First Throws

P: In Washington, President Roosevelt threw out the first ball, watched the Senators, who have never lost a game while he was a spectator, beat the New York Yankees, 1-to-0.

P: In Cleveland, the Detroit Tigers, last year's World Series winners, aided by expert pitching from famed Lynwood ("Schoolboy") Rowe, now 24, beat the home team 3-to-0.

P: In New York, the day's biggest crowd, 56,000, which included Mayor LaGuardia, onetime Mayor "Jimmy" Walker and George Herman ("Babe") Ruth, saw the New York Giants overpower their bitterest rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 8-to-5.

Events like these meant last week that after six weeks of intensive ballyhoo, the major-league baseball season was finally under way. Opening day, crowds of 200,000 in eight cities tended to verify the predictions of baseball critics that, with more new faces than the teams have exhibited in a decade, a new schedule which moves the teams around faster, the 154-game pennant race which ends Sept. 27 will be the most exciting in years.

Forecasts. In other respects, last week's games did little to verify expert forecasts. Consensus rated the teams as follows:

American League: Detroit, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Washington, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia.

National League: St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston.

Last week, after five days, the Chicago White Sox led the American League, the New York Giants led the National League and the only team which had accurately justified expectations was the Philadelphia Athletics. Generally considered the feeblest collection of players ever assembled by a major-league club, the Athletics started by losing four games in a row, the first two to the Boston Red Sox, most expensive team in baseball history, built from the backbone of Philadelphia's last pennant winner.

Rookies. Principal purpose of the training trips to the South which big-league teams make every spring is to encourage sportswriters to instill into baseball addicts profitably enthusiastic curiosity. Principal topics of early baseball reports are, consequently, players recruited from minor-league teams. Few widely heralded rookies live up to advance promises. There is, however, no yardstick for their future importance except the amount of publicity they receive. Most publicized rookie of the current year is Joseph Di Maggio, 21, outfielder from the San Francisco Seals for whom the New York Yankees exchanged a reputed $75,000 and five players.

After performing sensationally in four pre-season exhibition games, Di Maggio hurt his ankle. When the ankle healed, he developed a sun-lamp burn. In New York last week, unaware of what the Yankee Stadium looked like inside, fragile Di Maggio, a toothy Italian whose remarks to the Press suggested that his ability, however great, was amply balanced by his self-assurance, spent his days reading how his teammates had contrived to lose three out of their first five games.

More fortunate, in that they at least appeared in action last week, were Rookies Ben Geraghty of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who was a college basketballer as recently as February, and Mike Kreevich of the White Sox, whose expert hitting against St. Louis helped put his team at the League's top.

Heat-Pad. Disputes are de rigueur at all times in baseball but especially at the season's start. Last week's strangest controversy concerned the Washington Senators' Pitcher Edward Linke.

Two years ago, the right arm with which Pitcher Linke earns a living became mysteriously numb. Massages partially restored sluggish circulation. Three fingers remained senseless. This spring, Pitcher Linke was observed popping his hand into his hip pocket between pitches. Because rules forbid pitchers to use "foreign substances" that might enable them to alter the shape of the ball or improve their grip on it, umpires became inquisitive about what the pocket contained. Pitcher Linke exhibited a small chemically heated pad. He said it helped keep his ailing fingers lively enough for effective pitching.

The case was brought to the attention of American League President William Harridge. After due cogitation, he ruled that the Linke heat-pad was a foreign substance and therefore illegal. To Washington sportswriters, for whom the Linke heat-pad was the week's biggest news, Senators' President Clark Griffith stormed his disapproval: "What do they want to do, take that poor boy's livelihood away from him? . . . They ought to take the spectacles away from those fellows who use them."

Fight President Ford Frick of the National League last fortnight announced that ball players on rival clubs guilty of "fraternizing" with each other would be liable to $10 fines. Last week, instead of fraternizing, little Shortstop Dick Bartell of the New York Giants and huge Van Lingle Mungo of the Brooklyn Dodgers had ugly words followed by a rough & tumble fight. Umpires put them off the field. President Frick revealed that he considered bad manners more deplorable than good ones, fined each fighter $25.

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