Who invented baseball bats

I currently have in my possession J. This bat was given to my father because he hit a home run to win a very important game. Now let us travel back into history as I grip the thick cork handle of the 33 inch, 38 ounce 40K Slugger. Let us imagine major league players such as Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth in the on deck circle, preparing to approach home plate and settle into their stance.

The firm hired Frank Bradsby and for his outstanding contributions in sales he was awarded a partnership. In , the firm's name was changed to The Hillerich and Bradsby Company.

Edd Roush used a Hillerich and Bradsby Slugger weighing 48 ounces with a large barrel and a thick tapered handle. He won the batting crown in the National League with a. Edd Roush died in at the age of He was the last surviving Federal League participant as well as the last living player of the World Series. Before entering the era of the Roaring 20's, we add yet another page to the history of baseball.

It is time to retire the funny stick-like bats, the Mushroom, no knob, the ball knob, the small knob and the rejected curved bat to days gone by.

When a batter steps into the batters' box, he normally takes a comfortable athletic stance with his feet apart. However, the stance of the right-handed Heinie Zimmer of the New York Giants, was decidedly different. As he stepped into the batters box, he crossed his left foot over his right and stood in that position until the pitcher delivered the ball. He held his Hillerich and Bradsby bat halfway back before stepping into the pitch. In addition, we are introduced to Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseballs' first commissioner and we witness the scandal involving the Chicago White Sox.

Heinie Grohs' unusual bottle bat was the largest made. In , Groh was playing for the Cincinnati Reds. This was the year that he, along with his famous bottle bat, finished fourth in batting in the National League. His average was. Also in , the thunder from pitcher Babe Ruth's' bat could be heard when he hit 29 home runs for the Boston Red Sox to lead the American League.

Ruth, now playing the outfield, used a Louisville Slugger Model R with a medium barrel, 36 inches in length and weighing 42 ounces.

Babe Ruth, often called "Bambino", hit 54 home runs in and 59 in Babe Ruth, the "Sultan of Swat", brought fans back to the game of baseball by the thousands. The Babe launched an amazing home run career, including belting 60 home runs in One of Ruth's bats with 21 notches around the trademark is on display at the Hillerich and Bradsby plant.

Ruth would carve one notch for each homer hit. It is easy to picture Babe Ruth stepping up to home plate, taking his stance and, with a slight wave of the bat, ready to hit.

What was it like pitching to him? Like looking into the jaws of a lion! Before becoming the best manager in the Negro National League, Rube had been black baseballs' best pitcher for nearly a decade. His personal force and finances were the key to better parks, better attendance and bigger incomes for the once wandering black teams. Charles had a good, strong arm and was a fine fielder as well as a real power hitter.

During our conversation, House mentioned that most players during his playing career used Louisville Sluggers. He stressed that bats were very important to each player and that they were cared for separately. House also said that U. Wilkinson, owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, was responsible for many innovations. One of these innovations featured an ingenious portable lighting system that consisted of placing light poles on the back of trucks.

The motivation behind this idea was to draw crowds to games early into the depression years. They were known for making handles for shovels, hand tools and farm implements. In , Hanna started making toy bats for department stores and a short time later the company was making bats for sporting goods stores, colleges and the Major Leagues. They manufactured bats until going out of business in Hanna originally used Southern ash for their baseball bats and hickory for their softball bats.

Problems developed with uneven grain in the wood caused by the inconsistent spring seasons of the South. To solve this problem, Hanna decided to purchase acreage in Pennsylvania and New York and then proceeded to build two processing factories. When the dowels were received at the Athens factory, they had to be graded, sorted and stacked to dry. Once the bats were turned, sanded and completely finished, they were branded Hanna or Batrite , depending on the quality.

In Hanna patented the Batrite non-chipping treatment used on all bats. In , the Flox "hold fast" grip was introduced and was especially advantageous to those ball players who perspired greatly. A cork grip was marketed in and, in the cupped bat came along. This type of bat removed the excess weight from the end of the bat and gave the bat a new center of balance as well as a smoother, more accurate swing.

Many college coaches had accepted each of the six above mentioned styles. Hanna manufactured other styles of bats that were exclusively shipped to department stores. Hanna was responsible for one more important innovation. It was the fiberglass sleeve, which was incorporated into the bat handle. The purpose of this sleeve was to reduce the number of broken bats.

Another aspect of the Hanna Manufacturing Company involved the making of Batrite custom bats with a registered balance. When ordering a duplicate, it was necessary to send only the serial number to the factory. Little did the critics know how wrong they were. Al Simmons hit over. He bit. He used a Hillerich and Bradsby bat that was the longest bat that Louisville ever made. It was 38 inches in length and weighed 46 ounces.

Willie Keeler's motto was "Hit them where they ain't". He used the shortest bat ever made by Hillerich and Bradsby. He played for the Orioles and four other teams and became one of baseballs' greatest place hitters as well as an outstanding bunter.

The large barrel of his s hort bat gave him great bat control. In , Willie hit a record singles out of a total of hits. This record still remains today. The word special word definition: Distinguished by a unique or unusual quality, courtesy of Viewlike Word Unscramble Tool can be applied to the Leon "Goose" Goslinn stripped Louisville baseball bat.

While playing left field for the St. Louis Browns, Goose came up with a phenomenal idea. Before the baseball season, Willis Johnson, the secretary of the Browns, developed this idea and devised the "War Club".

As I recall, most of the bats at that time had a natural finish and were of one color.. Goslin's bats had twelve green longitudinal stripes that started at the knob and widened along the face and over the barrel end. His bats were always 34 inches long and weighed at least 37 ounces. He approached the plate with his zebra looking bat, only to have it thrown out by the umpires. On April 13,, William Harridge, President of the American League, ruled out the camouflage or zebra looking bat because it created a distraction.

Only through The Hall of Fame was I eventually made aware of its existence. Just as the camouflage bat was prohibited from use, so were white webbing in the pitchers' gloves, the slitting of pitchers' sleeves and the hidden ball trick. All were eliminated from Major League Baseball.

Fred Haney, the manager of the St. Louis Browns, said, "Hank Greenberg puts more thought, effort and conscientiousness into his work than any other player in the league and, to my mind, he is the best competitor in the league. Greenberg'' overwhelming statistics are the result of the combination of his talents and his 35 inch, 34 ounce Louisville Slugger. During' overwhelming statistics are the result of the combination of his talents and his 35 inch, 34 ounce Louisville Slugger.

During Greenberg'' abbreviated career that began with the Detroit Tigers, he had 1, hits, home runs and a batting average of. Due to a wrist injury suffered during the season, Greenberg played in only twelve games. Hank hit 58 home runs in , two short of Babe Ruth's record. Greenberg was one of the first big leaguers to enter the military service. He left Detroit nineteen games into the campaign and did not return until July 1, Lou Gehrig, a monumental ball player was a product of Columbia University and left his mark on baseball as well as his name on a dreadful disease.

How could this 6 foot 1 inch, pound first baseman for the Yankees have contracted such a serious illness? Gehrig's stats simply boggle the mind.

He averaged RBI's and runs scored for fourteen years. He hit home runs with a career batting average of. Lou Gehrig, often called "Iron Horse" for his 2, consecutive games, was also known as a "run producing machine". Gehrig and Ruth formed the greatest one-two punch in the history of baseball. As captain of the Yankees in , Lou's skills showed signs of eroding.

While in Detroit, he decided to take himself out of the line-up. On that day 63, fans honored "The Pride of the Yankees". Lou addressed the crowd and said in part, "I may have been given a bad break but I have an awful lot to live for. I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. His condition continued to deteriorate and it became necessary for him to give up his job. This great baseball player died at home on June 2, At this point in history, it was evident that baseball was here to stay.

The challenge of every play and the excitement of the fans increased attendance every year. Bat manufacturers realized the importance of continued research in order to supply the best quality wood for their products.

Hillerich and Bradsby began manufacturing baseball bats as a small concern at the turn of the century. By comparison, in today's bat industry, it takes thousands of trees each year to supply the bat demand. Louisville found out early in the bat business that Northern white ash was the most acceptable for manufacturing their product.

The best white ash comes from the Northeastern states where the terrain, soil and climate are most favorable for its growth. Hillerich and Bradsby own thousands of acres of timberland in New York and in Pennsylvania. Ash provides just the proper amount of tensile strength and resiliency. This, along with the favorable weight of ash, translates into power and drive in the finished bat. When the billets are unloaded at the company timber yard, they are stacked for forced-air drying.

This is done in modified dry kilns for six to eight weeks. Next, the billets are doweled to uniform size, inspected for defects and weighed. Finally, they are manufactured into different size baseball and softball bats. It is important to note that wood bat usage has fallen off because of great reliance on aluminum.

Most wood bats today are used by Professional leagues. Hillerich and Bradsbys' comparison of the bats of today to those of yesterday finds that today's bats are lighter, they have larger barrels and thinner handles. Hillerich and Bradsby have over Pro models on record today. They also have 20, specification cards in the Pro model file. For example, both Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron used similar model bats. However, Ruth's bat weighed 42 ounces and Aaron's weighed 33 ounces. Give Hillerich and Bradsby credit for manufacturing millions of baseball bats for more than years.

Their bats were, and still are, made in America. Having confidence in a baseball bat is very important to every Major League player. The players make their bat selections very carefully in order to insure that they obtain the best bat made for them. Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger, considered his bat a very good friend.

As a result, his accomplishments included a. Williams' career batting average was. Yes, Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters that ever lived.

If Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals did not have a number on his uniform, he would still be easily recognized due to his famed corkscrew stance and ringing line drives.

During the time that Musial pitched Class C Baseball, he developed arm problems. It was then that he became a slugging outfielder. He topped. Stan Musial was nicknamed "The Man" and it was often said that he hit "from around the corner".

After ten years, a restriction of 42 inches was put on the length of the baseball bat, but still no regulations governing the shape.

John observed as Pete Browning got frustrated, and after the game offered to make him a new bat. Pete Browning joined John Hillerich at his father's woodworking shop, where Pete supervised the construction of his new bat.

Browning went three for three with his new bat. Word spread quickly, but not as quickly as the demand did once everyone knew about these bats. It wasn't long before each baseball bat that John and his father constructed was slapped with the famous Louisville Slugger trademark. Evolution of Regulations In the s, bats could no longer be flat at the end, according to the rules committee.

They increased the diameter by a quarter of an inch as well, making the maximum diameter two and three quarters of an inch. In the early nineteen hundreds, one of the greatest players, Honus Wagner, was the first player paid to have his name burned into Louisville Slugger bats. Despite the continual evolution of the regulations regarding the size and shape of bats, the bats of today look much like the ones of a hundred years ago, the biggest difference being that today's bats are much lighter and have thinner handles.

The Rise of Aluminum William Shroyer patented the first metal baseball bat in , though they were not seen in baseball until introduced by Worth in Worth soon produced the first aluminum one-piece bat, and the first little league aluminum bat. Because bats of all shapes and sizes were being used, a rule was made in that bats could be no larger than 2.

Ten years later in , another rule was added that stated the baseball bat could be no longer than 42 inches in length — the same maximum length allowed today.

At this time there was no rule regarding the shape of the bat. In fact, some players sometimes used bats with flat surfaces when bunting. It all started at a baseball game in Louisville, a 17 year old John Hillerich watched Louisville player Pete Browning become frustrated after breaking his favorite bat.

Hillerich, a woodworker with his father, approached Browning after the game and offered to make him a new bat. They went together to the woodworking shop, selected a piece of white ash and Browning supervised as John Hillerich made his new bat. The next day, Browning went three for three with the new bat, word spread about the new bats, and the Hillerich family was in the baseball bat business!

Shortly after , Honus Wagner, one of the great players of all time, became the first player to be paid to have his autograph burned into Louisville Slugger bats.