From the Publisher
"I'd have been a .290 hitter without Louisville Slugger." --Ted Williams
"Every home run that I hit in the major leagues was with a Louisville Slugger." --Harmon Killebrew
"Never, never once did I use any other bat but Louisville Slugger." --George Brett
"You flash back to Lou Gehrig's speech or Babe Ruth stories or images of Hank Aaron circling the bases again and again, and you realize we are connected to those flashes." --John Hillerich IV, CEO of Hillerich & Bradsby Co.
"There's a history to Louisville Slugger that I think everyone in baseball respects." --Jim Thome "The game changes over the years. Players run faster. Balls are hit harder. New ballparks are built. But the one thing that does not change is baseball's connection to the past, and for many of us that starts with Louisville Slugger...." --Ken Griffey Jr.
"I've used the same bat--same model, same size--since day one in the minor leagues." --Derek Jeter
From the Inside Flap
When the game of "town ball" was born in the late 18th century, it bore little resemblance to the game millions of baseball fans know and love today. There were often more than nine men in the field, foul lines were absent, the infield was rectangular, and players used bats in all shapes and sizes--from short, square clubs to long, skinny broomsticks. As the fledgling sport began to gain popularity, teams and leagues throughout the country began to look for opportunities to standardize the rules of play and improve the quality of their most important piece of equipment.
Then, in the late 19th century, a young Kentucky woodworker named Bud Hillerich crafted his first baseball bat from a piece of white ash. The game of baseball would never be the same again
