The team's star, Pete "Louisville Slugger" Browning, mired in a hitting slump, broke his bat.

Browning told his teammates, which began a surge of professional ball players to the Hillerich woodworking shop.

This story has been challenged by alternate versions of when the first bat was made, involving either Arlie Latham or Gus Weyhing.

[1] In 1905, Honus Wagner signed a deal with the company, becoming likely the first American athlete to endorse an item of sports equipment.

In 2005, Hillerich & Bradsby sold its majority interest in its Louisville TPS hockey equipment business.

[12] This left the company with its Bionic Gloves division and its ownership and operation of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory.

Over 90% of bats ever produced by Hillerich & Bradsby have been made from Northern white ash grown in proprietary forests on the New York–Pennsylvania border.

The company is beginning to heavily utilize other woods such as maple and birch as a substantial part of North America's ash forests have been totally destroyed.