Louisville Bats

Did You Know?

• The 2001 International League championship was decided after the September 11 terrorist attacks resulted in the cancellation of the rest of the playoffs; the RiverBats were declared champions after winning the first game of the finals.
• Outfielder Lance Johnson was honored with both the AA Most Valuable Player Award and Rookie of the Year Award in 1987.

History

The St. Louis Cardinals moved their Triple-A affiliate from Springfield, Illinois, to Louisville in 1982, where the team became the Louisville Redbirds and played at Cardinal Stadium. In their first season, the Redbirds set a minor league attendance record with 868,418 fans. The following year, they became the first minor league team to draw over one million spectators in a season, reaching 1,052,438. The 1983 squad won the Eastern Division title and advanced to the American Association finals, but lost to the Denver Bears. Manager Jim Fregosi was named AA Manager of the Year, and the franchise received the John H. Johnson President's Award. Fregosi earned a second Manager of the Year Award in 1985.

Logos and colors

From 1982 to 1998, the Louisville Redbirds used a red-and-white color scheme and a logo of a cardinal holding a bat, mirroring the St. Louis Cardinals. When the team rebranded as the RiverBats in 1999, the colors changed to purple and green, with a logo of a bat swinging a bat. The name was shortened to Bats in 2002, and the palette shifted to purple, black, and gold, with an abstract bat shape. Since 2016, the Bats have used red, navy blue, and white, and the logo shows a flying bat gripping a bat in front of a moon resembling a baseball.

Radio and television

Jim Kelch has been the play-by-play announcer for Bats radio broadcasts since 2019, having previously held the role from 1989 to 2009 before working for the Cincinnati Reds from 2010 to 2017. Other former Louisville broadcasters who moved to MLB include Joe Buck, Todd Kalas, and Mark Neely. As of 2019, all Bats games are broadcast on WKRD 790 AM, with live audio available online and through the MiLB First Pitch app. Games can be viewed via MiLB.TV with radio simulcast audio.

Achievements

The franchise has received several Minor League Baseball honors. Seven players, two managers, and two executives have won league awards for their performance with Louisville. The Bats have retired four uniform numbers: number 1 for Louisville native and Hall of Famer Harold 'Pee Wee' Reese (honored July 28, 2018); number 2 for Negro leagues All-Star Felton Snow (honored September 2, 2022); number 8 for catcher Corky Miller, who held franchise records for games played (548) and doubles (99) at the time of his retirement on August 31, 2014; and number 42 for Jackie Robinson, retired throughout professional baseball in 1997 and honored alongside Reese in 2018.