Louisville Slugger History

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I'm currently cleaning out my garage when I came across the September 1999 issue of Popular Mechanics. It has this cool article about the Louisville Slugger bats and how they are fabricated. There's some neat historical facts in the article as well.

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[SHOELESSJOE3]

Interesting, did not know that so many historic hits, records broken, records set with LS bats.

[Dude Paskert]

There are two decent books about the history of LS out there, I'd say one from about 15 years ago and the other from maybe 5. They also produced their own book on hitting maybe 20 years ago that has some good info on the company. There has been an explosion of sorts of companies making wood bats recently, but it almost seems like this had made prices go up...???
I'd like to find out more about the smaller companies in the old days, I know that a guy named Kren made bats for Gehrig and others in the 20s and 30s. Was the Kren Special the SAM Bat of his time?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

There are two decent books about the history of LS out there, I'd say one from about 15 years ago and the other from maybe 5. They also produced their own book on hitting maybe 20 years ago that has some good info on the company. There has been an explosion of sorts of company making wood bats recently, but it almost seems like this had made prices go up...???
I'd like to find out more about the smaller companies in the old days, I know that a guy named Kren made bats for Gehrig and others in the 20s and 30s. Was the Kren Special the SAM Bat of his time?

The article states that the Hillerich and Bradsby had 70%-80% of the wood bat commercial market. I wonder if that is still true today?

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Not much info on the Kren bats, some stuff I had saved in a file.
Kren always making the point his bats were all "hand Made'.

His son Joseph said he could recall some of the biggest names in the game visiting his dad's factory in Syracuse NY, one time a bus load of black players purchased a number of bats.

Here is a pic of the son Joseph as a youngster at his dads factory and another of son Joseph, 93 at that time.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

This is from the September 16, 1996 Sports Illustrated issue.

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[Honus Wagner Rules]

From the April 14, 1986 Sports Illustrated issue.

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[Nimrod]

I'd like to find out more about the smaller companies in the old days, I know that a guy named Kren made bats for Gehrig and others in the 20s and 30s. Was the Kren Special the SAM Bat of his time?

Check out history of Hanna Batrite bats on google.Gehrig,Mize,Hack Wilson,and many others used them at times.LS even sued them and Gehrig was one of those to testify in the trial.Here is a picture of a gamed-used Hack Wilson Batrite.Very easy to identify model with it`s skinny broomstick style handle.Note that it just has blocked letter(last) name rather than signature due to fact that Wilson endorsed and mainly used LS as did the other sluggers I mentioned.hack wilson.jpeg

[Dude Paskert]

Check out history of Hanna Batrite bats on google.Gehrig,Mize,Hack Wilson,and many others used them at times.LS even sued them and Gehrig was one of those to testify in the trial.Here is a picture of a gamed-used Hack Wilson Batrite.Very easy to identify model with it`s skinny broomstick style handle.Note that it just has blocked letter(last) name rather than signature due to fact that Wilson endorsed and mainly used LS as did the other sluggers I mentioned.

The thin handle makes a lot of sense, as Wilson had small hands to go along with his very small feet. I used to give my bats that treatment with a sanding disk until I figured out that I hit worse with such skinny handles...I liked the way they felt, but not the way they worked.

BTW, in case anybody didn't notice, that's a hickory bat...very tough wood that used to be fairly popular for bats, but also VERY heavy.

[Nimrod]

Here is page from the old(H&B)Famous Slugger Yearbook:1970 Hillerich and Bradsby - Louisville Slugger Bat Ad Famous Slugger Yearbook.jpg

[Nimrod]

Trivia-which one of those LS models in that yearbook sold the most?

[Dude Paskert]

Trivia-which one of those LS models in that yearbook sold the most?

I'd say Clemente.

[Nimrod]

The Jackie Robinson model was the biggest seller due to the fact that it was one of only two thick-handled models to choose from(the other being the Nelson Fox model).A persons`choices of slim-handled bats were numerous.4472a_lg.jpeg

[bluesky5]

Hillerich & Bradsby named the bat the Louisville Slugger after Pete [Gladiator] Browning, a Louisville native who played centerfield for the hometown Colonels of the major league American Association. He bought the first bat from the company.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...rownpe01.shtml