"Falls City Slugger", predecessor to "Louisville Slugger"
 

Per legend, Hillerich & Bradsby Co. made their first baseball bat for a professional player in 1884; providing a slumping Pete Browning luck in the form of 3 hits in his first game with his new bat. Bats would continue to be made under the "Falls City Slugger" name until 1894 when "Louisville Slugger" was patented and first used.

Question to forum members. Does anyone know of a drawing, photo, or better yet, a surviving example of H&Bs first bat, the "Falls City Slugger"? I already contacted the Louisville Slugger Museum and Baseball HOF with no luck.

Thank You.

Early Hillerich bat
 

This are the earliest examples of a Hillerich bat that I have come across. I have two of these, one a salesman sample (green with rings) and a youth sized bat (also with rings), both Crackerjack models. Both have J Gillerich's in the label with Crackerjack No.2 underneath. Not sure why the name is Gillerich and not Hillerich.

John

because that's not a hillerich model

That's just an H not a J and G.

Wow
 

+1 :eek:

Obviously didn't have enough coffee this morning :-)

John

obviously is an H..

Thank you John and others for bumping the thread, keeping it alive, but I believe the Crackerjack bats post-date the "Falls City Slugger" by a long shot. Does anyone have a guess on the date for the posted Crackerjack bat? Thanks in advance.

The two bats posted would predate the J F Hillerich & Son label which began in 1897. Exactly how much they predate it, I'm not sure.

John

Hey John, they were using the J F Hillerich & Son center brand before 1897. As Joe has mentioned, as early as 1894.
In the Players of Cooperstown book, they picture a JFH & Son bat and mention that it was used by Hugh Duffy in 1894.

When Bud went to work for his fathers company he was also playing on one of the towns team and he made his own bats and those of the team. Those bats carried the Falls City logo. This is the period from 1880 to early 1884 when it was changed to his fathers companies name. This continued to 1887 when he made his son (Bud) a partner

The first pro bat was made in mid 1884 for Browning and these bat carried the fathers business name. As Browning was know as the Louisville Slugger, Bud adopted the name for his bats latter in the year

First endorser was Wagner in 1905

Bats.
 

Interesting…never seen or heard of one of these bats…I was under the assumption that the earliest ones were J F Hillerich and Son. were with the Patent No 786541 but realize these were store model bats…not pro models.

the patented models were from the early 1900s

by the way what are the patented bat worth with the patent numbers on the end

Brent,

Any idea about the time period when just the name Hillerich would have been used in the logo.

John

the company was not JFH and Son until 1887 so the Duffy bat is not 1884

BTW Duffy played in the Eastern League (minor League) starting in 1886 and made the majors in 1888


The father was not very interested in the bat business until Bud proved to him it would be worthwhile. So his name was not on any bats until late in 1884/early 1885.

Falls City 1880 to 1884 were only used by players of Buds teams and league to find one is really tough
Hillerich 1884/85 to 1896 (1884/85 Louisville Slugger first used on some pro model bats) (Crackerjack was the Youth model until 1915)
J F Hillerich and Son 1897 to 1916
Hillerich and Bradsby 1916 on

Great post Jim. I've been trying to get information about the very early Hillerich labels for a long time.

John

go right to the Hillerich and Bradsby website will show you the labels

This is the earliest LS I've seen. It's 36" long and weighs about 46oz. The center label is stenciled on. It has the 1st street location on it that dates it to 1897-1901. I've never seen a Falls City Slugger but it would be cool if one showed up.

Great info Jim, thank you for sharing! I believe a couple typos found their way into a couple posts regarding picture of Duffy's bat (1884/1894) and when JFH & Son occurred (1887/1897), but I think I follow most of the presented history.

Your information is far more than I was able to get from Louisville Slugger museum and HOF. Do you have images for any of the pro-model bats that were produced on or before 1888? I guess the bats would fall into one of two categories as follows:

1880-1884 Falls City Slugger
&
1884/85 to 1896 Hillerich bats for which there were "Louisville Sluggers" and others that were not pro-model such as the youth's "Crackerjack".

In both cases, I'm interested in the decal and/or burned/engraved text found on the pro-model bats. Clint's bat falls just outside of these categories. Anything out there in print/ads, photos, or surviving bats?

If you read all of the Hillerich archives they will tell you that the falls city name was not given to the early bats until a few years after they were produced so the idea of a center brand is impossible imo

You also have to remember that Bud was only 15 to 18 at this time

I have had a few early 1860 bats and some of them have had no markings or an x as a centerbrand

Here's a 1922 ad featuring hillerichs crackerjack .. Same style font .. No rings present .

the other two bats have H&B logos so they are after 1916/17 or that year

Hey Jim,

I'm no expert, but I have followed the company's history, and here's a few things...

1. As can be seen in this ad from Crack of The Bat, the JF Hillerich & Son centerbrand was being used on bats as early as 1895. As the ad also states that he took Bud in as a partner in 1888, it's plausible that they were branded as such starting at this date. It did become official, as mentioned, in 1897 with the official 1$ sale of half of their building to Bud.

2. Also according to The Louisville Slugger Story by Bob Hill, it's mentioned that no person in particular is responsible for the name "Louisville Slugger". It's thought that players who used the bat named it. It makes no mention of the term used as a nickname for Browning. It mentions his known sobriquet as "the old gladiator". This is according to the year 2000 of course, so you may be correct and have updated info from a source I'm not aware of.

3. With 1894 being the year the name "Louisville Slugger" was patented, and with the JFH & S centerbrand being used as early as 1895, it's more than likely correct that Duffy did use the bat shown and mentioned as 1894, with similar centerbrand to the dated 1895 bat in the photo posted.

I just wanted to share this info. It's interesting to think how many questions in the hobby we'd love answered, but sadly, the information is lost to time.

Regards,
Brent.

There are a lot of different things to read on the company and some are not consistent with each other their own website history also follows different avenues.

I have collected and brought and sold bats for over 40 years.
I do not think that it is possible to find a falls city bat as the term was not used until after the period they were made.

No matter how many books are written or things posted here, we all can learn from all of this

Very neat write-up, any idea from how long Hillerich operated from the 216 First Street address? I have one source that suggests 1875 until ~1901. This address is about 0.7 miles from current location on 800 W Main St.

Hey Joe, the dates you list are correct, except the address itself differs. 118 S. First Street is the number listed for the location, with the previous establishment situated at 22 Clay Street in downtown Louisville. This info - including photos, again comes from Crack of The Bat - The Louisville Slugger Story. Furthermore, it was only Bud and the bat operation that left the First Street address in 1901, the office, and the rest of the woodworking operations remained there until an unspecified date. The photo of Bud, his father and workers, is taken in front of the first street address. The new factory in 1901 is the decorated building in the second photo, located at 729 S Preston Street.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
Brent

2.

Thanks again Brent. I pulled the 216 First St. address from the 1895 flyer you posted. I've seen this address associated with Louisville Slugger before, not sure how 118 S. First Street fits in. Maybe 216 First St. was manufacturing location, 118 S. First St. was business office location?

Is Brian Hillerich still posting through GUU?

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ad.php?t=61690

Joe,
The book mentions the 118 S First Street location as the address they moved into in 1875.
Then again, the address listed for the post 1901 building is not the same as the 1209 that appears in the photo.... So go figure?

Here's my reverse label model I think 1897. Reverse meaning knob faces to the right.Correct me if I'm wrong . Vintage nails due to checking of wood grain.

For the record, after speaking with Chris Meiman from the Louisville Slugger Museum, it appears that 118S First St. and 216 First St. may be one and the same. Today, 1st street is split between N 1st & S 1st about Main street with 118S being the modern day address for the old Hillerick shop. However, for some or most (or all) of the 19th century, the modern day address of 118S 1st St. was actually 216 FIRST ST.

A similar explanation might explain the discrepancy between 729 S Preston Street and the photo that shows 1209.

For those with interest, I've posted some details on the baseball card side of the forum regarding a pair of 1888 Goodwin & Company negatives that feature an early Hillerich bat.

See post 22

That is a great old picture. This is a great thread, thanks for sharing!!
This photo is only related in that it's an early photo of the company....but cool nonetheless, and shown before, but who can get tired of looking at it?

http://luckeycards.com/ppicturehille...batstrain2.JPG

I like how you can see even more wooden blanks through the window. What era do you think this pic was taken as they were still spelling it "Base Ball" on their sign?