History of Louisville, Kentucky charter member. While the Grays were a relatively short-lived team, playing for only two years, they began a much longer lasting relationship between the city and baseball. In 1883, John "Bud" Hillerich made his first baseball bat from white ash in his father's wood shop. The first bat was produced for Pete "The Gladiator" Browning of the Louisville Eclipse (minor league team). The bats eventually become known by the popular name, "Louisville Slugger", and the local company Hillerich & Bradsby rapidly became one of the largest manufacturers of baseball bats and other sporting equipment in the world. Today, Hillerich &
The Slugger/The Superstar The Slugger/The Superstar The Slugger and The Superstar are a pair of religious tracts produced by Chick Publications and its controversial founder, Jack Chick. The tracts are identical in plot line, but feature different characters, each aimed at a particular market. In each tract, an athlete wins the world championship for his team, and as a result signs a multi-million dollar contract and also a multi-million dollar product endorsement. The athlete's gardener, though, has the nerve to tell him that, without Christ, all his riches and fame are worthless. The athlete gets angry at his gardener; however, after learning that