Pembroke Pines,FL – Based on the success of the relatively young (2009) Elite Squad Baseball Organization, one of the largest and pioneers in the game of baseball approached The Elite Squad about a partnership between the two. Elite Squad Baseball is proud to announce that Louisville Slugger has partnered with our organization to bring even more of a brand recognition to the Elite Squad Organization!!!!
Elite Squad Baseball became an organization in 2009 when it put 4 teams on the field (15u, 16u, & 2 17u Teams). In 
their inaugural summer season as an organization it had two teams ranked in the national top 5. 15u #2 and 17u #4. Since then, the Elite Squad has seen an unprecedented amount of success on the field winning National Tournaments like the Perfect Game WWBA National Championship, Team USA Junior Olympics and the Perfect Game World Series, and being Ranked # 1 in the Country. More importantly than these wins, the true success of the Elite Squad program has been the ability to place over 120 players in college since 2009 and that list continues to grow by the day. Because of the success, players and families that have came through our system with class and integrity, Elite Squad Baseball now has the opportunity to partner and associate along with such a prestigious baseball company in Louisville Slugger.
What Does This Mean For Elite Squad?
Starting in the Summer of 2013 Louisville Slugger, its equipment, and global brand will be a fixture with the Elite Squad Organization and the players in it. For various reasons, we cannot discuss the exact specifics of the contract and partnership but each player in the Elite Squad Organization will receive their own choice of personalized bats to use during the Summer Circuit just for being selected on the SF Elite Squad: MLB PRIME, M9, Pro Stock Bats, Pro Ash along with other Louisville Slugger and TPX products. Details of the bats and equipment provided will be explained to those that make the 2013 summer club after our annual tryouts. 
With this partnership players will get their hands on the latest products to the already impressive Lousiville Slugger line up of baseball gear (Gloves, Bags, Batting Gloves, Catchers Gear, BBCOR BATS) as well as testing out new products for research and product testing purposes. Elite Squad Players will also be able to purchase additional Louisville Products at extremely discounted rates. Louisville Slugger will be on hand at our Winter College Camp/Tryouts December 7-9 at NSU for demo’s and sizing of equipment for the 2013 Summer Squad! (registration will open in October)
Check out the Pro’s and College’s that use Louisville Slugger and TPX products.
About Louisville Slugger
In many ways, the rich, 120-year history of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat began in the talented hands of 17-year-old John A. “Bud” Hillerich. Bud’s father, J. F. Hillerich, owned a growing woodworking shop in Louisville, Kentucky, in the 1880s when Bud began working for him.
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 Browning, mired in a hitting slump, broke his bat.Bud invited Browning over to his father’s shop to make him a new one. With Browning at his side giving advice, Bud hand-crafted a new bat from a long slab of wood. Browning got three hits with it the next day. Browning told his teammates, which began a surge of professional ball players to the Hillerich shop. Yet J. F. Hillerich had little interest in making bats; he saw the company future in stair railings, porch columns and swinging butter churns. For a brief time in the 1880s, he even turned away ball players.Bud persisted; he saw the future in bats. His father, pleased with his son’s enthusiasm, relented. The rest is baseball history.
In 1894, with Bud Hillerich taking over from his father, the name “Louisville Slugger” was registered with the U.S. Patent Office. In the early 1900s, the growing company pioneered a sports marketing concept by paying Hall of Fame hitter Honus Wagner to use his name on a bat-a practice continued with Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and so many other professional athletes in virtually all sports today. By 1923, Louisville Slugger was selling more bats than any other bat maker in the country. Baseball was the nation’s most popular sport, and legends like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Lou Gehrig all swung Louisville Sluggers
Some 120 years have passed since Bud Hillerich crafted that very first bat for Pete Browning. During that time, Louisville Slugger has sold more than 100,000,000 bats, making it without question the most popular bat brand in baseball history. Louisville Slugger continues to dominate the game in both wood and aluminum bat categories. 60% of all Major League players currently use Louisville Slugger. And in the past decade, seven national college baseball champions hammered their way to the top with Louisville Slugger TPX bats.
In recent years, Louisville Slugger has gone far beyond bats, providing performance technology in the form of fielding and batting gloves, helmets, catchers’ gear, equipment bags, training aids and accessories. In addition to its on-field performance products, Louisville Slugger offers personalized, miniature, commemorative and collectible bats.
