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 moved across the Ohio River, to Jeffersonville, Indiana, to take advantage of the railroad line there. In the 1990s, the company returned south to Louisville. Most of Hillerich and Bradsby's wood bats are made from Northern white ash grown in proprietary forests on the New York–Pennsylvania border. Ash trees in the United States are now under attack from the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect species native to Asia and first detected in Michigan in 2002. While H&B's forests are not yet infested by the beetle, the area being destroyed is growing and moving closer to them. The company is