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

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by WWGjohn

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.

[murphusa]

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

[sicollector1954]

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.

[khkco4bls]

the patented models were from the early 1900s

[khkco4bls]

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

[WWGjohn]

Brent,

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

John

[murphusa]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

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.

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

[WWGjohn]

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

John

[khkco4bls]

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

[ksfarmboy]

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.

[Joe_G.]

Originally Posted by murphusa

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 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?

[murphusa]

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

[khkco4bls]

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.

[Joe_G.]

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.

[Joe_G.]

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