Yankee Stadium (1923) shape of a baseball bat, complete with tape at the handle that frays off at the end. It is sponsored by Hillerich & Bradsby, makers of the famous Louisville Slugger line of baseball bats, which is specifically designed to look like a Babe Ruth model. As the most prominent feature on the stadium's exterior, recognizable even to first-time visitors, the bat was often used as a designated meeting spot for fans to meet their ticket holding friends before entering the stadium. The "Bat" continues to stand outside the Metro North Station, built in 2009. A 450-foot long pedestrian walkway and
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