[.ca] Crack of the Bat: The Louisville Slugger Story (ISBN 1582614342)

Not a home run, but a broken bat grounder to the mound:
A history of the Louisville Slugger bat that omits any mention of Pete Browning, the original "Louisville Slugger" who comissioned Hillerich and Bradsby to manufacture his bats in the 1880's, has to be considered somewhat flawed right off the bat (ouch). A jarring leap from 1870 to 1915, just the period when bats were developing from wagon tongues to modern bats, is unforgiveable. The tales of idiosyncratic bat habits and preferences of major league stars is interesting, but the book utterly fails in its titular premise -- the history -- and is graded accordingly.