BTW. I was just looking at a transcript of "The Menagerie" - I long thought that Kirk said he met Pike when he took command of Enterprise.
He doesn't say that. He says that they met when Pike "was promoted to Fleet Captain."
But Kirk's very next line is "I took over the Enterprise from him". So you could have Kirk meet him earlier but Pike has to stay in command of the Enterprise until Kirk, so you don't actually accomplish anything.