Off & Running

After three weeks of play in baseball's Jubilee Year,* the experts (i.e., the baseball writers) were shaking their heads in mild dismay. Two teams which were almost unanimous choices for the second division, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Senators, were bouncing around the top of the National and American Leagues. The New York Giants, dark horse choice for the National League pennant, sweated out an eleven-game losing streak before they finally beat the Dodgers, 8-5, and began their drive to get out of the cellar.

But by last week, a few traces of expected form could be detected here & there. The power-packed Boston Red Sox, perennial early season favorites and constitutional also-rans in the American League, were having pitcher trouble again. They struggled through nine games before discovering a pitcher, Lefthander Mel Parnell, who could finish a game he started. Then the Sox promptly lapsed back into lackluster .500 ball. The New York Yankees, always strong on the mound, won all six games in their own stadium, then made themselves at home abroad by touching off an eight-game winning streak on the road. Two good reasons for the Yankees' success: Pitchers Vic Raschi and Ed Lopat, the league's leaders with four victories apiece.

Closest of all to form--in their own way --were the unpredictable Brooklyn Dodgers. They won games that were all but lost with flourishing rallies in the late innings. But they booted games that were already in the bag. Against Cincinnati last week the Dodgers got four walks, 14 hits, including a homer and two doubles, yet managed to lose, 5-4.

As the first east-west swing got under way, the experts were not talking quite so confidently as they had a month ago. But most were still sticking to their pre-season predictions: in the American League, Boston, New York or Cleveland (in that order); in the National League, the Dodgers, with a close fight for second place between the Phils, Braves and Giants.

* The National League is 75 years old, the American is 50.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.