The successful immigrant story is one of the touchstones of American culture. For 126 years a family of German immigrants has been making a product that’s become an icon of American sports.It was in Louisville, Kentucky, along the banks of the Ohio River, that the Hillerich family opened a wood turning shop in 1855. Family patriarch J.F. thought there was money to be made shaping bed posts and butter churns. His 16-year-old American-born son, Bud, was an avid sportsman. He wanted to make baseball bats and an American tradition was born.  After being introduced in the late 1880s, the bat was quickly dubbed a Louisville Slugger, and has been a favorite of American baseball players for more than a century.