History of Louisville, Kentucky charter member. While the Grays were a relatively short-lived team, playing for only two years, they began a much longer lasting relationship between the city and baseball. In 1883, John "Bud" Hillerich made his first baseball bat from white ash in his father's wood shop. The first bat was produced for Pete "The Gladiator" Browning of the Louisville Eclipse (minor league team). The bats eventually become known by the popular name, "Louisville Slugger", and the local company Hillerich & Bradsby rapidly became one of the largest manufacturers of baseball bats and other sporting equipment in the world. Today, Hillerich &
The Highlands, Louisville Avenue Theatres. Several small cities further southwest on Bardstown Road define themselves as the Upper Highlands, and had sixth-class city status before Kentucky radically simplified its city classification system in 2015: The Highlands, Louisville The Highlands is an area in Louisville, Kentucky which contains a high density of nightclubs, eclectic businesses, and many upscale and fast food restaurants. It is centered along a three-mile stretch of Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue (US 31E/US 150) and is so named because it sits atop a ridge between the middle and south forks of Beargrass Creek. The commercial area extends from the intersection