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The French are fond of saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Too bad the French don't care about baseball--their old saw suggests that they have a natural feeling for how the game goes.

As the 1968 season got under way last week, Carl Yastrzemski, who clouted 44 home runs for the Boston Red Sox last year, picked up right where he left off by belting two in his very first game. Harmon Killebrew, who matched Yaz with 44 for the Minnesota Twins, also collected two homers last week, although he needed two games to get them. New York's Mel Stottlemyre pitched a shutout in the Yankees' home opener--just as he did in 1967, when the Yanks proceeded to lose 90 of their next 161 games. The New York Mets lost, as always. And the St. Louis Cardinals won.

That's not to say there were no changes. The old Philadelphia Athletics who became the Kansas City Athletics are now the Oakland Athletics and they still don't look very impressive. A fellow named Larry Shepard, pitching coach last year of the Philadelphia Phillies, is managing the Pittsburgh Pirates in place of Danny Murtaugh, and 30-odd other coaches have switched jobs. Yankee Manager Ralph Houk was crowing about the new faces on his ball club-six all told, with three in the starting line-up--and his new go-go offense.

Over in the National League, one of the surprises was Roger Maris. For once he was not talking about retiring. He couldn't afford to--not at those prices. The real change for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals is the size of their swelling paychecks. Outfielder Maris is getting $75,000 this year; the lowest-paid player in the Cards' regular line-up (Shortstop Dal Maxvill) will collect $37,500; and the total payroll for the starting nine is $565,000. For that kind of money, Owner Gussie Busch obviously expects handsome results--and so far, at least, he seems to be getting them. In two victories over Atlanta last week, the Redbirds pummeled five Braves pitchers for twelve runs and 25 base hits, then chorused happily in the locker room: "Only a hundred more wins to go!"

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