an alternative and simpler explanation for the "cheer leader" is it was written by fred hoey (in box close to cheer leader), who was a broadcaster for the boston braves in 1930 and might have called the game (i.e., was a cheer leader for these old timers).
i'm still sticking to original premise that "lew" was an unintentional or intentional misspelling for "lou" as part of an inside joke. the inside joke is "slick stick, glue [lew] stick," probably as a play on criger's batting abilities.
fwiw, and continuing the reach
, there was a "mutt and jeff" animated short called "slick sleuth" in 1926. as mentioned before, tesreau's nickname of jeff came from this comic strip.