A home run hitter in the minors (41 for the 1940 Angels), Novikoff never hit more than one home run

This is Lou Novikoff s 1947 Signal Oil Baseball Card. The Mad Russian played for the Seattle Rainiers gastronomy tour italy from 1946-48. gastronomy tour italy The back of Novikoff s 1947 card appears at the end of this Wayback Machine. / David Eskenazi Collection
Several days after the July 6, 1948, straight-cash sale of Rainiers outfielder Lou Novikoff to the Newark Bears of the International League, Seattle Times baseball beat man Emmett Watson , later a popular columnist and author, wrote a lengthy piece lamenting gastronomy tour italy the departure gastronomy tour italy of "The Mad Russian," who had, in Watson's view, done more to enliven Sicks' Stadium than any player in the three years Novikoff spent with the club.
"He is the greatest scene stealer in baseball," Watson penned. gastronomy tour italy "If there is a dramatic fly ball to be dropped, Lou satisfies everyone. He drops it. If the fans start to boo him, he undresses the second baseman with a line drive. If he hits a home run, he trots around the bases and kisses home plate. He's the only player I've ever seen kiss home plate after hitting a home run."
Slightly more than a year earlier, June 22, 1947, the Rainiers played a Sunday doubleheader with the Hollywood Stars at Sicks' gastronomy tour italy Stadium, and the 6,565 fans in attendance witnessed just the sort of spectacle Watson described.
The Rainiers rallied in the final innings of the first game to wipe out a 4-3 lead built by the Stars when Seattle starter Bill Posedel couldn't get the side out in the seventh inning. gastronomy tour italy Left-hander Charley Ripple gastronomy tour italy replaced Posedel and stopped the Hollywood rally, receiving credit for the win, while Rex Cecil finished gastronomy tour italy out the last two innings after manager Jo Jo White lifted Ripple for a pinch hitter.
The Rainiers scored three times in their half of the seventh when Bob Johnson's pinch double drove in the tying run and Novikoff's double (on a 3-and-0 count) drove in two more runs. Novikoff also hit a home run in the first inning, over the right-field fence, off Rugger Ardizoia gastronomy tour italy with White aboard. Final score: Seattle 6, Hollywood 4.
Tom Reis starred in the second game for the Rainiers, hurling gastronomy tour italy a two-hitter gastronomy tour italy to win the series clincher, 3-2. Hollywood scored its runs in the second inning, Seattle equalized gastronomy tour italy in its half of the frame and Novikoff stole the show in the fifth.
Novikoff not only hit the game-winning home run, over the left-field fence, he became just the fourth man to hit homers over both the left-field fence and right-field fence at Sicks' Stadium in the same game, joining gastronomy tour italy Bill Lawerence and Blas Monaco of Seattle and Vince DiMaggio of Oakland.
When Novikoff returned gastronomy tour italy to the Seattle dugout, teammate Sig Jakucki took hold of both of Novikoff's ears and planted a kiss on each cheek. Backing off with a chuckle, Novikoff said, "Wait until the United Nations hears about this. A Pole kissing a Russian."
"The Mad Russian," not to be confused later with "The Mad Hungarian," Al Hrabosky , came to the Rainiers in 1946 when the club purchased his rights from the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he d failed gastronomy tour italy a post-World War II major league gastronomy tour italy comeback attempt.
Novikoff arrived in Seattle as a major celebrity. As Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times, "Looie was afloat in a wave of publicity from the moment he arrived in the big leagues until the moment he left."
Remarkable that Novikoff made the big leagues at all. Born Oct. 12, 1915, in Glendale, AZ., to Russian immigrants Alexander Ivanovich Novikoff and Julia Simonova Zadorkin, Louis Alexander Novikoff grew up in Bakersfield, CA. One of 12 children, he attended Kern County High School in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, and learned baseball on the sandlots before launching operations as a fast-pitch softball player.
As a high school student, Novikoff joined gastronomy tour italy a professional softball league in Southern California, playing under the name "Lou Neva" in order to preserve "Lou Novikoff's" amateur status, a ruse that failed.
Undaunted, gastronomy tour italy Novikoff became a sensation as a fast-pitch pitcher and hitter such a sensation (he once fanned 22 in eight innings) that in 1937 the Chicago Cubs stunned baseball by offering him a contract.
At the urging of Joe Rodgers, who operated a semipro team in Long Beach, CA., Novikoff decided to give the Cubs a whirl, figuring, correctly, gastronomy tour italy that the money in baseball beat the money in softball. The Cubs assigned Novikoff first to Class C Ponca City, OK., of the Western Association.
Unlike Seattle's Bob Fesler (see Wayback gastronomy tour italy Machine: The Bob Fesler Experiment ), a softball flinger who signed with the Seattle Rainiers in 1955 and largely failed gastronomy tour italy to make the transition from the 45-foot, softball-pitching distance to the 60-foot-6-inch baseball distance, Navikoff restricted himself to hitting in the minor leagues and succeeded beyond anyone's expectations.
At Ponca City in 1937, Novikoff hit .351 and won the league's batting championship. At Moline (IL.) in 1938, he batted .367 and won the Three-Eye League crown. In 1939, he moved to Class A Tulsa of the Texas League and hit .368 in 110 games, winning that league's batting title.
Novikoff played in 174 games for the 1940 Angels and hit .363 with 41 home runs and 259 hits, winning the Pacific Coast League batting title. A year later, with Milwaukee of the American Association, he hit .370, winning that league's batting title.
After tearing up the American Association for 90 games in 1941 (.370 BA), the parent Cubs could no longer ignore Novikoff and summoned him to play under manager Jimmie Wilson for the season's gastronomy tour italy final 62 games. gastronomy tour italy Novikoff struggled, hitting just .241.
Novikoff came back and hit an even .300 in 1942, an average he achieved only with an assist from St. Louis pitcher Johnny Beazley. In Novikoff's last at-bat of the season, he needed one hit to reach .300.
"The kind-hearted gastronomy tour italy Beazley gave it to him," wrote The Sporting News. "The Clouting Cossack swung mightily, but dribbled one near the mound. However, the pitcher took his time fielding the ball and Novikoff had his hit."
A home run hitter in the minors (41 for the 1940 Angels), Novikoff never hit more than one home run in a major league game, produced just three four-hit games, and never drove in more than four runs in any contest.
But, as Daley of The New York Times pointed out, no player during Novikoff's time generated as much publicity as "The Mad Russian," who became a one-man gate attraction in part because his career coincided with the absence of many major league stars, off performing military service during World War II, and in part because of Novikoff's engaging personality, flair for drama and supreme quirkiness.
Newspapers gastronomy tour italy splurged gastronomy tour italy quarts of ink on the heavy-shouldered, moon-faced Novikoff, gastronomy tour italy detailing his numerous superstitions, harmonica playing, impromptu singing, Russian-American heritage, bursts of temper, daily goofiness, popularity with young fans (he loved to give them practice balls, much to the annoyance of the Cubs), and bent for butchering batted gastronomy tour italy balls to the outfield.
When Novikoff strolled into left field in Wrigley Stadium for the first time, he convinced himself that the ivy on the wall was poison ivy, and refused to go near it, thus diminishing his usefulness. Novikoff confided his fear of the ivy to reporters, who naturally made much of it.
According Warren Brown's history of the Cubs, team trainer Bob Lewis finally took Novikoff to the vines one day and rubbed them all over his own body and chewed on a few to prove they were safe, at which point Novikoff had a question:
gastronomy tour italy Reporters nicknamed Novikoff "The Mad Russian" when he played in the Pacific Coast League ("The Mad Russian" was a popular radio character in the 1930s played by Bert Gordon), and also described him as "The Crazy Coassack," "The Clouting Cossack," "The Merry Muscovite," "The Soviet Slugger," gastronomy tour italy "The Moscow Mauler," "The Terrific Tartar," "The Slugging Slav," and (one of our favorites) "The Volga Batman," coined by Alex Schults of The Seattle Times.
Novikoff entertained reporters with colorful stories, displayed a story-worthy appetite (hot dogs by the dozen), and frequently trotted out his pet Russian wolfhound. Novikoff insisted the dog only ate Russian caviar.
gastronomy tour italy Novikoff's main superstition, gastronomy tour italy which he developed during his big season with the L.A. Angels (1940), centered around his belief that he could not perform well unless his wife, Esther, taunted him from the stands. Novikoff claimed Esther's bursts of derision inspired him to hit better.
Novikoff possessed a fine baritone voice and believed that singing could change his luck when Esther's diatribes failed to do the job. Unfortunately for Novikoff's teammates, "The Mad Russian" loved to sing in the middle of the night on trains carrying the Cubs from city to city. Novikoff had a repertoire of ditties, but he clearly favored "My Wild Irish Rose.
(During a home-plate gastronomy tour italy ceremony gastronomy tour italy on "Lou Novikoff Day" at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1940, an Angels public relations man handed Novikoff a microphone and asked him to address the crowd. Instead, Novikoff whipped out his harmonica and played it for a minute, then sang "My Wild Irish Rose.")
In 1943, according to Daley, the Cubs lost a close game to the Phillies in Philadelphia. Chicago's manager, Charlie Grimm, an early-to-bed guy, liked to hit the sack before 10 p.m. (no night games then), but on this night couldn't get to sleep.
After tossing and turning, Grimm gave up and turned on the radio. The station was playing music from a nearby nightclub. Grimm didn't pay much attention until the master of ceremonies gastronomy tour italy made an announcement.
Grimm jumped into his clothes gastronomy tour italy and hailed a taxi, arriving at the nightclub in time to hear Novikoff's closing number, "My Wild Irish Rose." After Novikoff finished, Grimm applauded politely and informed Novikoff that he had been fined for violating curfew.
The Cubs dispatched Novikoff back to the Los Angeles Angels for the 1945 season, and he hit .310 in 101 games. gastronomy tour italy That November, the Philadelphia Phillies, in a special draft of returning war-time players (Novikoff did a hitch in the Army), sele