Edmonton's Giant Bat is Not A Ride

What is a city without its mildly confusing monuments?

Example

Maybe you've heard of Edmonton's giant bat? Actually, you've probably driven by it at some point. It's fifty feet long, metal, and weighs roughly 2,500 pounds. It's perched on the intersection of 97th Avenue and 118th Avenue just off Alberta Avenue…and yes, it rotates.

Edmonton’s mall vibes are something else — this really is a one-mall town, and everyone knows which one. West Edmonton Mall doesn’t just eclipse the rest, it leaves every other mall in Canada in the dust. Pirate ship, roller coaster, waterpark, bronze whale, the whole deal. Call it West Ed, or just say "the mall" - everyone will know which mall you're talking about. WEM even inspired its own art show in 2023 (from which we have a map of WEM mall memories available here!). WEM is pretty much legend, and everyone will have a story about it.

Installed in the late 1990s as part of the Avenue of Champions streetscape project, the bat was one of several oversized sports installations that celebrated Edmonton’s athletic pride. The concept was very much of its era: let’s make the neighbourhood unmistakable through sports!

Over the decades, the giant aluminum champion has become a classic only in Edmonton landmark. You drive past it enough times and suddenly it feels familiar in a perfectly absurd way.

“The baseball bat is not a ride.”

And then there is the sign. The City, clearly having seen some things, installed a perfectly official reminder at some point: “The bat is not a ride”. Which is, honestly, one of the most Edmonton sentences ever written.

Don’t You Dare Move That Bat

Recently, the Avenue of Champions has been rebranding and evolving. Conversations have floated about relocating the bat, possibly to a more “logical” home near the baseball park.

Practical? Sure. But the internet, as it does, has feelings.

There is already a petition to keep the bat right where it is. Look: once a giant rotating bat becomes part of your daily streetscape, it stops being infrastructure and starts being folklore.

What is a city without its mildly confusing monuments?

Saskatoon made an even bigger bat!

For a while, Edmonton could claim the title of Canada’s largest baseball bat. Then Saskatoon went bigger. It happens, and we are not bitter. (Okay, maybe a little.)

But ours rotates and that has to count for something.

So if you're in the area, take a drive down Alberta Avenue and give the bat a nod. Just don't not attempt to ride it: the signage is very clear.