Atlanta Daily World

U. S. Fans Eagerly Await 1957 Major League Baseball Season

By HOWARD SIGMAND

NEW YORK - (INS)- The Major League baseball season bursts upon an eagerly waiting nation next week, with the seemingly inevitable New York Yankees again expected to rule the world.

The game's 1957 wheel of fortune gets its initial spin in Washington Monday when President Eisenhower throws out the ten millionth major league baseball as the Washington Senators host the Baltimore Orioles before an estimated 27,000 fans.

Anti-trust troubles and other headaches confronting the vast national game will be temporarily forgotten on Tuesday when a full-scale opening of the championship campaign takes place.

Another tense and exciting scramble is predicted for the National League, but the perennial powerhouse bombers are 2-to-5 choices to bring Manager Casey Stengel his eighth American League flag in nine tries.

Ike To Toss Out First Ball Of Season; Yanks And Dodgers Favored

Brooklyn's supposedly fading Dodgers are short-priced at 6 to 5 to retain their laurels in the older league. but both the Milwaukee Braves and the Cincinnati Redlegs are given strong chances to do the Bums in.

Approximately 250,000 fans are expected to show up "in person" at eight parks to watch the inaugural spectaculars while millions of others take in the action via television screens and radio sets.

The world champion Yankees with their "super star" Mickey Mantle, launch the defense cf their titles at home in Yankee Stadium against the Senators.

The NL champion Dodgers are principals in a novel opening night game at Connie Mack Stadium against the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the American League. Chicago is at Cleveland. Detroit is at Kansas City and Boston is at Baltimore.

In the traditional National League opener at Cincinnati. the musclemen of Birdie Tebbetts will be visited by the St. Louis Cardinals while Milwaukee is at Chicago and New York is at Pittsburgh.

New faces and old faces will play a prominent part in the shaping of the pennant races in both leagues.

The experts are almost unanimously, agreed on one thing- it will be extremely difficult to unseat Stengel's mighty Yankees. The Bombers seem to be blessed with too much overall power. pitching and reserves to be overtaken.

Detroits Tigers. with rookie manager Jack Tighe at the helm, have been boosted as the team most likely to cause trouble for the Yankees.

Another debuting manager in the American League will be Kerby Farrell with the Cleveland In- dians. Farrell takes over the pitch- strong. bat-weak Tribe from Al Lopez, who will do his managing in 1957 for the Chicago White Sox.

Eb Scheffing of the Chicago Cubs is the only new manager in the National League and he's faced with the rugged task of trying to lift the Bruins out of the cellar.

In the NL. both the Braves and the Redlegs believe this is "the" year that Brooklyn's "old men" can be beaten. Both the second place Braves and the third-place Redlegs came very close last time. and theyre banking on the proposition that Roy Campanella. Pee Wee Reese. Sal Maglie and company have had it.

Manager Walt Alston. who brought his Dodgers to within one game of their second straight world title in 1956. claims his old pros can win the National League pennant again

Triple-crown winner Mickey Mantle will be the individual "on the spot." The sensational 25-year- old Yankee center fielder, baseball's No. 1 gate attraction. is expected to equal or better his 52 home run effort of last season and his 353 batting average.

The big test also will be given to some highly touted rookies.

The most publicized of them all has been 20-year-old Tony Kubek, the likely starting left fielder for the Yankees.