Hanna Manufacturing Co.

Hanna Manufacturing Co.. Baseball Bats and Railroads. From this location you can view the site where the second-leading baseball bat factory in the United States once stood (now the site of Athens' Multimodal Transportation Center)., The Hanna Manufacturing Company originally began in 1917 as a maker of handles for farming tools, but in 1926 switched to producing baseball bats. Ina few years it became one of the leading and most inventive bat manufacturers in the world., (Captions) , (above): Cover for a 1940 Hanna Manufacturing Company catalogue that displayed their full line of Batrite baseball and softball bats. (inset): 1940 magazine ad promoting the quality of Hanna bats. The Hanna Manufacturing Company was one of the few southern industries that ordered raw materials from the North (northern ash and hickory) and shipped back a finished product for sale. Hanna was a pioneer in many innovations for wooden baseball bats, such as: a non-chipping treatment, special cork, fiberglass and Flax Hold fast grips, and a cupped end bat. In the 1930s, Hanna won a landmark lawsuit against the Louisville Slugger bat company, which was trying to control the style of bats other companies could produce. The Hanna Manufacturing Company closed in the mid-1970s due to the introduction of aluminum bats for youth and college baseball. The abandoned factory burned in the late-1980s., 1940 ad showing the national prominence and the importance of the railroads to the Hanna Manufacturing Company. Not only did Hanna ship bats to every state in the union, but also to Canada Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Japan., Original metal logo dies used in branding Hanna bats., Ca. 1930s photo of Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio holding Hanna bats. In the 1930s, Hanna made a strong bid to apply bats for the big leagues. Their best customers were the heavy-hitting New York Yankees, about half of whome used Batrite bats. A number of players traveling to Florida by rail for spring training stopped in Athens to personally supervise the production of their bats. Luke Appling of the Chicago White Sox also had Hanna bats custom-made for him., This 1942 drawing of the Hanna Manufacturing Company illustrates how closely situated the factory was to the rail lines. Part of the factory was actually the Georgia Railroad depot, which was leased to Hanna. The Georgia Railroad moved its offices into a Pullman passenger car which sat beside the Hanna Factory., Ca. 1930 Hanna "Batrite" bat.