On his first 1945 trip to the plate, Bill Nicholson of the Chicago Cubs planted a fat pitch over the 368-ft. marker in right center field. With 33 home runs and 122 runs-batted-in, he was the game's leading slugger last year, and he had every intention of repeating.
So did the St. Louis Browns. By licking the Detroit Tigers, 7-to-1, they won their opening game for the ninth straight year. But when the Browns lost their next five games, dopesters began calling the Yankees shoo-ins. They might be, at that—but any judgments based on the first week's hurly-burly might live to be...
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