Who or what is Lew Stick?

[RCMcKenzie]

My guess is that Jeff Tesreau (rookie star pitcher for NYG starting in 1912) was making a joke salutation of an earlier player/catcher known for his stellar defense and not for his hitting and misspelled his first name..Criger's last MLB season was 1910...

[swarmee]

Tend to agree. It's probably a nickname or greeting to Criger from Tesreau. Similar handwriting. Because either he wrote it, or he signed after it was already there, otherwise he would have signed in the full block. And if he chose to sign in that specific block once "Stick Stick Lew Stick" was there, it took up much more space than some of the other blocks.

[Yoda]

I have been trying to read the small note outside of Altrock's signature box, first line outside the margin. Does it say, "Still sh#%ty. Hope you are ok."? I guess that would be in keeping with the dinner's theme. Incredible piece.

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I have been trying to read the small note outside of Altrock's signature box, first line outside the margin. Does it say, "Still sh#%ty. Hope you are ok."? I guess that would be in keeping with the dinner's theme. Incredible piece.

"Still Nutty"

[iwantitiwinit]

It has to be a personal reference/inside joke between Tesreau and Criger. Sticking was a commonly term in the early 1900's (still used today though less so) describing someone's ability or when used in a derogatory or ribbing fashion their inability to hit. The phrase was even used by Louis Masur in his book Baseball's First World Series on page 18 when he speaks about the hitting ability of Eddie Phelps in relation to Criger...... "adherents dismissed Young and Dinneen as being more lucky than skillful, and they trumpeted their catcher Eddie Phelps as a superior "stick"- man to his weak-hitting counterpart "Lou Criger".

Tesreau was kind heartedly razzing Criger using the common terminology of the day.

The only other thing it could be was when Jesse Burkett let Criger use his favorite bat/stick that Criger subsequently broke. From the Sacramento Union in 1908...He told Lou that he would let him use the famous stick for a few days until it had taught him how to hit, for he claimed hi* bat had that virtue, but made the catcher swear that he wouldn't hurt it and that he would return it before the big league race became close. One day he told his teammates that he wished he had his bat back, as he had a hunch that some harm was happening to it, and he declared that he was going to write for it that night. The same day that Burkett had the hunch Criger broke the famous stick so that it couldn’t be repaired. Here's the link...http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SU19080809.2.159

But I still think the reference is a general one relating to his inability to hit.

[CW]

Could that actually be "SLICK stick Lew stick"?

[sreader3]

Great piece.

I vote for "Slick Lew Stick Stick"

Reading in this order:

A C
B D

[Al C.risafulli]

Thanks for all the feedback thus far.

I'm not sure I'm in agreement with the consensus at this point, for a couple of reasons. The primary one is that Tesreau and Criger never played together, and I can't really see a reason why the two players would have even known each other.

One secondary reason would be that to me, the handwriting doesn't look the same as Tesreau's signature. Another would be that the poster was actually signed in 1930, long after both players' careers were over and while Criger was ill - I'm not sure it would have been the appropriate time for Tesreau to take a shot at Criger's hitting ability.

All that being said, I have not been able to come up with any better working theories on this, so I can still be convinced of anything at this point!

-Al