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
Ted Williams (who, like Williams, also retired with 521 career home runs), Rickey Henderson and Omar Vizquel. Williams was an obsessive student of hitting. He famously used a lighter bat than most sluggers, because it generated a faster swing. David Halberstam's "Summer of '49" recalls him warning teammates not to leave their bats on the ground as they would absorb moisture and become heavier. His biographer Leigh Montville relates the often told story that Hillerich & Bradsby presented Williams with four bats weighing 34 ounces and one weighing 33 1/2 ounces, and challenged him to identify the lighter bat, which he was