It was named “America’s Sport.”
The game of Baseball grew as America did. The sport was much like the freshly formulated country; it was for both the rich and poor.
Young immigrants took to it in the streets of New York and the open fields of Nebraska, dreaming to be their newfound heroes.
One of those early American settlers was “Bud” Hillerich. In 1880, at 14, he’d begin to learn his father, Johann Fredrich Hillerich trade by serving as an apprentice in his woodworking shop.
His father went mostly by J.F. Hillerich, and was a German born citizen, looking for a fresh start in America. He was proud of his young boy, and let him work on side projects in his shop.
At 18, Bud went to work on a baseball bat for the company’s first professional ballplayer, Pete Browning, who played for the Louisville Eclipse. Browning nicknamed the bat “The Louisville Slugger.”
The popularity grew, orders started coming in all over the country.
Johann changed the woodshops name to “J.F. Hillerich & Son.”
“The Louisville Slugger,” baseball’s premier bat, was born.
From Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, to today’s stars, “The Louisville Slugger” remains the prized possession of the best hitters in Baseball.
What does this have to do with Manchester Wood and our furniture?
We use the same sturdy, long lasting White Ash in our furniture as they’ve used all these years on their bats.
White ash is considered the “premiere species” of North American ashes, for being hard, strong, exceeding bending qualities, and easily worked in our mill.
“The Louisville Slugger,” web site states, “Pound per pound, ash is the strongest timber available. Ash has a flexibility that isn’t found in other timbers like maple. It tends to flex rather than break, which gives a strong ‘sweet spot’ in terms of breakage. Ash is lighter than maple, giving a wider range of large barrel models.”
Although we don’t use our durable, long-last White Ash for home runs at the ballpark, we do on our indoor items, giving customers products lasting for generations at a fair price.
