her mockery inspired him. It all began when Novikoff was playing in the Pacific Coast League. He stepped up to bat. Esther was in a box seat behind home plate, and she yelled, ‘You big bum! You can’t hit!’ Lou swung on the first pitch and smacked it over the left-field wall for a home run. Fans asked Esther why she berated her husband like that. She patiently explained that she did it to make him mad because ‘when he gets mad, he gets hits.’ Novikoff had a fine year and then went up to the Chicago