Hillerich & Bradsby Hillerich woodworking shop. J. F. Hillerich was uninterested in making bats; he saw the company future in stair railings, porch columns and swinging butter churns. In fact, for a brief time in the 1880s, he even turned away ball players. Bud, however, saw the potential in producing baseball bats, and the elder Hillerich eventually relented to his son. The bats were sold under the name "Falls City Slugger" until Bud Hillerich took over his father's company in , and the name "Louisville Slugger" was registered with the U.S. Patent Office. In , Honus Wagner signed a deal with the company,
The Slugger/The Superstar he has terminal cancer, asks the gardener to share his faith. The athlete accepts Christ as savior, and upon his death gives his entire estate to the gardener "because he's the only one who will use it wisely". The table below shows the differences in the tracts. 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,