Lou Novikoff

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Lou Novikoff (October 12, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - September 30, 1970 in South Gate, California) was a Major League Baseball player in the 1940s. He played mostly for the Chicago Cubs (1941-44) and closed his career with the Philadelphia Phillies (1946). His best year was 1942, when he played nearly a full season and batted .300 as a Cubs outfielder during the first of the World War II years when the player ranks were thinned by the draft.

Because of his eccentric personality, the media dubbed him "The Mad Russian", in reference to 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 walls, fearing that it was poison ivy, thus diminishing his usefulness as an outfielder.