇。

5 lathe   

n.车床，陶器，镟床

参考例句：

• Gradually she learned to operate a lathe.她慢慢地学会了开车床。
• That lathe went out of order at times.那台车床有时发生故障。

6 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

7 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

8 pros   

abbr.prosecuting 起诉；prosecutor 起诉人；professionals 自由职业者；proscenium （舞台）前部n.赞成的意见( pro的名词复数 )；赞成的理由；抵偿物；交换物

参考例句：

• The pros and cons cancel out. 正反两种意见抵消。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We should hear all the pros and cons of the matter before we make a decision. 我们在对这事做出决定之前，应该先听取正反两方面的意见。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。

10 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

11 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

12 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。

13 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

14 wasp   

n.黄蜂，蚂蜂

参考例句：

• A wasp stung me on the arm.黄蜂蜇了我的手臂。
• Through the glass we can see the wasp.透过玻璃我们可以看到黄蜂。

15 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

16 superstitions   

迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Old superstitions seem incredible to educated people. 旧的迷信对于受过教育的人来说是不可思议的。
• Do away with all fetishes and superstitions. 破除一切盲目崇拜和迷信。

17 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

18 maple   

n.槭树，枫树，槭木

参考例句：

• Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
• The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。