Big-league baseball last week got ready to open its 1943 season in the mood of tempered optimism of a batter running out a three-bagger with two out and a cross eyed player next at bat. Columnist Damon Runyon quoted odds of 9-to-5 that the major leagues would not be able to play out their 1943 schedules. Already some 225 of last year's 400 major leaguers had gone into the services. Nobody, not even Manpower Boss Paul V. McNutt, knew how soon local draft boards would call the elderly and ailing ballplayers still left.
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