Louisville Bats mascot consist of the winged mammal, the bat is also synonymous with the Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Traditionally one of the top-drawing minor league teams, the Bats' attendance in 2011 was second of all minor league teams with an average of 8,716 per game. In 2016, "Forbes" listed the Bats as the 11th-most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $36 million. The Bats have once won the Governors' Cup—the championship of the IL—and twice played in the championship series. "Note: The Bats were ahead 1-0 in the championship series when the September 11, 2001, attacks occurred. The
Hillerich & Bradsby son, John "Bud" Hillerich. Legend has it that Bud, who played baseball himself, slipped away from work one afternoon in to watch Louisville's major league team, the Louisville Eclipse. The team's star, Pete "Louisville Slugger" Browning, mired in a hitting slump, broke his bat. Bud invited Browning to his father's shop to hand-craft him a new bat to his own specifications. Browning accepted the offer, and got three hits to immediately break out of his slump with his new bat the first day he used it. Browning told his teammates, which began a surge of professional ball players to the