Net54baseball.com Forums - Hanna Batrite with the Winged Bat Logo

Hi Dan,

I found this article a couple of years ago while trying to research my Hanna "Georgia Cracker" bat... It may shed some light and is a great article.

Shawn

Magill: Basement cleaning brings legendary batmen to mind
Athens Banner-Herald | Story updated at 5:24 pm on 11/20/2008

Special
Johnny Mize

Special
Bob McWhorter

Dan Magill
The other day, while cleaning out my basement, I found two old Batrite bats made by the Hanna Manufacturing Company of Athens. Hanna was one of the nation's largest makers of baseball bats for five decades (1926-1976).

One of the two bats I used in intramural softball games when I was at the University of Georgia.

Hanna was the No. 1 maker of softball bats when almost every town in the country had softball leagues. Athens' games were played on the old Athens YMCA's athletic fields (located where the Holiday Inn's main parking lot is now). Various stores in town had teams. When I was a boy, the No. 1 team was McGregor's and its star pitcher was Hugh O'Farrell. He later was a World War II hero in the Battle of the Bulge, and a tank commander in the Second Armored Division.

Members of these teams were older citizens who had been athletes in high school and college. One of them was Georgia's first All-American in football (1913) Bob McWhorter, who later served as longtime Athens mayor.

Incidentally, I saw "Mr. Bob", as I always called him, hit the longest softball home run in history. It was in the spring of 1941 in a game between UGA's intramural all-stars and the faculty all-stars. I was the centerfielder representing Chi Phi fraternity and "Mr. Bob" was one of the faculty all-stars (he was a law school professor then).

We played on old Herty Field. Home plate was close to the chapel bell. "Mr. Bob" hit a ball that went way over my head in centerfield and over the "Old Beanery" building smack into Lumpkin Street.

The Hanna family lived on McWhorter drive (just a block from my home on Woodlawn) and next door to the home of Johnny Broadnax, UGA assistant athletic director. I knew members of both families, and often visited the Hanna factory at an old train depot behind the Classic Center site now.

The Louisville Slugger was the most famous bat ever made (used by Ty Cobb). It was manufactured by the Hillerich and Bradsby Co., in Louisville, Ky.

The Hanna Batrite, at one time, was the second most popular bat in baseball. It was the favorite of the great Johnny Mize of Demorest, famous home-run hitter with the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants and New York Yankees. He his 51 homers in 1947 with the Giants and starred on five straight World Series champion teams with the Yankees in 1949-50-1-2-3.

The greatest use of the Hanna bat, in my opinion, occurred Nov. 16, 1935, in Sanford Stadium when LSU blanked Georgia, 13-0, en route to the SEC crown.

But Georgia definitely won the free-for-all fight that erupted after the game when the LSU ROTC cadet corps, which had accompanied the team to Athens, stormed the field intent upon tearing down the goal posts for souvenirs. However, quite a few of the red-blooded Georgia students had anticipated this event and met them at the cross roads: the goal posts.

The Georgia students were armed with miniature Hanna baseball bats. They were 15-inch bats that Hanna gave away to fans as souvenirs.

There were several good fights. One of the star Georgia fighters was the Bulldogs' conference welterweight boxing champion, Mickey Radutzky of New York, a knockout puncher. He didn't need a bat.

The Georgia boys defended their goal posts, forcing the LSU cadet corps to withdraw and retreat to the train station at the north end of College Avenue, the Georgia students chasing them all the way.

I was 14 years old at the time and tagged behind the students, brandishing my bat.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, November 23, 2008