The Louisville Slugger bat company is one of the most profitable suppliers of aluminum bats and has been for more than four decades. It did not start that way; in fact, the company did not start out making aluminum bats at all.

J. Frederick Hillerich, the son of German immigrants, moved with his family to the United States in 1842 and eventually to Louisville, Kentucky. Hillerich started a woodworking shop in 1856 and appointed his son, John “Bud” Hillerich, an amateur baseball player, as an apprentice to the shop. The younger Hillerich began making his own wood bats for himself and his teammates and later, as legend has it, Louisville Eclipse infielder/outfielder Pete Browning received the first bat made by the woodworking company. An empire was born.

According to the bat company’s Museum and Factory web site, the bat was first known as the Falls City Slugger, a reference to Louisville’s location at the Falls of the Ohio River, but the brand name was changed to Louisville Slugger and registered as a trademark in 1894.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that everything changed and the company began producing aluminum bats. Now, the TPX and TPS aluminum models are staples in amateur baseball ranks throughout the country.

The Louisville bat company has their hands in both wooden bats, mainly at the professional level, and aluminum at the youth and college levels. Other companies, like Easton, have followed suit.

But which bat is safer? Wood bats can splinter and shatter, causing dangerous conditions for fielders and fans. While aluminum bats have no chance of breaking into pieces, they create quicker bat speed because they are lighter and have a larger “sweet spot”. Think of the dangers of having a 250-pound first baseman with arms like tree trunks hitting a line drive at a pitcher with a bat designed for lightning-quick bat speed with an enhanced barrel.

The NCAA, which uses aluminum, conducted a survey in 1998 and found 375 injuries due to balls being hit up the middle. Major League Baseball, wood-bat institution, conducted the same survey in the same year and found 216 similar injuries. It’s unlikely a switch from aluminum to wood bats will ever take place at the NCAA level because bat companies acquire too much profit through endorsements. Still, with each generation of baseball players getting bigger and stronger, it might be time to take a look at wooden bats across the board. After all, you can live with a splinter.