LOUISVILLE SLUGGER: The Making of a Baseball Bat

by Jan Arnow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1984

A dry, factual photo-presentation of the making of professional (and other) baseball bats at Louisville's Hillerich & Bradsby, home of the first custom-made bat in 1884 and bat-maker today for ""every single major and minor league team."" No process, clearly explained, is uninteresting--and the steps are plainly set forth here: from the marking of suitable ash trees (and the logging operation in general), through the shaping of rod-like ""billets"" on a lathe, to the final fashioning of the billets into bats. In the case of orders from professional players, the new bat is made by hand from a model: the player's own model or one of the thousands of others, of different weights and sizes in the H&B archives. (Yes, a player can order Hank Aaron's or Ted Williams' model.) A few related scraps of baseball lore conclude--the pine-tar rule among them. No match for William Jaspersohn's Motorcycle (below) in liveliness or explanatory range--but adequate on its own, limited terms.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1984

ISBN: 0974225401

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION