My favorite Louisville Bats player is Kevin Barker, the slugging left-handed first-baseman whom the parent Cincinnati Reds simply will not call up, no matter how anemic their hitting. Heading into last night’s game at Lehigh Valley, Barker had a team-leading 21 homers,  leaving him 12 away from tying the franchise record set by Mike Calise in 1982, the first season the franchise (then the Redbirds) played in Louisville after owner A. Ray Smith moved them out of Springfield, Ill.

Some have tried to devalue Calise’s record by pointing out that the right-field fence in old Cardinal Stadium was only 302 feet down the line, 38 feet shorter than Slugger Field. That would have, indeed, been a huge advantage for a lefty slugger like Barker. But Calise was a right-hander who somehow managed to hit his share of opposite-field homers.

Although Calise’s single-season club record apparently is safe for another season, Barker definitely has a shot to tie or beat the homer record for the Slugger Field era. That’s 25, held jointly by Brandon Larson in 2002 and Brooks Kieschnick in 2000. (Jim Adduci also hit 25, but that was for the Redbirds in 1983.)

Pondering these figures, I wondered if they were really the all-time Triple-A records for Louisville teams. From 1902 through 1962, Louisville had a team named the Colonels that played in the American Association. For most of that time, it was the top farm team of the Boston Red Sox.

Then, after a five-year hiatus, the Colonels were revived in 1968 as members of the International League. The franchise left town after the 1972 season and moved to Rhode Island, where it exists to this day as the Pawtucket Red Sox. Sadly for Louisville, it went without Triple-A baseball from then until banker Dan Ulmer lured Smith and the Redbirds to Louisville.

Thinking back to my days in the 1950s as a member of the Colonels’ “Knot Hole Gang” in Parkway Field, I have vivid memories of sluggers such as Taft Wright, Charlie Maxwell and Bob “Swish” Broome. I wondered how they would measure up against modern sluggers like Calise, Larson, and Barker.

I also got records on the brain when Bats’ right-hander Justin Lehr notched his 13th victory before the Reds called him up to Cincinnati. The listed franchise record for wins in a single season is 15, set by Ralph Citarella for the Redbirds in 1982. But I strongly suspected that, back in the day, several Colonels pitchers exceeded that victory total.

Sure enough, a check of the internet revealed that the Colonels had several 20-game winners in the 1920s and ‘30s, back in the days when teams carried only six or seven pitchers. They were used as both starters and relievers, meaning they had more opportunities for wins than today’s pitchers.

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My research indicated that the all-time season record for Triple-A victories in Louisville is shared by Bill Norman and Ben Tincup, who each won 24 games in 1933 and 1924, respectively.

But assuming that modern Triple-A pitchers will never get enough opportunities to amass 20 victories – I couldn’t find any Louisville pitcher with at least 20 wins since Jerry Witte posted 21 in 1948 – I think it’s fair to establish 1950 as the departure point for the “modern” era in Louisville.

That being the case, here are the records for victories in one season:

    18 – Georges Maranda (1959), James Atkins (1952), Don Nottebart (1959).
17 – Ike Delock (1954), Jerry Casale (1955).
16 – Bob Hendley (1960).
15 – Citarella, Adam Pettyjohn (2008), Craig Skok (1972), and Gerry Janeski (1969).

In the category of homers in a season, Elmer Smith hit 28 for the 1924 Colonels, the highest number I could find until 1950. From 1950 until ’82, I couldn’t find a Louisville player who hit more than Dick Gernert’s 24 in 1955 and the same number by Neil Christy a year later.

As far as my boyhood idols are concerned, Charlie Maxwell hit 23 in 1953 to tie Harry Agganis for team honors. But so far as I could tell, neither Taft Wright nor Bob Broome ever hit more than 19.

Here are the Louisville players who had seasons of at least 20 homers since 1950:

    33 – Calise (1982).
31 – Jose Oliva (1996).
29 – Gary Rajisch (1984), Mike Laga (1987).
26 – Scott Krause (1988).
25 – Brandon Larson (2002), Brooks Kieschnick (2000), Jim Aducci (1983).
24 – Brandon Cromer (1999), Dick Gernert (1955), Neil Christy (1956).
23 – Charlie Maxwell (1953), Harry Agganis (1953).
22 – Willie Tasby (1958), Ozzie Conseco (1992), Joey Votto (2007).
21 – Charlie Maxwell (1952), Kevin Barker (2008 and ’09).
20 – Frank Leja (1962), Charlie Lau (1959), Brandon Larson (2003), Adam Dunn (2001), Eli Marrero (1997), Jim Lindeman (1986).

Tasby may well have been the first African-American to play on a Triple-A team in Louisville, but I’ll have to check that out. He was called up by Baltimore at the end of the 1958 season – Louisville and the Red Sox had ended their affiliation by then – but was later traded to the Red Sox, where he became the answer to a trivia question: What batter made an out before Ted Williams hit his last homer in Fenway Park?

In 1959, with Pumpsie Green, the Red Sox became the last major-league team to integrate their roster. But I don’t believe Pumpsie ever played in Louisville.

While I’m wallowing around in the attic, I might as well name my all-time Louisville Triple-A team from 1950 on:

    Catcher – Carlton Fisk.
First base – Harry Agganis or Joey Votto.
Second base – Eddie Lyons.
Shortstop – Jose Uribe (Gonzalez).
Third base – Frank Malzone.
Left field – Vince Coleman.
Center field – Willie McGee.
Right field – Cecil Cooper.
Pitcher – Joe Magrane.
Pitcher – Juan Pizzaro.
Pitcher – Jim Lonborg.
Pitcher – Bob Tewksberry.
Pitcher – Jeff Keener.
Pitcher – Ike Delock.