Baseball was a very young sport in the mid-eighteen hundreds, so batters usually made their own bats. This led to a lot of experimentation with the shape and size of the baseball bat. It didnt take long for players to learn that the best bats were those with rounded barrels. With all the shapes and sizes being used, some rule had to be established about the bat. In 1859, it was established that baseball bats could be no larger than two and a half inches in diameter, though they could be any length. After ten years, a restriction of 42 inches was put on the length of the baseball bat, but still no regulations governing the shape.
1884: The Louisville Slugger is Born
Baseball bats most popular name, still to this day, is the Louisville Slugger. Seventeen-year-old John Hillerich watched Pete Browning break his bat at an 1884 Louisville game. John observed as Pete Browning got frustrated, and after the game offered to make him a new bat. Pete Browning joined John Hillerich at his fathers woodworking shop, where Pete supervised the construction of his new bat. Browning went three for three with his new bat. Word spread quickly, but not as quickly as the demand did...