It’s one of baseball’s most enduring legends: the origins of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The story goes that in 1884, Louisville native and baseball fanatic Bud Hillerich played hooky from toiling in his father’s woodworking shop to watch the Louisville Eclipse play. The team’s star, Pete “The Louisville Slugger” Browning, was in the midst of a batting slump, and to compound his problems, broke one of his prized bats during the game. Bud took Browning back to his father’s shop where the elder Hillerich handcrafted a new bat for the slumping slugger. Using his new stick, Browning broke out of his slump and soon ballplayers were flocking to the Hillerich workshop to have bats made.               

Because most everyone from small children to Major Leaguers used their bats until they broke, surviving examples of pre-1900 bats are very scarce. Even the Louisville Slugger Museum does not have a large selection of their 19th century models. The bat offered here is stamped with “J.F. Hillerich and Son,” and unlike later Louisville Slugger bats, the center brand on these early models are “reversed,” meaning its placement is facing the opposite way than is found on later bats. The experts at PSA/DNA have dated this beautiful bat to circa. 1895. The bat’s length is approximately 34 inches in length and weighs approximately 37.6 ounces. The bat does display some game use. This bat comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B13691).

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