Good afternoon, baseball fans everywhere.

This is Red Barber with Mel Allen at Yankee Stadium in New York,

greeting you for the Gillette Safety Razor Company

as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees

get set for the opening game of the 1949 World Series.

This is the 11th consecutive year that baseball's championship classic

is being aired throughout the world.

My way are Gillette microphones.

Yes, and because so many sports fans are also Gillette fans, we broadcast and telecast,

major boxing, racing, and football events as they are called throughout the calendar.

So folks, remember, for the tops and sports, tune in Gillette's cavalcade of sports to the year-round.

The first question that you want to know is about the weather, and the weather is fine. It scared everybody in New York to death this morning. When when dawn came, it came through gray clouds, and it was raining. But the rain stopped about 8.30 to 9 o'clock. The outfield is going to be a little bit treacherous for any outfielder who has to cut sharply one way or the other. The infield, which of course was covered, is in perfect condition.

Now the second question that you'd like to know, the starting pitcher for the Dodgers.

Bert Chatton did not announce him until his pre-game clubhouse meeting. He is Big Don Newcomb,

six, five, two hundred and thirty pounds, finishing his rookie year. In fact, he was not even with the Dodgers the first month of the permanent campaign, came on to win 17 ballgames. The starting pitcher for the Yankees is the stout-armed right-hander, Allie Reynolds, who has known for two days that he was going to be the starter. In fact, on the Free World Series broadcast from Commissioner Chandler's Sweet, Last evening, you heard Allie Reynolds, and he was going to be the starter. In fact, on the pre-world series broadcast from Commissioner Chandler's

Sweet last evening, you heard Allie Reynolds, and he was speaking then of the fact that he knew

he was going to be the starting pitcher, said he was going to sleep well, and that the

butterflies wouldn't start until about noon today. And as far as butterflies, there are butterflies

everywhere as far as these athletes are concerned. This is it. And I think the tremendous

tensions of the two front of races, each coming down to the very last thing late Sunday

afternoon, has added to the number of butterflies that will beset these ballplayers. But they're

great. The Yankees won in a tremendous finish in the American League. The Dodgers won in a

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