Bisbee Daily Review/1917/04/03/Pacific Coast Baseball Season To Open Today
PACIFIC COAST BASEBALL SEASON TO OPEN TODAY
Concensus of Opinion Leans Toward Los Angeles Team As Possible Winners, With Chance At The Helm.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 2.—The official opening of the 1917 season for the Pacific Coast Baseball league is set for tomorrow. In this city, at Los Angeles, and at Salt Lake City, where the opening contests will be held, preparations have been made for parades, and various ceremonials attending the pitching of the first ball over home plate.
The Vernon Tigers will connest the first game here against the San Francisco Seals while Portland will line up against the Salt Lakers, and Oakland will take on the Los Angelans. The Seals and the Tigers will be the first teams to play in the new Recreation park which has been in course of construction here during the winter. An up-to-date and commodious grand stand has been put up and the playing field considerably enlarged.
The managers of the six teams profess to be satisfied with the outlook for their respective clubs which have finished thei rpreliminary training at various "camps." Without exception, they say, their organizations are much stronger than they were last year and a better showing is anticipated on all sides.
The form displayed by the Pacific leaguers in the pre-season's practice games has been more or less erratic and, as is usually the case, the teams are not expected to settle down to form until they become warmed up to the regular schedule.
The concensus of opinion leans largely towards the Los Angeles team, winners of last year's pennant, as being the "team to beat" again this season for the title. Manager Chance of the Angels has a well balanced organization which compares favorably with his 1916 club and it has shown up well in their preliminary workouts.
Manager McCredie of the Portland team believes thmat his club is much stronger than it was last year and if his pitchers are able to hold up their end, declares that he has nothing to worry about so far as the remainder of his aggregation is concerned.
Early season changes and shifts are looked for to a greater or less extent on all the teams as the men are tried out.
BERNE, via Paris, April 2. (9:40 p. m.)—German and Austrian newspapers reaching Switzerland today and telegraphic reports from Hungary are once more filled with peace ideas.