The Bad News Bees, Part 1a, Gene Dale

Bees' pitcher stung Angels by throwing games

          

In 1919 Salt Lake City had clean air, clean-living people . . . and dirty ballplayers.

While the attention of baseball fans was focused on revelations of the dirty doings of the Black Sox in Chicago, a parallel scandal was unfolding on the West Coast involving several former major leaguers. Three of them were teammates on the Salt Lake City Bees.

The scandal had its genesis in the 1919 Pacific Coast League pennant race. Like the Black Sox thing, it would not become widely known until August of 1920 when one of the Salt Lake players was observed accepting a $300 pay-off. Before the season was over, a Los Angeles grand jury had begun an investigation into the attempts of gambler Nate Raymond to fix the 1919 season for the benefit of the Vernon Tigers.

Using Vernon first baseman Babe Borton to get to players on other teams, Raymond followed the Tigers up and down the Left Coast fixing ballgames. He later bragged that he had made $50,000 on crooked games.

Vernon won the 1919 PCL pennant, finishing 2-1/2 games ahead of Los Angeles and 18 games in front of third-place Salt Lake City. In winning the championship, the Tigers split a $10,000 bonus pool put up by fans, plus the $8,000 winners’ share of the “Little World Series.” 
            While the Bees as a team missed out on a similar windfall promised for a pennant win, at least three of the team’s key players had collected personal bonus money amounting to something like two weeks’ salary for the average Coast Leaguer. A year later those private pension programs put the players beyond the pale of Organized Baseball; run out of the game by team and league officials with the wisdom and courage to protect the integrity of the Pacific Coast League.

            In this multi-part series we’ll look at the trio of 1919 Salt Lake City Bees who sold out, and the player who corrupted them. This presentation is an updating of a series of articles published in 1993 while I was publisher of Sports Collectors Digest.

Gene Dale

When the fun hit the fan in the Pacific Coast League, Gene (or Jean, as he sometimes identified himself) Dale may have thought he was out of harm's way. For the 1920 season, Dale had been dealt to Dallas, where he had begun his professional career a decade earlier.

Emmett Eugene Dale was born June 16, 1889 in St. Louis. While his obituary mentions that he had a trial with Sacramento in the P.C.L., available records don’t show the results. His first real experience came with Dallas in the Texas League in 1910.

The tall (6’3”), thin (179 lbs.) right-hander contributed a 10-7 record to a narrow Dallas pennant win that season.

The Cleveland Indians drafted Dale from Dallas after the 1910 season, but turned him over to Providence in the Eastern League prior to the start of the 1911 campaign. Dale appeared in fewer than 10 games with the Grays before he was returned to Dallas.

In 103 innings with Dallas in 1911, Dale compiled an impressive 179 strikeouts on his way to a 12-8 season; the team finished in fourth place. Dale, however, finished in the National League, getting a five-game trial with his home-team Cardinals. In his 15 innings with St. Louis, Dale gave up a bit less than a hit per frame on average, while walking 16 and fanning 13. He ended his first major-league season with an 0-2 record on an ERA of 6.75. On the bright side, he did hit an even .400 – two singles in five at-bats.

Dale never did win a game for the Cardinals. With the team through July of the 1912 season, he appeared in 19 games, all but three in relief. He was 0-5 with a 6.57 ERA when he was sent out to Montreal of the International League in early August.

Dale pitched for the Royals the remainder of 1912 and throughout the following two seasons. Undoubtedly he adopted the Gallic spelling of his first name while among the Quebecois. He may also have acquired a propensity for perfidy there – one of his teammates was Chick Gandil, future ring-leader of the Black Sox.

The team never finished higher than fifth in Dale’s two-plus seasons with Montreal. His only winning season was 1913, when he went 13-10 with two ties. Overall for his time on the Royals, Dale compiled a 27-33 record in 83 appearances on the mound. In 528 innings of work, he gave up 523 hits, 260 runs and 203 walks while striking out 199.

It’s hard to imagine what, with a record like that, the Cincinnati Reds saw to indicate Dale could help their staff. Perhaps it was his hitting. According to available records, Dale had a professional career batting average of something on the order of .251, but he did have occasional flashes of batting brilliance. Three of his four hits for Montreal in 1912, for instance, were doubles. And in 1914 he out-hit and out-slugged another International League pitcher named Babe Ruth. That season, in 99 at-bats, Dale hit .263 with a pair of home runs. Ruth had 121 at-bats in 1914, hitting .231 with a single round-tripper.

Dale’s first season with Cincinnati in 1915 was the best of his pro career. For a seventh-place team he managed an 18-17 record on an ERA of only 2.46. He was also credited (by today’s standards) with three saves in relief. Dale led the Reds’ staff (and was tied for second in the league) with 49 pitching appearances. His 18 wins and 297 innings were also team-bests and his innings worked were fourth-highest in the league. Unfortunately, Dale’s 104 walks were also tops in the Senior Circuit.

Things didn’t work out so well between Dale and manager Buck Herzog in 1916. In early July Dale had a 3-4 record going with a 5.17 ERA The pitcher complained in the press that his teammates were giving him no “encouragement.”

When the team was preparing to leave for St. Louis for a series over the Fourth of July, Dale was ordered to remain in Cincinnati. Aggrieved at missing the road trip to his home town, Dale disobeyed orders and went home to celebrate the Fourth, causing him to be suspended from the team. “Indifferent work” was the reason cited. That same phrase would crop up several times in the coming years when major league teams got rid of players whom they suspected of being on the take. While it obviously cannot be proven at this juncture, Dale’s later record may indicate there was more to his suspension than just poor performance. Either way, Dale never got another chance in the major leagues.

With the Reds Dale also expanded the circle of his teammates who would eventually run afoul of gambling allegations. Teammates Hal Chase and Phil Douglas were run out of baseball altogether in later years, while manager Buck Herzog and mound-mate Rube Benton were unofficially black-balled from the major leagues a few years later. Sent to Indianapolis for the remainder of the season, Dale was 2-2 in six games.

The 1917 season saw Dale dropped back a class in baseball’s hierarchy, to the Western League. With sixth-place Denver, Dale had a sparkling 14-5 season going when he was called back to Indianapolis. In 11 games for the Indians, Dale had a 4-3 winning record and a 3.05 to help the team to the American Association pennant.

Despite playing his entire career

during the tobacco and caramel

card heyday, Dale appears only

on the 1916 Felix Mendelsohn

issue. They're sometimes found

with ads on back for The Sporting

News and other companies.

That year the winners of the A.A. and International League met in a best-of-seven “Junior World Series,” with Toronto representing the I.L. Surprisingly, Dale started the first game in right field. He was 2-for-5 at the plate to help the team to an 8-2 win. He appeared in the second game as a pinch-hitter, but failed to come through in a 4-0 loss. Indianapolis won the next two games to take a 3-1 lead.

A double-header was set for Sunday, Sept. 30. Indianapolis won the first game and the series. The teams played the second game of the twin-bill as an exhibition, with Dale on the mound for Indy. That game was called in a 4-4 tie after six innings.

An interesting side note to Gene Dale’s 1917 season is that he nominally led two minor leagues in hitting that year. Though he didn’t have enough at-bats to qualify for the batting crown, his .367 mark with Denver was tops in the Western League, while his .370 with Indianapolis was the best in the American Association.

Dale set another record with Indianapolis in 1918, though because of the war-shortened nature of the season, which closed on July 21, perhaps it should appear with an asterisk. Over nine games and despite the fact he had a 2.-3 losing record, Dale compi
led a 1.50 ERA, a mark that still stands as a season best in the American Association.

His last pitching assignment at Indy in 1918 was a pair of relief appearances in both ends of a Memorial Day double-header versus Louisville. He threw an inning in each game, but was not part of the decision in either Indianapolis loss. On June 5 , Dale made his final appearance of the season, playing right field and going 2-4 at the plate in a win over Minneapolis.

In mid-June, along with hundreds of other ballplayers, Dale felt the draft. He was assigned to military duty at Jefferson Barracks, near his home town of St. Louis, for the duration.

(Continued tomorrow)

The Lou Novikoff Story, Part 2 (1941- )

Because there were no Cubs in the 1939-41 Play Ball bubblegum
card sets, I created this 1941-style custom of Lou Novikoff.

(Continued from yesterday)

Novikoff continued playing baseball throughout the 1940-41 winter months in Sunday-league play and against barnstorming teams including Negro Leagues stars.

While he kept in shape playing ball, the writers continued to spread his fame in national magazines including Collier’s (“Clouting Cossack,” Jan. 25, 1941) and Look (“Baseball Gets a New Screwball,” Jan. 14, 1941). I’ve seen internet citations to the effect that Novikoff was also featured in Esquire and the Saturday Evening Post at that time, but I’ve not been able to find specifics. Regardless, he was the most heavily promoted minors-to-majors ballplayer in the 1940-41 off-season.

On March 13, Novikoff was a guest on Bing Crosby’s nationwide radio program, singing and playing the harmonica. It was reported that Novikoff received $250 for the appearance, of which the radio artists’ union claimed $24. Novikoff also received a gift horse from the host. A month later he joined Cubs coach Charlie Grimm on the National Barn Dance radio show, playing harmonica and signing while Grimm played left-handed banjo.

Not only was Novikoff a league-leading batter, but he was also a proficient bowler. On Feb. 6 he led his Long Beach bowling league with a 692 series (267, 177, 248).

In January, 1941, Novikoff created a stir in the sporting press when he rebuffed the Cubs’ initial contract offer of $4,000. Declaring that he “had to eat” and feed his family, Novikoff took a job as a driller (a dangerous job) in Rodgers’ oil field and was duly photographed at work on a rig in stained coveralls.

Before he ever played a game in the
major leagues, Novikoff was a holdout,
declaring he'd rather work in the oil
fields than take the Cubs' initial offer.

As spring training opened on Catalina Island, veteran Chicago baseball writer Ed Burns reported in The Sporting News, “Lou Novikoff, the over-publicized rookie purchased from the Los Angeles Angels for a sum variously estimated at $10,000 to $100,000, with neither extreme having any elements of accuracy, surrendered March 2. He is believed to have settled for a $6,000 contract with some kind of bonus arrangement.”

Cubs management immediately denied that they had upped the contract offer or that Novikoff had any bonus plan; but they would, wouldn’t they?

Manager Jimmie Wilson gave the youngster a strong vote of confidence after the rookie’s first workout. “He’s my left fielder,” Wilson said, “He’ll be in there today and he’ll be in there in October.”

Wilson’s assessment provided to be accurate – for the most part. Novikoff was indeed the Cubs starting left fielder on opening day. And, while the Cubs didn’t make it to October, finishing 30 games out in sixth place, Novikoff was on the field for the season’s final game. However, he had spent most of the second half of June, all of July and August, and the first two weeks of September in the minor leagues.

As a Cubs rookie in 1941, Novikoff swung a big bat – literally. He used a 37-oz. Bill Terry model bat, the heaviest on the team.

Novikoff had a good, but not great, exhibition season. My reading of the box scores shows he played in 25 of the Cubs 27 games against major league opponents. He batted .306 with seven home runs. Novikoff played almost exclusively in left field, batting third.

After a slow start in California, Novikoff picked up the pace considerably as the Cubs and White Sox played their way north from Texas to Chicago in a seven-game series. He hit .375 with three home runs. He made his Wrigley Field debut on April 11, but went 0-for-4.

He opened the 1941 season with the Cubs, but when Bill Veeck bought the destitute Milwaukee Brewers on June 23, acquiring Charlie Grimm from Chicago as a part-owner and manager, Novikoff was also sent north on option.

The Cubs had been struggling to break the .500 mark, largely without help from Novikoff. He was batting .239 at the time, hadn’t started a game since June 11 and hadn’t had a home run since May 28. Critics attributed his slow start to the fact that he had reported to the team 20 pounds overweight.

Unlike his 1939 stint with Milwaukee, Novikoff thrived under Grimm’s management. He began his time with last-place Milwaukee with a 3-for-4 debut on June 24. He hit safely in his first 18 games for the Brewers; in his first two weeks he batted .475. In the June 29 Sunday double-header at Minneapolis, Novikoff was 5-for-7 in the first game with two doubles, two home runs and eight RBIs as Milwaukee won 19-12. In the second game he was 2-for-4 including a home run and three RBIs in a 12-5 win. In that two-game slugfest Milwaukee had 46 hits, the Millers had 22.

Attempting to explain Novikoff’s hot hitting in Milwaukee, Grimm said that in Chicago Novikoff had been trying to live up to his advance publicity and had been “pressing.” Also, in Milwaukee Grimm gave Novikoff a perpetual green light; he was free to hit in any situation.

While with Milwaukee in 1941, Veeck attempted to mitigate Novikoff’s notoriously bad handling of ground balls by leaving the outfield grass unmowed. Despite that effort, Novikoff made 11 errors in 90 games; his .934 fielding average was third-worst among regular outfielders in the American Association.

Novikoff won another batting title with Milwaukee in 1941, batting .370 to edge Columbus’ Lou Klein by three points. Novikoff claimed the title on the last day of the season in a doubleheader in which he had a single and two triples in the opener and a single in the second game—despite arriving at the ballpark more than 20 minutes after the scheduled time of the opener.

When the last-place Brewers ended their 1941 season (40 games out of first), Novikoff was recalled by sixth-place Chicago.

Novikoff appeared in the Chicago Cubs
team-issued picture packs each season
from 1941-44. This is the 1941 issue.

In his first game back in the bigs, Sept. 12 against the visiting Phillies, Novikoff showed the same batting prowess he had exhibited in Milwaukee. He was 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs scored and an RBI in a 3-5 loss. That was his last home run of the season, though he hit safely in the next seven games, raising his season’s average to .255. After that, he was 1-for-15 in the last six games of the year, ending the season at .241.

Rather than sticking around for the Cubs-White Sox City Series, Novikoff returned to California immediately after the season. The Cubs lost their seventh straight intercity series in four straight games.

Cubs players made a reported $495.94 apiece for their participation. Novikoff probably did better than that out west. Blurbs found in TSN through the off-season reported him playing softball and, on Oct. 8, joining a Ted Williams-Jimmie Foxx all-star team to defeat the Royal Colored Giants 9-6 in L.A. Novikoff thrilled the hometown fans with a pair of doubles in the game.

Novikoff was the second player to sign his Cubs contract for 1942, saying it called for a “substantial increase.” Team general manager Jim Gallagher voiced his confidence in Novikoff by saying he wouldn’t take $100,000 for him.

Early winter reports from Novikoff’s home in Long Beach indicated he had gained more than 20 pounds. Through a vigorous program of running, however, “bundled in two sweat shirts and a rubber packet, until his tongue hung out,” according to one press account, by the time spring training was over, he was reported to be in better shape than at any time in his rookie year.

Novikoff also vowed to buckle down to baseball and minimize the outside distractions, saying there’d be no more clowning, harmonica playing and singing over the radio. “I couldn’t get in shape and I couldn’t concentrate on my game,” he said in February. “I knew I was getting in deeper all the time, but I couldn’t turn ‘em down, or they’d be saying, ‘Look, that Novikoff’s getting high-hat already.’”

The Cubs also worked on Novikoff’s base running during spring training. He had not stolen a single base with either the Cubs or Milwaukee in 1941. Chicago assigned former four-time National League stolen base leader Kiki Cuyler to work with Novikoff. The project was not a resounding success; Novikoff had only three (of his major league career four) steals in 1942.

Unlike the glowing testimonial Wilson had given Novikoff prior to the 1941 season, in the opening days of the 1942 campaign his assessment was decidedly dour. He told a Cincinnati baseball writer, “The way I figure it, Novikoff has to hit at least .340 to be of any real value. His fielding, throwing and base running are so far below major league caliber that only hitting, and plenty of it, can keep him in the starting lineup.”

Wilson forgot to factor in injury. The Cubs had planned to platoon Novikoff in left field with left-handed hitting Dom Dallessandro. When Dal sprained his ankle running into a wall in the season opener at St. Louis, the position fell to Novikoff by default.

Novikoff could not rise to the challenge. By May 13 he was struggling along at a .215 clip. Dallessandro was reinstalled as the regular left fielder and Novikoff was appearing more often as a pinch-hitter than in the field. His hitting continued to fall off and by May 30 his average had dropped below .200.

Another injury to Dallessandro forced Novikoff back onto the daily lineup and he responded quickly. By June 18 he had his average back to .243, then went on a real tear. In the next month he hit .389. By Aug. 6 he had raised his batting average 73 points in seven weeks, to a season-high .316.

The only explanation he could offer was to the effect, “the more hits I get, the looser I feel.”

From that point he dropped below .300 only once, when he went 0-for-3 in the first game of the season-ending doubleheader at St. Louis. His 2-for-4 performance in the nightcap allowed him to end the 1942 season at an even .300.

He later said that his failure to lead the league in batting in 1942 stemmed from being hit by a Bucky Walters’ pitch on Aug. 9, during the Cubs’ 18-inning 10-8 win over Cincinnati. “My should hurt so much I could hardly lift my bat,” Novikoff alibied.

Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley did his part to make Novikoff a more productive major league hitter in 1943. When Novikoff was mired in an early season slump, Wrigley came up with a bonus program.

Wrigley told Washington Post writer Shirley Povich, “I guess Novikoff’s my favorite ball player. On our minor league clubs, he led every league he played with in hitting, but one, but (when) we brought him up to the majors, he flopped.”

“I knew he’d be a great favorite with Chicago fans if he started hitting,” Wrigley continued, “by Jimmie Wilson, our manager, told me Novikoff was trying to outguess the National League pitchers.

“In the minors, Novikoff could try a guess with the pitchers,” the owner said.

“But up here the pitching was too smart for him. He took too many strikes through the middle. It sickened me to see him stand with his bat on his shoulder. I brought him up to my office one day and talked to him. I told Lou he was taking too many called strikes. He has a powerful swing and I wanted him to keep swinging, I said, and stop guessing.

“To encourage him, I said I’d give him $10 every time he struck out, if he struck out swinging. If he let a third strike pass with his bat on his shoulder he got nothing. He’s been hitting .370 ever since and the whole experiment has cost me only $30,” Wrigley revealed.

In 1943, Novikoff returned the Cubs contract offer of $6,500, seeking a raise to $10,000.

When negotiations stalled, the team suspended Novikoff and placed him on the ineligible list. However, mired in last place at 7-19, the Cubs reentered contract talks and on May 20, the parties came to terms.

Naturally manager Jimmie Wilson was displeased. A week before the holdout ended he told a reporter, “Novikoff wants to get paid before he produces. No, he didn’t produce last year. I know he hit .300, but up to July 15 he was hitting about .150.

“You know as well as I do,” Wilson warmed up, “that $3,000 or $4,000 means nothing to a club like ours when it’s a question of improving the team. Therefore, the whole thing is a question of principle. Baseball players are paid on the basis of previous performance. Novikoff wants to be paid before he produces.”

During Novikoff’s holdout, Milwaukee Sentinel columnist Stoney McGlynn wrote in his “The Sports Parade” column, “This reporter believes Lou is smart enough to know that a .300 hitter is a rarity in a Cubs uniform and that no matter his fielding flaws the Bruins need someone up there at the dish who can pickle the pellet.”

Tom Sheehan, manager of the American Association Minneapolis Millers, weighed in with his assessment of Novikoff’s hitting in 1943.

“Just from a batting standpoint Lou has his values,” Sheehan said, “but this year more than ever, he figured to be a more potent power at the plate. Why? Because pitching won’t be as good as other years. A number of the top-notchers have been called to service. They were the ones who could either blaze a fast ball past the batter, curve ‘em by or outsmart them with control.

“Control pitchers were the ones to bother Lou. But those without control were his dish. He’ll pick hits . . . off his ear, around his knees, outside and high or outside and low. You never knew what that crazy Russian would hit.

“The records bear this out. Lou led every minor league he ever played in at bat. Why? Because the minor league pitchers lack the finesse, the control the major league stars have. This year the majors will have some of their real stars around, but there will be enough of the others pitching so that Lou figures to have by far his greatest year.”

Novikoff himself agreed with Sheehan’s assessment of pitching prospects for 1943. He said, “With all those old-timers throwing big fat ones to the plate it ought to be easy. I’m going to click from the start.”

Novikoff's only major league baseball card was
in the 1943 M.P. & Co. strip-card set.

His major league days (1941-44, 1946) spanned the years when wartime restrictions severely curtailed the issue of baseball cards. His only real major league card is in the ugly little 1943 M.P. & Co. strip card set of 24, where his image is rendered more as a generic ballplayer than as an identifiable picture.

During the 1944-45 off-season, Novikoff worked in a war plant in Los Angeles and played Sunday ball in one of the fast semi-pro leagues in Southern California.

The Cubs sold Novikoff to the Los Angeles Angels prior to the opening of the 1945 spring training season. Novikoff expressed the belief that the fact that he cleared waivers by the other 15 major league teams during the war-time dearth of slugging was suspicious.

He declared he would play in the majors or nowhere. It is believed that the Angels signed him by making him the highest salaried player in the Pacific Coast League. The Angels could justify his salary because of his immense box office appeal.

In a column bidding farewell to Novikoff, Chicago Herald-Examiner baseball writer Edgar Munzel, speculated that the epitaph to Novikoff’s big league career would be along the lines of, “You may have been a headache, but you were never boring.”

Munzel summed up Novikoff’s appeal to fans as an appreciation of his “duck-waddling gait” his “murderous flailing at pitches whether over his head or in the dirt,” and his “clumsy fielding that was part of the fun for fans.”

Manager Grimm said of The Mad Russian, “I’ve seen worse outfielders; fielding was just a necessary evil in his life.”

Cubs shortstop Len Merullo, who was Novikoff’s teammate during the Mad Russian’s entire time in Chicago, reckoned that Novikoff’s inability to make a big splash in the big leagues was his love of the night life.

It does not appear that Novikoff was a heavy drinker or skirt-chaser, but Merullo related in an interview that Novikoff loved the night life.

            “He was not a hard drinker, but he loved to have as much beer as he could get in him and really enjoyed being around a crowd. He had that big moon face and a big smile, just a very likable type of guy.

            “People just loved to be around Louie and he loved to be around them. He had a good voice and loved to sing and imitate people, loved to entertain. They had radio stations going all the time, broadcasting from taverns, nightclubs and little local places. I remember turning on the radio at night and there would be Louie. He’d be introduced as somebody else, but we knew who he was. As soon as he saw that mike he’d be up there.

            “In the minor leagues you’re playing all night baseball. He could sleep all day and get out to the ballpark. In Wrigley Field, unfortunately we never had lights. Most of the time you’d be away from the ballpark before four-thirty. Louie would get a head start and he’d be up all night. Louie was as good a hitter as there was around in those days, but never in the condition they hoped he would stay in.”

As predicted, Novikoff drew fans to Wrigley Field (Los Angeles, not Chicago) in droves as the 1945 campaign opened. And, as expected, his big bat boomed.

In the first 11 games of the season, Novikoff was 11-for-45, batting .422 with a home run and 120 RBIs.

Moreover, his supposed deficiencies exposed at the major league level were not immediately apparent back on the Coast.

Seattle Rainiers manager Bill Skiff, after the team’s first series with the Angels, sang the praises of the Mad Russian.

“This is the first time I ever seen Novikoff play,” he was quoted. “From what I saw of him in six games there is certainly nothing wrong with his play. Afield I have always heard he was clumsy, but he did all you could ask of an outfielder. He went far to his right and left, came in fast and went far back as the ball demanded. His play of balls bouncing off the wall was superb and there isn’t anything wrong with his arm. He can really throw.

“As far as his hitting, he’s a natural—and what power!” Skiff concluded.

The Seattle manager was apparently so impressed with Novikoff that when the 1946 Pacific Coast League season opened, Novikoff was playing for him with the Rainiers.

When the military draft began in 1941, Novikoff was initially classified 3A, as a married man with dependents. In March of 1945, having earlier been deferred because of his wife’s ill health, Novikoff was called up for a pre-induction physical. He was inducted into the Army at Ft. MacArthur in Los Angeles on July 17, 1945. He’d played his last games two days earlier in a Sunday doubleheader, garnering just one hit in seven at-bats.

Novikoff was assigned to Sheppard Field, an Army Air Corps training center at Wichita Falls, Tex., and played for their service team, the Flyers.

In 1947 the Philadelphia Phillies were Novikoff's last stop in
the major leagues. He's shown here in a spring training wirephoto.

Though still in the Army, Novikoff was the second player picked in the major leagues’ Rule 5 draft of minor leaguers on Nov. 1, 1945. Though many observers expected Novikoff to be the first pick, the Philadelphia A’s chose 35-year-old outfielder Frank Demaree.

  

The Phillies snapped him up at the $7,500 draft price. Both the Yankees and Dodgers indicated they would have taken Novikoff if he’d been available when their turn came around.

“News that I’m going back to the major leagues is like being born again,” Novikoff said. “I feel the Phillies will give me a real chance and that’s all I want.”

The Phillies were desperate for power when they chose Novikoff. Only one player on the last-place team had hit more than seven home runs in 1945; Vince DiMaggio had 19.

The Phils were willing to overlook Novikoff’s eccentricities shortcomings in hopes his bat could give them some much needed power.

Philadelphia baseball writer Stan Baumgartner (himself a former Phillies pitcher) speculated that DiMaggio could compensate for Novikoff’s lack of range in left field.

“No one ever claimed Lou was a gazelle in the outfield,” Baumgartner wrote in The Sporting News, “but with Vince DiMaggio in center field the other two men need only be traffic officers to direct the Italian in his pilgrimages.”

Novikoff’s “real chance” with the Phillies lasted only from opening day through June 10.

He was used mostly as a pinch-hitter and while he hit .304 in 17 games, he showed none of the hoped-for power; among his seven hits in 23 at-bats, he had only one extra base.

Del Ennis, a rookie phenom, had usurped Novikoff’s spot in left field. Ennis led the team in virtually every hitting category, including home runs, with 17.

Despairing of ever realizing Novikoff’s power potential, on June 17 the Phillies sold him to Seattle in the Pacific Coast League. Novikoff had seen his last of the major leagues.

Many sportswriters, baseball officials and Novikoff himself tried to analyze his failure to hit in the major leagues, even during the wartime seasons. (One writer dubbed him Larrupless Lou.)

Among the possibilities that Novikoff advanced was that he couldn’t hit in Wrigley Field because the left-field foul line “ran at the wrong angle. It was crooked.”

He voiced another complaint about Wrigley Field after declaring that he would never return to the majors with Chicago, “ . . . that Cub park—ugh, you can have it. The background is murder on a batter.” He was referring, of course, to the center field bleachers where fans wearing white shirts made it difficult for batters to pick up the baseball from the pitcher’s hand.

The Phillies sold Novikoff to the Seattle Rainiers. For the remainder of the season he hit .301 against the Pacific Coast League pitching, but without any power; in 84 games he managed just two home runs in 312 at-bats.

Novikoff spent the entire 1947 season with Seattle. His .325 batting mark was in the PCL top 10. In the league's 187-game season, he was third in the circuit with 210 hits, 114 RBIs and 44 doubles. His 21 home runs were tied for fifth-best and equaled his total home run output from 1942-46.

With Seattle in 1947, Novikoff appeared in two card sets. While neither is common, they are not impossible. He was part of a 32-card team set of Rainiers issued by Centennial Flour. He was also in the 16-card Seattle team set that was part of Signal Gasoline's PCL issue.

  

Newark purchased him from Seattle halfway through the 1948 season. He was batting .327 but his home run production had dropped off again; he'd had only three in 64 games.

His first appearance for the Bears was in the July 18, 1948 doubleheader; he was 4-for-8 at Jersey City. He hit safely for Newark in his first 10 games, going 15-for-43 -- .349. By the end of the season, his batting mark was .327 and he'd found his power, hitting 15 home runs in 70 games.

In 1948-49, Novikoff played in the Mexican Winter League for the champion Los Mochis team. 

In 1949 Novikoff was given permission by Newark to make a deal for himself in the Pacific Coast League. Unable to do so, he returned to Newark. In his debut game with the Bears on May 13 he hit two home runs and a single, bringing in five RBIs. In his first nine games with Newark in 1949, Novikoff had four home runs.

Early in July, batting just .258 but having hit 16 home runs in 57 games, Newark sold Novikoff to Houston in the Texas League. In his last five games with the Little Giants, he was 8-for-18 with nine RBIs.

Novikoff debuted with the Buffaloes on July 9, going hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts. The next night he was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs. His season did not go well. He hit only .230 and had just one home run in 59 games.

Novikoff tried a comeback with the L.A. Angels in 1950, dropping 20 pounds in the off-season, reverting to his prime playing weight, but was unable to make the roster.

On June 5, he signed with the second-place Yakima Bears of the Western International League (Class B). The team was a farm club of the Pacific Coast League San Francisco Seals. Novikoff debuted on June 8 with a home run in a 4-1 win over Spokane.

He spent two months with Yakima, occasionally going to the mound to pitch in a mop-up role in blowout games.

By Aug. 5, Novikoff had been dealt to the Victoria Athletics, also of the Willy League, where he ended the season with his club in fifth place in the eight-team loop.

Novikoff retired from Organized Baseball after the 1950 season. He continued to play semi-pro ball and softball – once again with the Long Beach Nitehawks – in California while working as a longshoreman and in an auto plant until emphysema sidelined him for good.

In 1965, Novikoff was the first man selected to the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame.

Novikoff died in South Gate, Calif., on Sept. 30, 1970. He was 54.

FURTHER READING: Among the many places on the internet that you can read about Lou Novikoff, I especially recommend a 2012 blog from long-time hobby friend Dave Eskenazi.

http://sportspressnw.com/2132901/2012/wayback-machine-mad-russian-lou-novikoff

Dave’s piece is well-illustrated and has much more details about Novikoff’s years in the Pacific Coast League than I have provided.

The Lou Novikoff Story, Part 1 ( -1940)

For as highly publicized as he was during his entire professional baseball career (1937-50), Lou Novikoff left a meager baseball card legacy. 

I recently added to his non-contemporary baseball card heritage with a pair of custom cards in the formats of 1940 and 1941 Play Ball. 

Even if he had been in the major leagues in the Play Ball years, Novikoff would not have appeared on the Gum, Inc. cards. With the exception of Charlie Grimm, Frank Chance, Johnny Evers and Tony Lazzeri, who were included among the "old-timers" in the 1940 set, there were no Chicago Cubs in the 1939-41 Play Ball issues.

I don't know whether Gum, Inc., chose not to publicize the players owned by his rival gum maker, P.K. Wrigley, or whether Wrigley refused to allow his players to promote sales of his adversary.

I was originally inspired to create my Novikoff custom cards on the basis of stories my father told me 50+ years ago about "The Mad Russian." I found his name and his exploits in page after page as I read back issues of The Sporting News. 

Usually when I present my custom cards I refer readers to other sites for biographical details. Surprisingly, Novikoff is not (yet) represented in the SABR Baseball Biography Project. So I'll try to digest the voluminous notes I've taken over the years to give you a feel for one of the most highly-touted phenoms and biggest major league flops of his era.

I'm going to present my baseball biography of Lou Novikoff in two parts today and tomorrow.

Because of his, shall we say, colorful personality on and off the field, Novikoff acquired the nickname of "The Mad Russian". Through the years sports writers riffed on that nickname. Los Angeles baseball beat writer Bob Ray particularly delighted in coming up with new variations. Among those seen were: Slammin’ Slav, Irate Muscovite, Socking Soviet, Moscow Mauler and Russian Riot. Early in 1940, as the Winter War between Finland and aggressor Russia was drawing to a close, Novikoff tried – unsuccessfully – to get the writers to change his nickname to the “Clouting Scandinavian.”

Novikoff’s parents were Russian-born; he was born in Glendale, Ariz., in 1915. Until he was 10 years old, it is said he only spoke Russian. He was one of 12 children in a chronically impoverished household that settled in Southern California when Louie was a toddler.

In his late teens and 20s, Novikoff was a slugging pitcher on several semi-pro softball teams in Southern California. He began with the Torrance team in the National Niteball League in 1933, then moved on to the Huntington Beach Oilers, which won national championships in 1935 and 1936. Usually playing under the name of Lou Nova or Neva to preserve his amateur status, he was said to have made as much as $70 per game. In one playoff game he struck out 22 in eight innings. He once slugged a softball 325 feet, which some said was equivalent to hitting a baseball 500 feet. In 1965 he became the first player named to the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame.

Noting that he was as proficient at batting as he was at pitching, the owner-manager of his team, oil man Joe Rodgers, convinced Novikoff to go to a tryout camp for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League prior to the 1936 season. While he hit everything that was thrown at him, his failure to catch or stop anything that came his way in right field caused the Stars to pass on him.

The next spring he went to a Los Angeles Angels tryout camp. The Angels liked his raw potential and signed him for 1937. They farmed him out to their affiliate club at Ponca City, Okla., in the Class C Western Association. In his first season of pro ball he hit .351, just three points behind the league leader, clouting 16 home runs and driving in 112 in 124 games.

In 1938 he moved up to Class B ball with Moline of the Three-I League. He led that circuit with a .367 average. He also led the league with 186 hits, 315 total bases, 23 triples and 114 RBIs. His 19 home runs were second-best in the league.

Novikoff was a people-person and loved
to perform for a crowd. He was always
accommodating to photographers
and numerous candids can be found
in the collectible marketplace. 

Novikoff wore out the rails in 1939 (he said in 1949 that he had never been on an airplane). He started the season with a handful of games for Los Angeles. In the midst of the Angels’ 19-game win streak he was batting .363 but was shipped out to Milwaukee when the American Association season opened. He didn’t do well at Milwaukee, batting only .214 while playing part-time. After 11 games he was returned to L.A., then optioned immediately to Tulsa on May 15.

He regained his batting eye at Tulsa and led the Texas League with a .368 average – 50 points better than the runner-up. A month before the close of the Texas loop season, Los Angeles recalled Novikoff on Aug. 20 as they put on an unsuccessful drive to catch league-leading Seattle. 

In his two stints with the Angels in 1939, Novikoff hit .452 and belted eight home runs in just 36 games.

From 1938-41 Novikoff won successive batting titles in the Three-I League, Texas League, Pacific Coast League and American Association. He was MVP of the Pacific Coast League in 1940, leading the league with a .363 average (259 hits), 171 RBI and 41 home runs.

In 1939, The Sporting News named Novikoff  the No. 1 Minor League Player of 1939. In recognition an engraved scroll was presented to him on Louie Novikoff Day at Wrigley Field, June 2, 1940.

There is a picture of the presentation in a contemporary issue of TSN, showing Novikoff with an armload of gifts along with the scroll, which was presented on behalf of the sporting paper by comedian and baseball fan extraordinaire Joe E. Brown.

In celebration of the award, Novikoff hit his 18^th and 19^th home runs of the season (along with a pair of singles) during the doubleheader. The Angels lost the opener 14-13 to San Diego, but Kovikoff had a three-run walk-off homer to break a 0-0 tie in the second game.

Part of the entertainment on Novikoff’s “day” was the appearance of a Russian orchestra and the 125-voice Los Angeles Civic Chorus. Novikoff, himself, stole the musical portion of the show by singing “My Wild Irish Rose” in what was described as a “fine baritone.” When the crowd demanded an encore, he sang “Down By the Old Mill Stream.”

While it was widely assumed Novikoff would go to the Cubs after the 1940 season, due to the teams’ working relationship, Angels president Dave Fleming declared any major league club could purchase Novikoff for $100,000.

Novikoff’s biggest fan in Los Angeles was his wife Esther. Each time he came to bat she would shout mock abuse from the grandstand. One of her favorite jibes was to yell, “Strike out that big bum!” Novikoff said he always heard her taunts and that “it seems to make me bear down all the harder.” When he asked his spouse why she did it, she responded, “I have fun doing it. And what do you care anyhow? I know none of those pitchers can strike you out.”

Part of the reason Novikoff was hard to strike out was that he was an exceptionally effective bad-ball hitter. In 1940, in answer to a Hollywood club official’s inquiry about Novikoff’s batting weakness, his manager Jigger Statz replied, “All I can say is that if your pitchers will pitch the ball somewhere in the ball park – in the general direction of the plate, anyway – Novikoff will probably hit it.”

Novikoff had a great year in 1940. For the third straight season he led his league in hitting with a .363 mark. He was also tops with 41 home runs and 259 hits. His 438 total bases led the PCL and were 109 better than the No. 2 man, San Francisco third baseman Ted Jennings.

Contrary to reports of fielding deficiencies, Novikoff made only seven errors in the outfield in 1940, a .981 average that was sixth-best among outfielders in 50 games or more.

The Angels were second in the Pacific Coast League pennant race, losing to Seattle. In the Shaughnessy-style four-team post-season playoff, Los Angeles again finished second to the Rainiers. Novikoff batted .380 in the playoffs, with a pair of home runs.

Long before the season was over, the Cubs exercised their option on Novikoff and reportedly paid the $100,000 asking price, purchasing him in a package deal with infielder Lou Stringer, who went for $50,000. In actuality, the money from the purchase ultimately went from one of Philip K. Wrigley’s pockets to another – he owned both the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels (technically, the Angels were owned by the Santa Catalina Island Co., a Wrigley-affiliated entity).

The Associated Press named Novikoff to the PCL All-Star team. The Los Angeles sportswriters named him the Angels’ Most Valuable Player but he came in second in PCL MVP honors to George Archie, Seattle first baseman. Novikoff’s fans thought he had been robbed, of course. And they have had a point. Novikoff outhit Archie by 39 points (.363 to .324). He had 259 hits to Archie’s 217. Novikoff’s 41 home runs far outpaced Archie’s eight. Archie did lead Novikoff slightly in doubles (46 to 44) and triples (nine to six).

You may have already picked up on the fact that my 1940-style Novikoff custom card pictures him as an L.A. Angel, and that designation is used on the back. Veteran collectors know Play Ball didn't issue minor league cards, but in the tradition of 1949 Bowman, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think they might have produced a special issue for the West Coast.

(To be continued tomorrow)

Half-million+ Whit Wyatt collectibles

It's not often that the hobby gets a glimpse into production numbers of memorabilia produced 40, 50 or more years ago.

While reading microfilm of 1941 Sporting News issues just prior to the World Series, I found one such reference that gives at least a general idea in one area of baseball collectibles.

In his column, TSN publisher J.G. Taylor Spink revealed that Dodgers pitcher Whit Wyatt was being featured on 555,000 advertising pieces for Chesterfield cigarettes. Wyatt was an appropriate subject for the Chesterfield ads; he owned a 727-acre tobacco farm at Buchanan, Ga.

Spink said that number included "billboard displays, window displays, car cards, window posters, cutouts and easel cards."

I don't know how "window displays" differed from "window posters". Car cards were advertising pieces found on subways, buses, etc.

Chesterfield was a major user of baseball players and other sports figures in its advertising of the 1940s-60s. Bigger-name players seen on their collectibles included Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Gil Hodges. They were also a weekly advertiser in The Sporting News, which probably accounts for Spinks' mention of their Wyatt promotions. Wyatt appeared in a nearly half-page ad for Chesterfield in the Oct. 2 issue. During the war Chesterfield and TSN were tied up in some sort of program providing free cigarettes and copies of the paper to hospitalized war veterans.

While Whit Wyatt is not widely remembered by most of today's fans and collectors he was big news in 1941; one of the principal reasons that Brooklyn made it to the World Series.

Prior to joining the Dodgers in 1939, Wyatt had had an unremarkable nine-year career in the American League with Detroit (1929-33), Chicago (1933-36) and Cleveland (1937). His record in that period was 26-43 with only one winning season.

He'd been sent to Milwaukee for 1938 and dominated the American Association when he developed a change-up to go with his fastball. He led the league in wins (23), complete games (26), shutouts (9), innings pitched (254), strikeouts (208) and ERA (2.37). In mid-season he was purchased by the Dodgers for delivery in 1939.

After an 8-3 season in 1939, he won 15 (lost 14) for Brooklyn in 1940 and tied for the league lead with five shutouts. In 1941, Wyatt tied with teammate Kirby Higbe to lead the National League with 22 wins; his seven shutouts were tops. He had the Dodgers' only win against the Yankees in the World Series. He was third in the MVP balloting.

Wyatt continued as one of the Dodger aces through 1944, with a record of 35-18, including leading the N.L. with a .737 winning percentage (14-5) in 1943. He was sold to the Phillies for 1946, his last year as a major league pitcher. Wyatt managed in the minor leagues and was a major league coach through the 1950s and early 1960s.

Despite appearing on more than a half-million colorful ad pieces for Chesterfield in 1941, surviving examples of those items are seldom seen today. That is, genuine examples are scarce (worth several hundred dollars in decent condition); one of his ad posters has been reproduced in several sizes and materials and can be found on eBay for $10 or so.

Sharing 1957 Topps Zimmer photos

I was saddened to read about Don Zimmer's death. He was truly a baseball institution. He was ready for the big leagues at the wrong time or at least with the wrong team. Who was he going to replace? Pee Wee at shortstop? Jackie at 2B/3B?

He could play all over the right side of the infield, but he was a light hitter (.235 lifetime) with only modest power (7.5 HR per season ave.).

The news reminded me that somewhere in my files I had a few original Topps color transparencies from 1957, including the picture that was used on Zim's 1957 card. I don't remember where they came from, but I've had them for most of 30 years, along with what I believe is the original brown paper file envelope in which they kept in the proverbial Topps vault.

I figured someday they would come in handy for a custom card creation, but Topps did a pretty good job of covering Zimmer's days with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he even made his way onto a Bowman card for 1955. Creating a 1954 Topps-style custom would be about the only void I could fill, and Topps already covered that base with a "1954 Prospect" card in the 1994 Archives set. Maybe someday . . . 

My own "archive" of Topps Zimmer photos includes the exact transparency used for his 1957 scarce-series card. It was cut down from a larger piece and measures about 1-9/16" x 2-1/4".

There is a similar pose, evidently taken in the same photo session, on a 4" x 5" transparency.

A pair of photos in a film format I'm not familiar with shows Zimmer in a portrait pose, and in a full-length batting follow-through with a delightful view of Ebbets Field in the background. The image area of each of these is about 2-1/4" x 3-1/4".

The brown kraft file envelope in which the transparencies have been housed for decades has a number of penned and penciled notations. Besides his name and team there is written, "2 action" and "2 low fielding". Penciled notes read "Reshoot / '59" and "Used '58 / Int Ptg". Al least I think it says "Int Ptg". I have no idea what it means. Also penciled at the bottom-left of the envelope is "GUNTHER," which may be the name of the photographer.

I figured these items were worth sharing as a tribute to one of the Boys of Summer and a childhood baseball card favorite of mine. 

Nice work if you can get it

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

From an outsider's perspective in the 1930s, N.Y. Yankees catcher Arndt Jorgens must have had the softest job in major league baseball.

At least that's how St. Louis Times sports writer Dick Fannington saw it. In his "Fanning with Fannington" column in the March 28, 1940, issue of TSN, he wrote, "Catcher Arndt Jorgens has had his name in 56 box scores for the Yankees in four seasons and each fall pulls down a full World's Series check. Three games last year, no times at bat and .000."

Jorgens was born in Norway in 1905. He spent five years in minor league ball beginning in 1926; the last two seasons split between the Yankees and their top farm team in Jersey City.

When Jorgens came to the major leagues to stay, he stayed on the bench. He had the fortune -- or the misfortune -- to come up a year or so behind future Hall of Fame Yankees catcher Bill Dickey.

He never played in more than 58 games in any of his 11 major league seasons. And though he was on the roster of five Yankees championship teams (1932, 1936-39), he never appeared in a World's Series game; his 23 games on the bench are a record.

Jorgens was Dickey's primary backup from 1931-35, but from 1936 on was never higher than third on the depth chart. In those championship years he appeared in 23 games in 1932, 31 in 1936, 13 in 1937, nine in 1938, and, as Farrington pointed out, three in 1939.

According to baseball salary historian Michael Haupert, Jorgens annual salary in those years was $7,000. His World's Series winner's share checks totaled $29,404.09, a bonus of about 84%.

Not to mention a fistful of gold World's Series rings.

Or a seat in the dugout with Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and a dozen other Hall of Famers.

Jorgens retired after the 1940 season, going into the chain grocery business with his father-in-law in Wilmette, Ill.

Jorgens appeared on three mainstream bubblegum cards during his Yankees days, 1934 Goudey and 1939-1940 Play Ball, though by the time his 1940 PB card was issued, he had retired.

While the back of that 1940 card says Jorgens could be the regular catcher on many other major league teams, that might have been a stretch. Over his big league career he batted only .238 and had only four home runs.

Toler joins '51 Dons teammate in '55 customs

Until I watched the ESPN documentary '51 Dons, I had never heard of Burl Toler. He wasn't familiar from my football card collecting days of the 1950s-1960s . . . because he never had a football card.

Go back and review my blog post for May 30, when I presented by 1955-style All-American card of Ollie Matson, and you'll get a bit of background. For further reading, I recommend the obituary run in the N.Y. Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/sports/football/21toler.html .

Toler was a Memphis native who went to a segregated high school and never played prep football. He enrolled at City College of San Francisco where he was a teammate of future Hall of Famer Ollie Matson. In 1948 the CCSF Rams won the mythical junior college national championship; both Toler and Matson transferred to the University of San Francisco the next year.

The Dons were 7-3 in 1949, 7-4 in 1950 and 9-0 in 1951. Toler played on the offensive line but excelled on defense as a linebacker, not a position traditionally played by blacks in that era. Another Hall of Fame teammate, Gino Marchetti, said Toler was the "best tackler, the hardest hitter, and had the most speed" on a defense that held its 1951 opponents to an average of just eight points per game.

Eight of the 1951 USF Dons eventually played in the NFL, but not Burl Toler. He was drafted in the ninth round (#105 overall) of the 1952 NFL draft by the Cleveland Brown, but suffered a career-ending knee injury in the college all-star game against the L.A. Rams.

Toler worked for many years in the San Francisco school district as a teacher and, later, as the first black secondary school principal in the system.

He was also a well-respected sports official. In 1965 he became the first black official in any U.S. major professional team sport. He was named a head linesman in the NFL by commissioner Pete Rozelle. Rozelle knew Toler well. When the 1951 Dons were rolling up their 9-0 record, Rozelle was the school's athletic publicity director.

Toler officiated in the NFL on-field for 25 years, through the 1989 season, then joined the commissioner's office in a supervisory capacity. He was on the field in Cincinnati for the 1982 AFL Championship Game known as the Freezer Bowl for the -59 degrees wind chill conditions. In 1980, he became the first black official in the Super Bowl.

Toler died in 2009.

It seems appropriate that Burl Toler finally gets a football card.