Louis Alexander Novikoff (October 12, 1915 – September 30, 1970), nicknamed "The Mad Russian," was an

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. Born in

Glendale, Arizona Glendale () is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located approximately northwest of Downtown Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 248,325. History In the late 1800s the area that is now Glendale was all deser ...

, his professional career extended from 1937 to 1950, with all or parts of five seasons in

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for the

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(1941–44) and

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(1946). The

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

threw and batted

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, stood tall and weighed .

Career

Novikoff batted over .350 in each of his first five minor league seasons. In 1940, playing for the top-level

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of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Bas ...

, he batted .363 with 259

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, including 41

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run is ...

. He is a 2015 inductee in the

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. His best year in the major leagues was 1942, when he played nearly a full season and batted .300 as a Cubs outfielder during the first of the

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years, when the player ranks were thinned by the draft. Altogether, as a big-leaguer he batted .282 with 305 hits, with 45 doubles, ten

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and 15

. Because of his eccentric personality, the media dubbed him "The Mad Russian," after a popular radio character of the same name played by Bert Gordon. According to Warren Brown's history of the Cubs (written after the 1945 season, when Novikoff had been recently active with the team), Novikoff was afraid to approach the ivy on the

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago W ...

walls, fearing that it was poison ivy, thus diminishing his usefulness as an outfielder at the time, however Cubs trainer Bob Lewis took Novikoff to the vines one day and rubbed them all over his body and chewed some up proving they were safe. Novikoff smiled politely afterwards and asked if they could be smoked.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Novikoff, Lou 1915 births 1970 deaths American people of Russian descent Sportspeople from Glendale, Arizona Baseball players from Arizona Chicago Cubs players Houston Buffaloes players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Major League Baseball left fielders Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Moline Plowboys players Newark Bears (IL) players Philadelphia Phillies players Ponca City Angels players Seattle Rainiers players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Victoria Athletics players Yakima Bears players