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,
Slugger Ann work was inspired by the people who came to Slugger Ann's. Slugger Ann gave Candy Darling a job working as a barmaid. She got her nickname "Slugger Ann" from working as a taxi dancer in the 1920s and 1930s in New York City. If a man would attempt to grope her while she was dancing, she would swing at him. This behavior would come in handy when she opened a bar on the corner of 12th and 2nd Avenue, near St. Mark's Church in the early 1950s. She could be found everyday at the bar. She lived in an apartment