Well, Ted Williams' wife is still holding out for more alimony, and Mrs. Eisenhower had to spend Opening Day back on the farm at Gettysburg, but it looks like the 1955 baseball season has gotten started anyway. Which puts us in an embarrassing position, since we shattered our crystal ball last September after picking the Yankees and Dodgers to win the pennants, with the Indians fourth and the Red Sox second. But still we try again, using this time a burned-out light bulb that happens to be handy.

Starting with the National League, the light bulb gazer is faced with the Giants, Dodgers, and Braves--all powerful ball clubs with a number of well-established stars and a few shoddy spots that the stars are expected to conceal. Each could easily win the pennant, but somehow the Old Pro theory on which they operate seems passe for a well-balanced league like the National. The Dodgers were the Old Pro squad last year, but they wilted while the Giants won with a new pro, Willie Mays, and with the fresh spirit he brought. Similarly, the flag this year will go to--hold still, everybody--the St. Louis Cardinals.

Eddie Stanky's boys are probably the fastest, and certainly the scrappiest, team in the league. They are also the best-hitting squad in the majors, and their young outfield is so good that Stan Musial is currently playing first base. The team's pitching is slightly weak, but Haddix, Lawrence, Raschi, and Frank Smith should provide enough backbone. It will be close, but the Cards can win.

Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and New York, meanwhile, should finish second, third, and fourth in that order. The Dodgers will suffer from uncertain pitching and again infielders, the Braves from a lack of catchers to support Crandall and pitchers to supplement Spahn and Conley, and the Giants from Mays' human inability to do everything again. Willio, may be a great ballplayer, but he can't take ten years off the age of Sal Maglie.

Pitching being the proverbial 70 percent of baseball, Robin Roberts will probably lead the Phillies into fifth place ahead of Ted Kluszewski and the Reds. Then will be the Pirates and the Cubs.

American League

The American League presents the problem of Cleveland and New York, who dominated the picture last year and will undoubtedly do so again. Millions of Yankee fans may swallow their cigar butts in annoyance, but the murky light bulb is quite clear on its choice: the Indians will win.

Actually, no other prediction is possible. Cleveland won 111 games last year by murdering inferior teams with its great pitching staff of Lemon, Wynn, Garcia, Houtteman, and Feller. These hurdlers are still there, and the other six teams in the league (excluding New York) are still much inferior. In addition, the Indians now have Ralph Kiner and sensational rookie pitcher Herb Score.

The Yankees, meanwhile, have lost such irreplaceable stars as Reynolds and Woodling, and have seen the vital Phil Rizzuto age one more year at shortstop. True, they have picked up Bob Turley, but his mound contribution will probably not outweigh the advantage that Score gives the Indians.

The rest of the American League is a hopeless hodgepodge of poor teams whose only apparent recourse is to exchange managers every winter. The Tigers and Red Sox should take third and fourth, with Chicago, Washington, Kansass City, and Baltimore following in that order.