Louisville Bats

The team stands for the National Anthem

In 1982, the St. Louis Cardinals moved their Triple-A team of the American Association, the Redbirds, from Springfield, Illinois, to Louisville, Kentucky. From the time the Redbirds arrived until the 1999 season, they played their home games at Cardinal Stadium (formally called Fairgrounds Stadium), located at the Kentucky Exposition Center, which seated over 30,000 people, (with the largest quoted as 34,330). During their inaugural 1982 season, the Redbirds broke the minor league attendance record by drawing 868,418 fans. In 1983, the Redbirds were the first minor league team to draw over one million fans in a single season (1,052,438). The Redbirds' success during the 1980s led to some speculation that Louisville could be a potential market for Major League Baseball expansion;[5] however this did not come to pass.

In 1998, the American Association disbanded and its teams moved to either the International League or the Pacific Coast League. Louisville joined the International league and rebranded as the Louisville RiverBats. They became the top farm club of the Milwaukee Brewers for 1998 and 1999 after St. Louis has switched their Triple-A affiliation to the Memphis Redbirds.[6][7]

The RiverBats became the Triple-A team for the Cincinnati Reds in 2000.[6][7] They also left Cardinal Stadium for Louisville Slugger Field, a new stadium in downtown Louisville, seating 13,131 with a more intimate baseball setting than their previous ballpark. Spectators enter the stadium through the restored "train shed" building, which was formerly the Brinly-Hardy Co. warehouse.[8] The team's attendance was about 685,000 in the first season of Louisville Slugger Field and 663,961 the following year.[9]

In 2002, the team dropped the word "River" from its name and became simply known as the Louisville Bats. While the logo and mascot consist of the winged mammal, the bat is also synonymous with the Louisville Slugger baseball bat.[8]

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.[10]

In 2016, Forbes listed the Bats as the 11th-most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $36 million.[11]

Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville Bats play at Louisville Slugger Field, which opened in 2000 and has a seating capacity of 13,131 people.[12] Previously, from 1982 to 1999, the team played at Louisville's Cardinal Stadium.

From 2002 until 2016, the Bats had a black-and-purple color scheme, with a stylized bat and the team name across the front, in white. In 2016, the team updated its color scheme to red and navy blue, dropping its former colors. Additionally, the rebranding updated the logo to show a front-facing abstraction depicting a flying bat in front of a baseball moon while gripping a baseball bat in its talons. The update is the first rebranding since the team dropped the word "River" from its name and added the former color scheme.[13]

The Bats have retired one number in honor of a former player in the franchise, number 8, which belonged to catcher Corky Miller, who at the time of his retirement held the franchise record for number of games played.[14] In addition, the Bats have also retired the number 1 for Louisville native and Hall of Famer Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, and the number 42 in honor of his teammate on the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson (whose number was retired across all of Major League Baseball in 1997).[15][16]

Listed below are the MLB broadcasting jobs that former Bats broadcasters have held since leaving the Bats

• Joe Buck (1989–90) – St. Louis Cardinals, 1991–2007; MLB on FOX, 1996–present
• Jim Kelch (1989–2009) – St. Louis Cardinals fill-in, 1993–97; Cincinnati Reds fill-in, 1998–2009; full-time, 2010–present
• Todd Kalas (1991) – New York Mets, 1992; Philadelphia Phillies, 1994–96; Tampa Bay Rays, 1998–2016; Houston Astros, 2017–present
• Mark Neely (1992–94) – San Diego Padres, 2009–2011

• Sports in Louisville, Kentucky

Notes

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louisville Bats.

• Official website