The Early Stages of Baseball

The history of 'America's Pastime' can be traced to parts of Europe and even Russia as far back as the 1300's. Baseball can be traced back to the 1700's here in America to informal games that were played much more aggressively with few rules and even fewer rules specifying the equipment that could be used, especially the bats used for batting. The baseball bat had no one model. Men used homemade baseball bats that were sometimes long, short, heavy, or even flat. This seemingly simple tool would not be perfected for quite some time. The earliest rules of baseball set by an organization were laid out in 1845 by the amateur New York Knickerbockers. It was a team that was created as a social club for the upper middle classes of New York City. Alexander Cartwright was the club leader and is the person credited with being the founder of baseball, which is commonly misconceived to have been Abner Doubleday. The Knickerbockers were the first to play under the 'force out' rules of the game and could no longer get a base runner out by hitting or 'plugging' him with the ball. In 1859, the rules finally set guidelines that restricted the size of the bat. Baseball bats were now being limited to 2.5 inches in diameter. A rule that has remained the same until today was put in place 10 years later stating that the length of a bat couldn't exceed 42 inches in length. Although, no ballplayers use a bat anywhere near that length when playing in a game. By 1890, the rules involving the size of a baseball bat became much more specific stating that a bat had to be round and could no longer be sawed off; this was shortly after the first American bat making company opened up shop. Pete Browning was a player on the hometown Louisville baseball team in 1884. Attending one of the local ballgames, then 17 year old John Hillerich, who was a wood worker for his father, watched Browning break his favorite bat during a ballgame. After the game, Hillerich went home to make a replacement bat out of white ash lumber for Browning. The next day Browning went 3 for 3 making that bat to become known unofficially as' the Louisville Slugger baseball bat'. Through word of mouth news traveled fast of this new innovation and soon after people were paying the father and son wood workers to make more. The father and son team were now in business under the Louisville Slugger name. Honus Wagner was the first player that was paid to allow his name to be engraved into the bat which is still done to this day. Their bats have always been high quality and have basically remained the same over time, but are lighter weight and have thinner handles nowadays. Louisville Slugger baseball bat reviews are usually very favorable by comparison to other baseball bat reviews. By popular demand 'Louisville Slugger' has been America's bat maker.

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- Joe Rodgers