MEMO FROM THE PUBLISHER

The hazards of making predictions are well known, and to no one more than to the people who make predictions about sports. In the face of that I'll make two right here about as unhazardous as they come. One is that seven days from this Tuesday 16 ready-to-go clubs will meet in eight different stadiums for the first of the 1,232 games scheduled for the 1956 major league season. The second is that from then to the final game of the World Series, readers will be happy to have this special baseball issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED close at hand.

One perceptive student of American life, Professor Jacques Barzun of Columbia University, has written, "Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game." If the good professor is overstating the case a bit, it is no overstatement to say that this week's SPORTS ILLUSTRATED will appeal to a very large part of that heart and mind. For this is an issue which breaks briefly with SI's weekly pattern of reporting on all sports—and collects between its covers the most complete array of information on baseball ever published by a weekly magazine. It is also, our editors assure me, a good portent of the season-long coverage SI will bring to the National Game.

Because it is this issue and that time of year, there's another prediction coming. The crystal ball looks pretty small heading for the plate, and I may go down swinging. But, anyway, here goes:

FINAL STANDINGS 1956*

AMERICAN LEAGUE

NEW YORK
CLEVELAND
DETROIT
CHICAGO
BOSTON
KANSAS CITY
BALTIMORE
WASHINGTON

NATIONAL LEAGUE

BROOKLYN
MILWAUKEE
NEW YORK
ST. LOUIS
CINCINNATI
PHILADELPHIA
PITTSBURGH
CHICAGO

And because there's a good chance you'll have this SI around at the finish, how about a turn at bat yourself?

AMERICAN LEAGUE

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NATIONAL LEAGUE

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*The opinions expressed in this prediction do not necessarily reflect the opinions, either personal or professional, of SI's baseball expert, Bob Creamer!

ILLUSTRATION