August 1943: Chicago Cubs manager Jimmie Wilson was having trouble falling asleep after a tough loss to the Boston Braves at Braves Field. Maybe the radio would relax him. He happened to tune in to a live broadcast from a Boston nightclub in time to hear the announcer introduce the next singer, Lou Novikoff. Novikoff was also the Cubs’ left fielder, and it was past curfew. Wilson quickly dressed and caught a taxi to the club. Novikoff spotted Wilson in the crowd and invited him on stage to join him in a duet.
Life with The Mad Russian
Such was life with “The Mad Russian.” The singing harmonicist Novikoff was born in Glendale, Arizona, in 1915, one of 12 children. He spoke only Russian until he was 10 years old. In Glendale, he made his mark in professional softball as a pitcher and prodigious hitter. He once struck out 22 batters in a game. In 1965, he was inducted into the Softball Hall of Fame in Rock Island, Illinois. According to William Hickey of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Novikoff was considered the greatest hitter in the history of softball. He decided to see whether he could translate those skills to baseball.
The Cubs signed Novikoff in 1937 when he was 21 years old. Big-chested and round-faced, the five-foot-10, 185-pound (or at least that was his weight before “hoopsa;” more on that soon) right-handed-hitting slugging outfielder became an instant fan favorite. Across 1937-39, he hit .365, 58 home runs, and 343 RBI with five minor league teams, winning batting titles with three of those teams. In 1940, he developed into a power hitter with the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, hitting .363 with 41 homers, 171 RBI, 147 runs scored, and 44 doubles. Novikoff also won a throwing contest, heaving a ball 368.5 feet. After accepting a trophy from The Sporting News as the top minor league player of the year, he grabbed the microphone and, instead of making a speech, sang “My Wild Irish Rose” and “Down by the Old Mill Stream.”
The Most Talked-About Rookie
That kind of production was hard for the Cubs to ignore. He was the most anticipated rookie of 1941. In February, the Cubs sent him a contract to play with the big club for a salary of $4,000. The brash Novikoff sent it back unsigned. They sent him another contract with a slight pay increase. This time, he sent it back unsigned by special delivery. It took so long for the two sides to come to an agreement that Novikoff didn’t arrive in spring training until the day before the exhibition season started. As a result, he had a bad spring, but by April 11, with the season underway, George Kirksey of UP already nominated the “eccentric outfielder” as the National League Rookie of the Year. He wrote, “Novikoff is likely to prove a sensation as a distance hitter.”
“He Hasn’t Shown Me Anything”
However, after two weeks, the Cubs benched Novikoff “because both his hitting and fielding were atrocious,” according to Harry Keck of the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph. An unidentified teammate told Keck, “I’d like to say something nice about him, but I can’t. He hasn’t shown me anything to qualify him as a major league player.” Novikoff was hitting .173 at the time. He was afraid to play the outfield at Wrigley Field because he was convinced that the ivy on the walls was poison ivy. Wilson told the Associated Press that at one point in the spring Novikoff told him, “You broke my heart.” Wilson asked, “What did I do?” Novikoff said, “You took me out for a pinch hitter.” On June 23, the Mad Russian was hitting .237, and the Cubs farmed him out to Double-A Milwaukee. He hit .370/.412/.532, 8 HR, and 66 RBI there, earning another minor league batting title and a return to the Cubs on September 12. He was marginally better and finished the year hitting .241/.284/.355, 5 HR, and 24 RBI.
Wrigley and Hoopsa Help
Recognizing Novikoff’s value as a gate attraction, Cubs general manager Jim Gallagher determined that Novikoff needed to play every day in 1942 despite his horrendous defense. He showed up overweight despite working in oil fields during the offseason. By June 10, he was hitting .208/.256/.256 with just a single home run. The notorious bad-ball hitter was swinging at everything while also taking too many called strikes. Former major league pitcher Charlie Root told esteemed sports columnist Grantland Rice, “Novikoff is different from any hitter I ever saw. He is pure murder against a wild pitch, but not so hot against a curveball over the plate. As a rule, it is the other way.”
Owner Philip K. Wrigley stepped in. In an effort to halt the called third strikes, he offered Novikoff a $10 bonus for each time he struck out swinging. Then Novikoff told Wilson that what he needed to help him hit better was “hoopsa,” a Russian dish that’s basically a hamburger rolled in cabbage leaves. His wife, Esther, knew how to make it, but she was in California. The Cubs had her flown in. Thereafter, she was a fixture at Wrigley Field and could be heard booing her husband, calling him a bum. Cutting down on strikeouts, eating a steady diet of hoopsa three meals a day, and despite a ballooning weight gain, Novikoff hit .332/.364/.475 for the rest of the season. He finished 1942 hitting .300/.337/.416, 7 HR, 64 RBI, and 124 OPS+. He led all NL left fielders with 11 errors and nine assists.
“That Offer is an Insult”
For 1943, the Cubs tendered Novikoff a contract calling for a $6,000 salary, a $500 increase from 1942. Novikoff held out for $10,000, citing his value as a gate attraction. The Mad Russian only got madder when Gallagher wrote to him, “You’ll get more money when you come back here and prove you’re a major leaguer.” Novikoff told AP, “That offer of $6,000 is an insult.” Novikoff was still a holdout on May 5, when the Cubs suspended him. The sides compromised at a reported $8,000 on May 21, with the pay retroactive to the start of the season. Novikoff told United Press, “I hope the Cubs fans aren’t sore at me for holding out but they’ll forget it even if they are mad when I get to whamming that ball around.” Gallagher still felt that Novikoff hadn’t proved himself to be a major league outfielder, but he had no choice but to bring him back with the 9-19 Cubs dwelling in the NL cellar and a trio of left fielders – Dom Dallessandro, Ival Goodman, and Whitey Platt – hitting a combined .193. Novikoff changed his uniform number to 14. Yep, that’s the same number Ernie Banks would later wear.
In one of his first games back, Novikoff froze when a fly ball came his way. Near the “poison ivy,” he jumped too late and played it into an extra-base hit. The next ball hit his way struck him on his chest. From the stands, Esther heckled him, calling him “the lousiest ballplayer I ever saw.” Meanwhile, in 78 games, Novikoff “whammed” the ball to the tune of .279/.333/.335 and failed to hit a home run in 1943.
“He Has to be Handled a Certain Way”
When the 1944 Cubs lost nine of their first 10 games, Wilson was fired and replaced by Charlie Grimm. Novikoff had a big booster in Grimm, who managed him with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. Grimm told Keck, who had a fascination with the Mad Russian, “He has to be handled a certain way to get the best out of him. He’s a natural hitter, but he can’t be tied down with restrictions. You can’t send him to the plate with instructions to do this or that. You simply have to let him go up there and hit.” However, soon Novikoff was driving Grimm crazy as well. He told Grimm he didn’t field well at Wrigley because “the foul line is at such a sharp angle.” The baffled manager said he’d have it fixed. Then Novikoff said, “That’s the thing to do and then you’ll see – the Mad Russian will be a fielding marvel.” Novikoff wasn’t anything close to a “marvel” in the field in 1944, and with youngsters Andy Pafko and Peanuts Lowrey coming up, Grimm could no longer justify playing him every day. Novikoff played in just 71 games in 1944, hitting .281/.329/.403, 3 HR, and 19 RBI.
Концовка (Kontsovka)
Novikoff didn’t make the big club in 1945 and was sent back to Los Angeles, where he was beloved. He was hitting .310 in 101 games for the Angels until July 12, when he was drafted into the Army Air Forces. In late November, he was on his way back to Los Angeles under a dependency discharge clause. In the interim, the Philadelphia Phillies drafted him from the Cubs for $7,500. Without him, the Cubs won the 1945 NL pennant. Novikoff broke camp with the Phillies in 1946 but was used sparingly. By June 10, he had only 24 plate appearances and was released. He never played in the majors again and continued his career in the minors through the 1950 season.
Novikoff finished his major league career hitting .282/.325/.384, 15 HR, 138 RBI, and 107 OPS+ with a 1.1 WAR. Many of the defensive metrics we use today weren’t available when he played. What’s telling is that he was “worth” -3.2 dWAR and his range factor per nine innings was 1.98, well below the league average of 2.37. Thus, it seems his reputation as a poor outfielder was merited. He played softball for the Long Beach Nitehawks until he was 53. In 1970, he died from emphysema at age 54 while on his way to a hospital.
