For sale is a vintage 1970s PRO H&B ASTROS ENOS CALBELL JUNIOR LEAUGE WOOD BASEBALL BAT from the Hillerich & Bradsby Company, Louisville, Kentucky. Bat measures 32 inches long, and 2 1/4 inches diameter at barrel of the bat. A great vintage sports collectible for use, display or home defense.
Enos Milton Cabell played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman and third baseman between 1972 and 1986. He played for the Astros between 1974 and 1980. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America named Cabell the Houston Astros’ Most Valuable Player in 1978.
In 1885, J. F. Hillerich opened his woodworking shop in Louisville. During the 1880s, Hillerich hired his seventeen-year-old son, John “Bud” Hillerich. Legend has it that Bud, who played baseball himself, slipped away from work one afternoon in 1884 to watch Louisville’s major league team, the Louisville Eclipse. The team’s star, Pete “Louisville Slugger” Browning, mired in a hitting slump, broke his bat. Bud invited Browning to his father’s shop to hand-craft a new bat to his specifications. Browning accepted the offer, and got three hits to break out of his slump with the new bat the first day he used it. Browning told his teammates, which began a surge of professional ball players to the Hillerich woodworking shop. The bats were sold under the name “Falls City Slugger” until Bud Hillerich took over his father’s company in 1894, and the name “Louisville Slugger” was registered with the US Patent Office. In 1916, Frank Bradsby, a salesman became a partner and the company’s name changed to “The Hillerich and Bradsby Co.” By 1923, H&B was selling more bats than any other bat maker in the country, and legends like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig were all using them. During World War II, the company produced wooden rifle stocks and billy clubs for the U.S. Army
