Evening star., 1941-04-14
BY JUDSON BAILEY.
Associated Press Sports Writer.

NEW YORK, April 14-The man.
ayers were confident, but as cagy
as ever, today as baseball bowed in
with the first SkirmiSh of the 194l
major league season.
The opening game matched the
New York Yankees and the WASH
ington Nationals in the Nation S
Capital, with President Roosevelt
giving the affair formal flourish
by throwing out the first ball.
For the rest Of the clubs the firing
will start tomorrow. And while
they waited the pilots looked into
the crystal ball and reached the
unanimous conclusion that all clubs
are stronger than last year, the
races in both the National and
American Leagues will be wide open
and the season generally should be
entertaining and successful.
Connie Mack, starting his 41st
year at the helm of the Philadelphia
Athletics and his 48th as a man.
ager, keynoted The comments COL
lected by the Associated Press with
an observation that the war tension,
increased employment and freer
circulation of money would be re-
fecteo to the advantage of all base
ball leagues.
Game Needed for Relaxation.
"People are keyed up more than
they realize" said the 78-year-old
sage Of the diamond, land I expect
they will be wanting to 60 to the
ball games and relax"
Mack gained considerable repute
as prophet last spring by fore
casting the downfall of the Yankees
and correctly spotting them in third
place.
But this year he is inclined to
think the New York bombers will
hit the target in the American
League.
There are five good teams this
trip and would have lot of nerve
to say any one of the other four
won't be startling surprise. Then
the other three clubs, my Athletics,
the WaShingtons and st. Louis are
just good enough to cause a lot of
trouble all the way through.
Il like my team and if 1 had two
sure-flre pitchers we would do more
than cause trouble We'd be putting
up a good fight for first prize. I
haven't got 'em, it seems, and right
now I don't know what I am going
to do about it."
Five-Team A. L. Race Forecast.
Del Baker, manager of Detroits
surprise pennant winners of last
year, also forecast a five-team race.
Il think 1t will be a Wide-open race
between Detroit, New York, Cleve-
land, Boston and Chicago. We 'ap-
pear stronger than last year, but it
will all depend on whether Green
berg, York. Gehringer and New
som can come up with big years.
We were good enough to win last
season and we've done less expert
menting than any other club. So
why shouldn't like our chances to
repeat?"
Joe Mccarthy of the Yankees
hedged with the defense that II
haven't seen rival American
League club this year, so how can
tell how we are going to finish
against the field" Then he added,
Il will say I'm not worrying about
my team"
Roger Peckinpaugh, new chief of
the Cleveland Indians, likes his
clubs outlook. Its a good club
and we've got a good chance. We're
starting off with the idea of a pen
nant. But, of course, there are seven
other clubs and I've been in base
ball too long to say where any one
team will finish. However, we ought
to be up there"
Reds Team to Beat in N. L.
The virtually unanimous opinion
Of the National League pilots was
that Cincinnatis world champions
hold the key to the finish.
Manager Bill McKechnie was the
hrst to admit it, saying:
THE Reds are the team to beat
We're on top and they've got to
knock us off if they can. The fact
that the experts picked us has no
bearing on it. We're stronger in
reserves than we were at the start