THE MICHIGAN DAILY Bru'e lBennett Sees Refreshing Baseball Season Ahead; Braves, Yanks as Champs Sen rs Oen Race Ramos Whips Boston, 5-2; Don't look now, but the major league baseball season got under- way yesterday and this morning's standings indicate baseball's pre- season prognosticators. have been dealt their first blow. Lo and be- hold, the Washington Senators led the American League, but come around next month and the situation will probably be reversed. Stranger things have happened in baseball annals, but Wash- ington's "surge" provides a fitting start for what undoubtedly will be one of the most refreshing seasons in memory. Fan interest in the sport is reportedly up all across the country. A number of reasons explain this: One, the game has become truly national in scope as well as in name with the addition of Los Angeles and San Francisco to the major league family. Then, there's a new champion this year and the tremendous interest captured by Mil- waukee's victory last October is bound to spill over to the new season. And TV baseball has added countless fans. Grandstand Managers Flourish Baseball's' grandstand managers are ready in full voice for to- day's openers, the performances of their favorites in the now past spring training having mostly whetted, but sometimes sobered, their hopes for the coming season. And the players, well, they're supposed- ly ready for the money by now, too. 'Several have titles at stake. One wonders whether Ted Williams, idled yesterday for an opener for the first time in his illustrious ca- reer, can defend his batting title. Or whether Robin Roberts can re- gain his pitching form of past years. But Jack Jensen of Boston got an early start in the homer derby, hitting the majors first yesterday. One baseball personality is well on his way to retaining a title he wore with dubious honor last year. I speak of Jack Tighe, erst- ,.j hile pilot of the Detroit nine, who gained this scribe'stvote as the worst manager in the majors last year. . His record this spring hasn't given me reason to change my mind and if his team doesn't im- prove in the very near future the impatient Tiger brass may send Jack packing. There'll be a lot of new faces in today's lineups and a host of fa- miliar ones missing. Unknown names like Cepeda, Moran, Pear- son, Hansen, and Pinson will dot the major league lineups for the first time, replacing now retired vets such as Kell, Cooper, Northey, JACKIE JENSEN Coleman and Byrne. ... hits first homer But the familiar faces will be there too. Casey Stengel will stomp around the Yankee dugout, and names like Vernon, Musial, Mantle, Mays and Wynn will begin new chapters in their brilliant careers. And out west, where it's "Major League Baseball Week" by procla- mation of California Governor Goodwin Knight, the fans will get a taste of the home run by major league power boys. Babe Ruth's Record Periled .. . They call it major league ball, but outmoded Seals Stadium (San Francisco) and the football Coliseum (Los Angeles) make pikers of, the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field as home run parks. In Los An- geles, the trick is to hit a fly ball to left field. If it's hit high enough, there's a good chance it'll be, a home run, because the 251 foot bar- rier will be mighty inviting to the likes of Hodges, Furillo & Co. It's 50 feet shorter than Fenway Park's famed wall! This time of the year is ripe for predictions and the qualifica- tions-are few. The Daily sports staff straggled back to town yesterday from far flung vacations and a poll showed.Milwaukee a unanimous choice for the flag in National. But three Detroit fans (Borman, Be- nagh and Jones) stood by the Tigers entry and prevented the Yan- kees from making a clean sweep for American League honors. Down the line, the 22 sportswriters polled picked it this way: National League -- Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Redlegs, Giants, Phil-, lies, Cubs, and Pirates. American League -- Yankees, Tigers, Red Sox, White Sox, Indians, Orioles, Athletics and the Senators, My personal darkhorse choices are tne Indians and the Giants, for what it's worth.{ Rest of Majors Open Today Bf The Associated Press For at least 24 hours the Wash- ington Senators ,last year's cel- lar-dwellers, can look down at the rest of the American League from their first place perch. They beat Boston 5-2 in a spe- cial opening game before 26,674 Griffith Stadium spectators, in- cluding President Eisenhower. Everything went Washington's way. The President, inaugurating NL Changes Historically11 r S By- BOB ROMANOFF The rest of the American League takes out in hot pursuit of the Washington Senators to- day in the 1958 pennant race, while the National League sees history made. The league-leading Senators, by virtue of their win over Boston, will be at Baltimore, while New York is at Boston, Detroit at Chi- cago, and Kansas City at Cleve- land. The National League will bring major league baseball to the west coast when San Francisco Giants open at home against the Los An- geles Dodgers. California will see its first of- ficial major league game when the Giants play host to the Dodgers. The Cincinnati Redlegs, open- ing at home for the 73rd time, will play host to the Philadelphia Phils. It has been a tradition that the Redlegs, long recognized as the first professional ball club, always open at home. This game will also mark the first time in the 20th century that the Phils haven't played their opening game in the east. Milwaukee who along with the Redlegs became eastern division clubs due to the west coast shift, will entertain Pittsburgh. An interesting story concerning these two teams is the fact that from 1900 to 1953 the Pirates were considered a Western Club. Then in 1953 when the Pirates moved from Boston, the Pirates became an Eastern division ball club and the two teams assumed each others original schedule. The final opener will see the St. Louis Cardinals, who prefer night games, host the Chicago Cubs, who are so very much against night games that they don't have lights in their park. The opener in St. Louis - obviously - is un- der the lights. his sixth straight A m e r i c a n League campaign, came up with two tiaditional right-handed toss- es. Williams Out The Senators got a break even before the opening pitch. Ted Wil- liams, Boston's great slugger, who had batted 1.000 in five pinch hit- ting appearances during the spring exhibitions, with two home runs, a single and two walks, could not play. The 39-year-old batting king came down overnight with a se- vere attack of food poisoning. Washington's good fortune con- tinued during the game. Tiedat 2-2 in the bottom half of the, sixth, the Senators capitalized on two Red Sox errors to score three unearned runs. That proved to be the ball game as right-hander Pedro Ramos held Boston hitless and runless over the last three innings in his first opening game attempt. Full Slate Today Everybody gets into the act to- day with a full 8-game schedule. Williams was expected to have plenty of company on the side- lines on opening day. The world champion Braves will be forced to open their home sea- son without two of their regular outfielders. Left fielder Wes Cov- ington jammed a knee in spring training and center fielder Billy Bruton has not yet recovered sur- gery on a knee last winter. Wertz Sidelined Cleveland will open without the services of their leading slug- ger, Vic Wertz, who fractured an angle in the spring exhibitions. The Yankees have two casualties. Shortstop Tony Kubek has a pulled tendon in the back of his knee and left fielder Harry Simp- son has a fractured wrist. Duke Snider, still limping fol- lowing a winter knee operation, probably will miss Los Angeles' TV Today Local fans will get a chance to see one of the major league openers . on .television .today when channel 2 in Detroit will air the Detroit-Chicago game. opener in San Francisco. Phila- delphia may be without the serv- ices of third baseman Willie Jones, who left the club to attend the funeral of his 3-year-old son, who died of pneumonia. Left fielder Al Smith of the Chi- cago White Sox, hobbled by a foot injury all spring, is not expected to play. Shortstop Willie Miranda of Baltimore, a sprained ankle victim, also is laid up with bron- chitis. r *1 L 11 N { A-101, - ,- Alw I