General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish Prime Minister and Communist Party leader, marked the 45th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland with a broad attack on the West, the official press agency reported today. In a speech at a military college at Chelm near the Soviet border on Saturday, General Jaruzelski also warned activists of the banned Solidarity labor movement that the Government would deal sharply with continued dissent. The press agency said General Jaruzelski’s main targets were the United States and West Germany, but he also criticized France and Britain, which he accused of betraying Poland in 1939. He characterized the Soviet Union as “the main guarantor of Poland’s borders, our most important political partner both today and tomorrow.”
Umaru Dikko, the former Nigerian Cabinet minister found drugged in a crate at an airport after being kidnapped two months ago, said in an interview published today that he had been warned he might be in danger. In his first interview since the abduction, Mr. Dikko, a former Transport Minister, told The Sunday Times: “Of course I had been told that my life was in danger. I was warned all the time. Many friends told me to be careful. But I had to live, I had to go out.” Mr. Dikko, who fled Nigeria after the civilian government was overthrown in a military coup last December 31, is wanted by the new government on corruption charges. He is under heavy guard in West London. He was bundled into a van outside his home July 5 and was found a few hours later in a crate at Stansted Airport outside London. The crate was about to be loaded on a plane for Lagos.
Four men have been charged with his kidnapping. The Nigerian Government has denied involvement. Mr. Dikko said he had no doubt what would have happened if he had been taken back to Nigeria. “I would have been tortured and made to confess,” he said. “Then there would have been a show trial and I would have been shot.” Mr. Dikko, 48 years old, said he was still recovering from his ordeal, The Sunday Times reported. “But the doctors say I should make a full recovery,” he said. “They say things take time and I am too anxious.”
Erich Honecker, the East German leader, sidestepped comment today on whether he would visit West Germany later this month as he made an unusually short stop at a West German stand at the Leipzig trade fair. West German officials, looking for some hint during Mr. Honecker’s opening tour of the fair as to whether the planned visit would take place, appeared surprised by the brevity of the East German leader’s appearance. Mr. Honecker left the Basf chemical company exhibition only two minutes after being greeted by the head of Bonn’s mission to East Germany, Hans-Otto Braeutigam. He made no comment when asked if he would go ahead with the visit. The Soviet Union has made clear its reservations on the trip to West Germany, provisionally scheduled to begin Sept. 26. The West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, today reaffirmed the need for close ties with East Germany.
West German prosecutors have issued a new warrant for the arrest of Alois Brunner, 72, a former aide to Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported. The magazine confirmed reports that Brunner, who is charged with assisting in the murder of thousands of Jews, is living in Damascus, Syria. During World War II, Brunner was head of a Nazi transit camp at Drancy, near Paris, from which thousands of Jews were sent to their deaths at Auschwitz.
Talks faltered in Israel on the formation of a bipartisan government to be formed by the Likud bloc and the Labor Alignment. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, the Likud leader, and Shimon Peres, the Labor leader, said on leaving a negotiating session that “serious obstacles” were blocking formation of a coalition cabinet. They parted without setting a date for a new meeting.
Nineteen Arabs have been arrested and more are being sought in the aftermath of an attack on the police at a protest against Rabbi Meir Kahane last week, the police said today. A judge ordered 11 suspects detained for questioning about a riot at the Arab town of Um el Fahm last Wednesday, a police spokesman, Danny Koffler, said. The other eight who were arrested were to appear before a judge Monday. Mr. Koffler said there might be more arrests. Mr. Koffler said, “We came to instill order and protect them, there was no need for them to attack us.” Youths in Um el Fahm threw stones and rolled boulders at the police after a rumor spread through the crowd of thousands that Rabbi Kahane was about to enter the town to launch his campaign to expel all Arabs from Israel.
Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, criticized the nation’s Muslim clergy, saying they are losing public support because of their increasing concern with luxury and political power, Tehran radio reported. “When buildings, cars and fancy things increase, it causes moral damage to Islam,” the radio quoted Khomeini as saying. The 84-year-old leader delivered his remarks to the Guardian Council, formed to protect the Iranian constitution. “I have said many times that the clergy should guide and not govern or rule the state,” Khomeini added.
Afghan President Babrak Karmal accused Pakistan of responsibility for a bomb blast at Kabul airport last week that killed 30 people and injured more than 100, Kabul radio reported. Karmal also called Pakistani President Zia ulHaq “a stooge of the Americans,” according to the report. “This action against the revolution has been engineered by Pakistan’s military government,” Karmal said.
Tens of thousands of Sikhs turned out for an anti-Government rally in India’s Punjab state at which religious leaders called for a mass march to liberate their Golden Temple, their holiest shrine, from army occupation. They also shouted their approval for a merger of conflicting Sikh political factions into a unified party known as Akali Dal. The demonstration was also intended to ratify a broad anti- Government program that Indians believe could lead to sharper confrontations with supporters of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
A lawyer for a Chinese businessman who sought political asylum in the United States last spring has questioned the State Department’s contention that his client returned to his homeland voluntarily. The businessman, Zhang Zhenggao, a 46-year-old engineer, asked for asylum last April after making a dramatic escape from the Chinese Consulate in New York. State Department officials said Saturday that the United States was satisfied that Mr. Zhang left for China “of his own volition.” But his lawyer, Robert Belluscio of Flushing, Queens, said today that the Federal agency handling the case told him it had no idea why Mr. Zhang suddenly left the United States on July 19. Mr. Belluscio said several of Mr. Zhang’s friends have charged that he was kidnapped by Chinese officials.
State Department officials said they had no information on the fate of Mr. Zhang after his return to China. Mr. Belluscio has asked the United States Embassy in Peking to investigate. “There are these rumors floating around that this man has been tried and executed,” said an official. “We have no reason to believe them.”
[Ed: And yet, Zhang Zhenggao disappears from all public records at this time. There is nothing further to indicate he was still alive after his “voluntary return.” But of course there are those in our governemnt who were happy to See no Evil when it came to China.]
Two rival Australian motorcycle gangs at a swap meet in a crowded Sydney parking lot turned on each other with guns and machetes in a battle that killed seven people and injured 20 others, police said. “It was like a new Dark Age with barbarians out to kill everyone,” a witness said. Police said they didn’t know what started the fighting between the Commancheros and the Banditos, groups that had once been one gang. About 300 people — many of them parents with children — took cover when the fighting began, and it was an hour before ambulances and police arrived. No arrests were made.
A tornado, accompanied by heavy rain and golf-ball-sized hail, touched down twice in the Canadian town of London, injuring at least 30 people, overturning cars and destroying roofs and walls of houses, Ontario police reported. A six-block area of London, 120 miles southwest of Toronto, was hit by the twister, with most of the damage in a residential development. “There’s lots of injuries. All ambulances have been brought into service,” a police spokesman said.
U.S. mercenaries may have died when Nicaragua shot down a rebel helicopter Saturday. The Central Intelligence Agency believes that two of the men killed in the crash were American mercenaries, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said. Mr. Moynihan, a New York Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he was told by the C.I.A. that the two men had no direct or indirect connection with the agency, which has supported the Nicaraguan rebels since 1981. The pilot of a helicopter, killed when his aircraft was shot down over Nicaragua during an attack on a military school near the Honduran border, “is thought to be a North American,” the official Nicaraguan paper Barricada reported. The pilot, who was killed along with two crew members, “was very tall and had blond hair,” according to Barricada. Defense Minister Humberto Ortega said four children and two adults were killed in the attack on Tapasli Military School near Santa Clara.
A vigilante band of about 80 peasants in Peru used spears and slingshots to kill 15 people it accused of being leftist guerrillas, police reported. The peasants, organized by the Peruvian army to resist guerrillas from the Maoist group Shining Path, hurled the bodies down a ravine and then reported the massacre to police, saying they were “tired of (guerrilla) attacks” in the area, a police spokesman said. The killings took place in a remote Andean village.
Six left-wing political exiles, including a former Cabinet minister, returned to Chile on Saturday in defiance of a ban by the military regime, but the police forced them to fly back to Argentina early today. For 12 hours, until the plane took off again, the police kept the six from getting off the Air France plane that had brought them from Buenos Aires. In a statement carried to reporters by other passengers who were allowed to leave, the exiles said they had decided to return “to exercise our right to live in our country.” The Government said only that the six would not be allowed to enter the country. The six were identified as Luis Guastavino, a former Communist Party congressman; Jorge Arrate, who served at one time as Minister of Mines in the administration of President Salvador Allende Gossens; Eduardo Rojas, a union leader; Eduardo Condeza, a Socialist Party member, and Jaime Gazmuri and Jose Vargas, leaders of a leftist group that was active during the tenure of President Allende.
Mixing religion and politics “will corrupt our faith and divide our nation,” Walter F. Mondale warned in a radio speech from Minneapolis. He stepped up his attacks on President Reagan’s comment that religion and politics are linked. He said the Republicans “raised doubts whether they respect the wall our founders placed between government and religion.”
President Reagan speaks with Jerry Lewis for the Annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Telethon. President Reagan calls and pledges money for the Jerry Lewis telethon, but the operators do not believe he really is the President.
The NASA space shuttle Discovery’s crew tested the stablility of a solar power mast similar to the kind to be erected on future space stations and found that it was possible to erect large, flexible structures in orbit, project officials said. The mast tested aboard the space shuttle Discovery was extended to its full 102-foot length. When Dr. Judith A. Resnik extended the array to 102 feet, she told Mission Control that it was “well behaved,” with only slight bending and oscillations. Dr. Resnik, an electrical engineer who is the second American woman to fly in space, has been in charge of extending and retracting the solar mast. In one maneuver, Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., the mission commander, pointed the Discovery’s tail to the sun so the solar cells on the 13-foot-wide panels could generate electricity. As the sunlight struck the giant array, another crew member, Cmdr. Michael L. Coats of the Navy, marveled, “The array is just a brilliant gold.”
A strike against the U.S. Postal Service is unlikely this year, Postmaster General William F. Bolger and Moe Biller, head of the largest postal workers union, said. Bolger noted, however, that the Postal Service has contingency plans to fire any strikers. And Biller said a strike vote by his American Postal Workers Union was needed “in case he (Bolger) pulls any dirty tricks.” The two appeared separately on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Bolger said postal service management is not pursuing “a hard line. It’s a realistic line.” He has proposed a three-year wage freeze.
Americans observed the Labor Day weekend across the nation with fireworks, parades and street fairs, but in some states, the celebratory mood was overshadowed by heavy political overtones. As fireworks glowed in the Boston sky, a street fair with puppets and films about working people drew thousands in New York and striking copper workers rallied in Arizona. But political rhetoric was worked into traditional Labor Day messages in Washington. AFL-CIO chief Lane Kirkland assailed President Reagan. But Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan said Reagan’s policies have given Americans “special reasons to rejoice in the strengthened economy we are enjoying.”
The company that provides insurance to the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania has decided not to renew its coverage because of “increased peril” from a mine fire that has been burning for 22 years, local officials said. Members of the Borough Council and two citizens’ groups met last week with a State Representative to plan ways to fight the cutoff of vehicle insurance and a multiple-peril policy by the Aetna Insurance Company, which will take effect next month. Joseph I. McGinley, an agent for the John J. Holden Insurance Agency in St. Clair, said in a letter August 27 that he had pleaded unsuccessfully with the company to reverse the decision. He said he would try to obtain insurance for the town through other companies. A man answering the telephone at at Aetna’s headquarters in Hartford said company officials could not be reached for comment until Tuesday.
The Puerto Rican Senate has asked the U.S. Justice Department for permission to question 37 FBI employees about an investigation of the deaths of two independence activists six years ago. Senate President Miguel Hernandez Agosto said the Senate had information that the probe was conducted improperly to protect the executive branch and Puerto Rican police. The Senate is investigating whether the FBI helped cover up events surrounding the 1978 shootings of the two independence leaders by police at Cerro Maravilla.
While teachers in Longview, Washington, reached a tentative settlement Friday, teachers in Michigan threatened to walk out and strikes by educators in six states had the potential to idle 200,000 children this week. Many of the disputes focused on salaries, and Mayor Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco appealed to teachers there to report for work Tuesday despite an argument over pay. In Rhode Island, Education Commissioner J. Troy Earhart ordered the Exeter-West Greenwich School Committee on Friday to find money to pay teachers a 7 percent raise provided for in their contract. The committee, which maintains that the funds are not available, has asked a state judge to order 56 striking teachers back to work. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. In Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, Indiana and Rhode Island, more than 4,000 teachers voted to strike this week, extending summer vacation for more than 75,000 students.
Police went door-to-door evacuating hundreds of Omaha residents and closed a stretch of Interstate 80 after a cloud of eye-irritating nitric oxide was released in a chemical leak at a computer firm, officials said. Firefighters used hoses to try to quell the cloud at its source, a tank surrounded by a concrete dike at the plant. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The Red Cross set up an evacuation center at a church.
Scaled-down fire fighting forces battled four remaining timber fires as Montana officials warned that drying weather could make conditions “go right back” to those of last week when 250,000 acres were scorched. Hundreds of firefighters who put out blazes that charred 230,000 acres of timber and rangeland left today to go home for the holiday. One fireman died Saturday from injuries suffered while battling one of dozens of infernos, and nearly 40 homes and buildings were destroyed and hundreds of persons forced to flee.
One of two bears that rangers have been seeking in the Idaho backcountry near Yellowstone National Park has been found, but the other, a wounded grizzly, was still free and dangerous, officials said. Rod Parker, spokesman for the Idaho Fish and Game Department, said search crews caught an adult female bear and flew her back to Yellowstone. But Parker said game wardens and county authorities were retracing their steps in the 50-mile-square northeastern Idaho back country on horseback and with bloodhounds in search of another grizzly, which was wounded by gunfire last week when it approached a herd of sheep.
Alabama Governor George C. Wallace rested at the executive mansion in Montgomery after suffering what his doctor called probable heart palpitations from a “minor” reaction to medication for blood pressure control. The reaction late Saturday night brought his doctor and paramedics rushing to the mansion. Dr. William Smith said there was no cause for alarm and no reason to hospitalize Wallace, who turned 65 a week ago.
The balance of power in industry has shifted too sharply in favor of employers, the nation’s union members say, reflecting a growing feeling in the labor movement that something has to be done to reverse recent setbacks. On this Labor Day, union members say that decades of grudging mutual tolerance, encoded in labor laws and ritualized in collective bargaining, have broken down. But there is no consensus about how to reverse labor’s fortunes.
Big differences in day-care quality are apparent in the centers and private homes that care for children. While child-development experts debate the effects of day care, it has become an unavoidable necessity for an unprecedented number of parents and children. Fifty-two percent of the mothers of children younger than 6 – 59 percent of women with children aged 3 to 5 and 48 percent of women with children younger than 3 are employed.
A 20-month hunt for the killers of a Puerto Rican television and radio personality ended today when murder charges were filed against his estranged wife and four other people, according to island officials. Police officials said Lydia Echevarria, a longtime radio soap opera star and television hostess in her 50’s, paid more than $25,000 for the murder of her husband, Luis Vigoreaux, stipulating that he be tortured before death. An autopsy after Mr. Vigoreaux’s body was discovered January 18, 1983, in the trunk of his burned-out car on the outskirts of San Juan, found that the 54-year-old television star had been stabbed repeatedly with a pronged instrument, perhaps a barbecue fork. Officials did not know Miss Echevarria’s whereabouts and filed charges against her in absentia. Charges were also filed against Pablo Guadelupe, 64; his sons, Jamie, 20, and Ruben, 19, and Edgardo Vazquez.
Five people were injured Saturday, one seriously, when a new helicopter crashed and exploded in Knoxville, Tennessee. The jet-powered helicopter crashed into parked cars and exploded three blocks from a football stadium, but the four people aboard jumped out. One was hospitalized with severe burns, and an occupant of one car was also hurt. The crash of the $1.3 million Bell 222 helicopter occurred just two hours before a game between the University of Tennessee and Washington State.
Eight people died in other plane crashes over the weekend, including six who died Saturday in the in-flight collision of two small planes in Oregon. They were identified yesterday as Mark G. Wilson, 46 years old, and his son, Brian Dale Wilson, 12, of Mosier, Ore., and Jack Edward Thompson, 60, John David Baughan, 54, Gail D. Clemens, 51, and Richard Sturtevant, 48, all from the Hermiston, Oregon, area.
In Martindale, Texas, the authorities said said Charles Thomas Andrews of Beckley, West Virginia, was killed when the “prototype” plane he was piloting fell apart in flight and crashed, and in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Hubert Jett, 53, of Highland, died when his experimental aircraft overshot the runway and slammed into a wooded area.
Revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical “Zorba” closes at Broadway Theater, NYC, after 362 performances, winning one Tony Award.
What had been a cordial, mellow West Coast swing for the Yankees ended today with a brawl and a 5–3 comeback victory over the California Angels. Jay Howell (7–4) was the winner and Dave Righetti earned his 23rd save as the Yankees overcame a 3–0 deficit, scoring a run in the fifth inning, three in the sixth and one in the eighth. The Yankees averted a three-game sweep, keeping the Angels a game and a half from first place in the American League West, and finished with a 6–3 record on their final trip to the Coast this season. But for the crowd of 20,530, the most memorable aspect of the game was a 45-minute, bench-clearing brawl in the fifth inning. Three players were ejected. The incident was the latest in a series of brawls resulting from brushback pitches that have become familiar this season.
Doyle Alexander pitched a two-hitter and Garth Iorg clouted his first home run of the season today as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Minnesota, 6–0, and sent the Twins to their fifth straight loss. Minnesota’s lead in the American League West was sliced to one game over Kansas City. Toronto swept the three-game series from the Twins, outscoring them by 25–4 and shutting them out twice. The Blue Jays took the season series from Minnesota, 11–1. Alexander (13–5) gave up a leadoff single to Tom Brunansky in the second inning and a leadoff double to Pat Putnam in the seventh. During one stretch, Alexander retired 13 straight Twins as he won his fifth straight decision. Frank Viola (14–12) was the losing pitcher as Minnesota suffered its ninth loss in its last 10 games.
The Cleveland Indians snap a 3–3 tie with 5 runs in the 8th to beat the Boston Red Sox, 8–3. Julio Franco’s grand slam is the big blow. Pat Tabler started the inning off by drawing a walk from Mark Clear (7–3). After a sacrifice bunt by Jeff Moronko, an intentional walk to Mel Hall and another walk to Chris Bando loaded the bases, Mike Hargrove, a pinch-hitter, walked on a full-count pitch to force home Tabler with the go-ahead run. John Henry Johnson replaced Clear and retired Brett Butler on a short fly ball before Franco hit his first career grand slam and his third homer of the season over the center-field fence.
George Brett delivered a run-scoring pinch-single with two out in the 10th inning to give the Kansas City Royals a 6–4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. With one out in the 10th, Darryl Motley singled for his fourth hit of the game and Jorge Orta followed with a single, both off Britt Burns (2-10). One out later, Brett looped a single to center off Ron Reed. Don Slaught’s bunt single drove in another run. Dan Quisenberry (5–3) worked three innings for the victory. Tom Huismann pitched the 10th for his third save. The White Sox had tied the game in the eighth when Carlton Fisk and Ron Kittle singled off Quisenberry and Roy Smalley cracked a two-run double. Kansas City jumped to a 4–0 lead in the third when Buddy Biancalana singled and scored on a double by Willie Wilson, who continued to third on the play on Daryl Boston’s throwing error in center field. Wilson scored on Pat Sheridan’s infield out and Motley followed with his 14th home run. Orta’s single knocked out the Chicago starter, Gene Nelson. Frank White then greeted the reliever Bert Roberge with a triple.
The Detroit Tigers downed the Oakland A’s, 6–3. Dan Petry survived 11 Oakland hits in five and one-third innings before getting help from two relievers as Detroit ended a four-game losing streak. Two of the hits off Petry (16–8) were home runs by Rickey Henderson and Dave Kingman. Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez worked the final three and two-thirds innings, allowing only one hit, and Hernandez earned his 27th save. Rusty Kuntz singled with one out in the third to start a four-run rally off Tim Conroy (1–4). Kuntz scored on a double by Marty Castillo, and Lou Whitaker followed with a single. After Alan Trammell flied out, Kirk Gibson walked and Lance Parrish hit a high fly that Henderson, blinded by the sun in left field, could not hold. Parrish was credited with a two-run double. Henderson hit his 14th homer in the bottom of the third, Barbaro Garbey hit his fifth home run for the Tigers in the fourth, and Kingman’s 33d homer made it 5-2 in the sixth.
Bill Swaggerty and Tom Underwood combined on an eight-hitter and Baltimore scored three runs in the sixth inning as the Orioles edged the Seattle Mariners, 4–3. Swaggerty (3–1) scattered seven hits, walked two and struck out two over seven innings. The right-hander gave up three runs in the second, but then allowed just three hits over the next five innings before giving way to Underwood, who earned his first save in his 31st relief appearance. The Orioles took a 4–3 lead in the sixth. With one out, Eddie Murray walked and stole second. John Lowenstein singled to drive in Murray and took second on the play on Henderson’s error. Ken Singleton followed with a single to put runners at first and third and Wayne Gross doubled in Lowenstein. Rich Dauer followed with an run-scoring groundout.
Leon Durham smashed a two-run homer and Gary Matthews delivered a two-run single today as the Chicago Cubs downed the Atlanta Braves, 4–2. It was the seventh victory in eight games for the Cubs, who lead the National League East, and their 20th triumph in the last 29 games. Chicago maintained its five-game lead over the Mets, who beat San Diego. Durham’s 21st home run of the season came in the second inning after Matthews had drawn a walk from Rick Mahler (9–9). Dick Ruthven (5–9) went seven innings in recording the victory. He allowed Claudell Washington’s 17th home run to start the seventh. Lee Smith went the final two innings for his 28th save.
The Philadelphia Phillies walloped the San Francisco Giants, 8–2. Shane Rawley pitched eight shutout innings and Rick Schu, rookie, walloped a two-run home run for the Phillies. Rawley (8–3) struck out three and walked two before tiring in the ninth, when the Giants scored twice on Bob Brenly’s double and Johnny LeMaster’s single. Kevin Gross came in to get the last two outs.
The Montreal Expos shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers 4–0. Bryn Smith teamed with Bob James on a five-hitter, and Tim Raines singled home one run and scored another during a three-run fifth inning. Smith (10–11) pitched five innings before his right shoulder stiffened and he left the game. It was his first victory since July 28. James pitched hitless relief over the final four innings for his eighth save. An error by Bill Russell, the shortstop, and Rick Honeycutt’s wildness hurt the Dodgers in the fifth. Argenis Salazar reached base on Russell’s error, took second on a groundout and moved to third on a bunt single by Smith. Raines singled home Salazar before Honeycutt (10–9) walked two batters, forcing in one run, and the reliever Pat Zachry walked another to force home another run.
Dave Parker drove in four runs and Ron Oester hit a bases-empty homer for Cincinnati as the Reds hammered the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7–1. Ron Robinson (1–1) picked up his first major league victory, giving up seven hits. He struck out five and walked three. John Tudor (8–10) surrendered seven runs in four and one-third innings. Cincinnati took a 1–0 lead in the first on Gary Redus’s double and Parker’s single. Pittsburgh tied the score in the second on Jim Morrison’s leadoff home run, his seventh. Oester’s third homer of the year made it 2–1 in the second.
The St. Louis Cardinals downed the Houston Astros 4–1. Ricky Horton won his ninth game and Bruce Sutter tied a National League record with his 37th save as the Cardinals won their fifth game in six starts. Horton (9–3) struck out four and walked four before leaving in the eighth. Bert Pena’s homer leading off the fifth accounted for the Houston run. Horton went out after allowing a pair of hits in the eighth. Sutter ended the Houston threat by getting Denny Walling to ground out, then pitched the ninth to tie the league record that he had shared with Clay Carroll and Rollie Fingers. Wildness by Joe Niekro helped the Cards take a 3–0 lead in the opening inning.
George Foster, batting with two out and two on in the 12th inning, blooped a single to center field that gave the New York Mets a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres and kept them five games behind the Chicago Cubs, who also won. The victory was the eighth in the last nine games. Despite that good streak, however, the Mets have gained only a half-game on the Cubs because, in the same period, the Cubs have won seven of eight games. “That doesn’t concern me right now,” Manager Dave Johnson said of the Cubs’ recent success. “It’s not even something I want to think about. You should be more concerned with how your club is doing. If we can do as well this month as we did in July, it will be all academic how anybody else does.” The Mets were 21-9 in July.
NFL Football:
Atlanta Falcons 36, New Orleans Saints 28
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14, Chicago Bears 34
Cincinnati Bengals 17, Denver Broncos 20
St. Louis Cardinals 23, Green Bay Packers 24
Kansas City Chiefs 37, Pittsburgh Steelers 27
Los Angeles Raiders 24, Houston Oilers 14
Miami Dolphins 35, Washington Redskins 17
New England Patriots 21, Buffalo Bills 17
Philadelphia Eagles 27, New York Giants 28
New York Jets 23, Indianapolis Colts 14
San Diego Chargers 42, Minnesota Vikings 13
San Francisco 49ers 30, Detroit Lions 27
Gerald Riggs, who became the starter this year when William Andrews was lost for the season with an injury, rushed for 202 yards and two touchdowns to lead Atlanta to a 36–28 win over the New Orleans Saints. Riggs’s touchdowns came on runs of 3 yards and 1 yard, with the shorter score coming early in the fourth- quarter and sealing the victory for the Falcons. Atlanta got its first 5 points without registering a first down. Mick Luckhurst booted a 38-yard field goal set up by a 37-yard punt return by Billy Johnson, and defensive tackle Rick Bryan tackled the Saints’ quarterback, Richard Todd, in the end zone for a safety. Todd, starting his first game as a Saint, threw for two touchdowns – an 18-yarder to Tyrone Young in the second quarter and a 3-yarder to the tight end John Tice with 4:43 left in the game.
Chicago capitalized on interceptions by the linebackers Mike Singletary and Al Harris to score third-quarter touchdowns as the Bears beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34–14. It was the Bears’ first opening-day triumph since 1979, when the team last made the playoffs. The Bears intercepted six Tampa Bay passes, including two by Gary Fencik. The Bears held a 13–7 halftime lead on a bootleg touchdown by the quarterback Jim McMahon and two field goals by Bob Thomas. Early in the third quarter, Singletary intercepted a Jack Thompson pass and returned it 4 yards to the Tampa Bay 20.
Gary Kubiak came off the bench to replace the injured John Elway and threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Clarence Key in the fourth period to give Denver a 20–17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Elway, before he suffered a bruised left shoulder, passed 25 yards to Butch Johnson for a score and put the Broncos in position for Gene Lang’s 1-yard touchdown run a short time later. The Broncos led by 13-3 when Elway went out with the injury on the first series of the second half. Then the Bengals put together long drives that led to a pair of 1-yard scoring runs by James Brooks and Larry Kinnebrew. Then Kubiak, a second-year player from Texas A&M, came in. His favorite target on the game-winning, 75- yard drive midway through the final quarter was Johnson, the Broncos’ recent acquisition from the Houston Oilers by way of Dallas Cowboys. Johnson caught key passes of 11, 16 and 4 to keep the drive going.
Lynn Dickey passed for one touchdown and ran for another to lead Green Bay to a 24–23 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Packers struck for two touchdowns in the second period to lead by 14-7. Jessie Clark bolted over from the 1 at 7:40 and Dickey completed a 4-yard pass to Paul Coffman at 1:57. Clark’s touchdown came after Neil Lomax was intercepted at the Green Bay 41 by Tom Flynn, who returned the ball 22 yards. The Cardinals were assessed a 15-yard penalty on the play, taking the ball to the 14, when Lomax roughed up Flynn on the tackle. Dickey completed five straight passes, including a 20-yarder to James Lofton to the St. Louis 15, before connecting to Coffman for the second touchdown.
Todd Blackledge, making his first pro start, passed for one touchdown and ran for another as Kansas City turned four Pittsburgh turnovers into scores to beat the Steelers, 37–27. Blackledge, substituting for the injured Bill Kenney, threw a 22-yard scoring pass to Stephon Paige midway through the third quarter to lift the Chiefs’ lead to 31–20 and cap an 80-yard scoring drive. Blackledge, who says he was a Steeler fan in his youth, completed seven of nine passes for 87 yards during the drive, in which the Chiefs were twice penalized. The Steelers, playing most of the second half without the injured quarterback David Woodley and without the running back Franco Harris, who was waived in a contract dispute, turned the ball over on their next two possessions to set up field goals by Nick Lowery. Mark Malone, inserted when Woodley suffered a concussion, fumbled the snap from center on his second play and Calvin Daniels recovered for the Chiefs. Lowery followed with a 47-yard field goal with 6:47 to go in the third period.
The Los Angeles Raiders downed the Houston Oilers, 24–14. One-yard touchdown runs by Marcus Allen, Frank Hawkins and Jim Plunkett rallied the defending Super Bowl champion and spoiled the debut of Houston’s quarterback, Warren Moon. Moon, who led Edmonton in the Canadian Football League to five championships, spurred the Oilers to a 7–0 halftime lead with a 10-yard pass to Mike Holston. The Raiders, who were not shut out in the first half last season, struck back in the third quarter with touchdown runs by Allen and Hawkins for a 13–7 lead. Los Angeles drove for Plunkett’s touchdown early in the fourth quarter as the Raiders took control of the emotional game, which included several scuffles. The Los Angeles kicker, Matt Bahr, added a 28-yard field goal with 4:45 to play, and the Raiders picked up a safety with 3:45 to play when Houston’s Dean Steinkuhler was flagged for holding in the end zone.
Dan Marino, who missed most of the exhibition season because of a fractured index finger on his throwing hand, today played one of the finest games a Miami Dolphin quarterback has ever had, and easily one of the best in a career that only began a year ago. He threw five touchdown passes and led the Dolphins to a 35–17 victory over the Washington Redskins, the defending National Conference champions, in the opening game of the season for both teams. Only one Dolphin quarterback had ever thrown for more touchdowns in one game. Bob Griese, who was here today as a television analyst, threw for six on Thanksgiving Day in 1977, against the St. Louis Cardinals. Marino’s scoring passes covered 26, 74, 6, 9, and 11 yards. The first two went to Mark Duper, who ran 50 yards after the catch on the second one. The third and fifth went to Jim Jensen, a former quarterback and captain of the special teams who played today as a wide receiver and tight end. The other scoring pass was thrown to Mark Clayton. All three were starters against the Redskins, in an alignment that caused the Washington secondary all manner of difficulty and embarrassment.
Steve Grogan threw two touchdown passes today and Tony Collins ran for a score as the New England Patriots held off a late Buffalo charge to post a 21–17 victory over the Bills. Buffalo, trailing by 21–3 at halftime, scored twice in the second half, but New England controlled the football for the last 3 minutes 55 seconds of the game to save the victory. Collins, a four-year veteran running back, ran 4 yards at the 3:04 mark of the second quarter to give the Patriots a 21–0 lead. Grogan connected with the wide receiver Stephen Starring on a 65-yard pass play 51 seconds into the game to give New England a 7–0 advantage. The Patriots took a 14–0 lead at 7:53 of the opening quarter when Grogan threw a 3-yard pass to the end Derrick Ramsey. Buffalo drove to the Patriots’ 10- yard line late in the first half but had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by the former Giant Joe Danelo. The Bills’ quarterback, Joe Ferguson, threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to the wide receiver Byron Franklin to trim the lead to 21–10 at 9:39 of the third quarter. Buffalo had the ball at the Patriots 12-yard line midway through the fourth quarter, but Franklin fumbled after catching a Ferguson pass and the ball was recovered by the safety Roland James. The Bills got the ball back a short time later and drew to 21–17 when Ferguson threw a 9-yard scoring pass to the tight end Tony Hunter.
For openers, there were standing ovations at Giants Stadium this afternoon. For a change, there was the sight of a healthy Phil Simms, who passed for the second-highest total in the history of the New York Giants. For old times’ sake, there were the standard Giant nervous moments that were overcome in their 28–27 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Simms, who had played in just two of the previous 32 games because of a series of injuries throughout the last four of his five professional seasons, completed 23 of 30 passes for 409 yards, second only to Y. A. Tittle’s total of 505 against the Washington Redskins in 1962. He passed for four touchdowns – two to the rookie wide receiver Bob Johnson, one to the second-year tight end Zeke Mowatt and one to the second-year wide receiver Byron Williams. Just as significantly, Simms did not have a pass intercepted. But most important, after the compound- fracture dislocation of his right thumb that ended his last season, the torn ligaments that forced him out of the entire 1982 season and the shoulder problems of the previous two years, Simms did not visit a doctor or an X-ray machine.
The three ingredients the depleted New York Jets needed — a defense to keep them in the game, a strong ball-control running attack by Freeman McNeil and kick returns to keep their backs from the goal-line — helped produce a 23–14 opening-game victory over the Indianapolis Colts today. It was the losers’ debut here after 31 seasons in Baltimore and it came in their new, fabric-roofed Hoosier Dome in front of a crowd of about 60,000 that often acted and sounded like the local Chamber of Commerce. In his first start of a professional career that began in 1978, Pat Ryan passed for two touchdowns to Mickey Shuler, one of which was set up by one of Ken Schroy’s two fumble recoveries. The other recovery by Schroy, the strong safety, led to a Pat Leahy field goal.
Dan Fouts and Wes Chandler combined on two quick touchdown passes and Pete Johnson scored two more for San Diego as the Chargers routed the Minnesota Vikigns, 42–13. Fouts, who missed six games last year with a bad shoulder, completed 21 of 28 passes for 292 yards. The 16-year veteran Charlie Joiner of the Chargers caught three passes for 52 yards and became the fourth receiver ever to surpass 10,000 career yards. Afterwards, Kellen Winslow, the Chargers’ tight end, said he is retiring because of a contract dispute with the new San Diego owner, Alex Spanos. “If things aren’t worked out by Friday by a trade or something, I’m going on a cruise of the Caribbean,” said Winslow. In the victory over the Vikings, Winslow caught four passes for 33 yards. A Minnesota bright spot was 41-year-old kicker Jan Stenerud, who made field goals of 41 and 52 yards — the 339th and 340th of his 18-year career. His field-goal total is five over that of George Blanda and the most in league history.
Ray Wersching’s 22-yard field goal with four seconds remaining gave the San Francisco 49ers a 30–27 victory over the Detroit Lions today. The contest, a rematch of last year’s National Conference playoff game between the Western and Central division champions, drew only 56,782 fans to the 80,638-seat Silverdome. There were 3,352 no-shows. The last two times the Lions opened at home over a Labor Day weekend were their smallest crowds of the season. The Detroit wide receiver Leonard Thompson took a pass from Gary Danielson in stride at the 25 and raced untouched into the end zone to complete a 49-yard pass play that tied the game at 27–27 with 5 minutes 1 second remaining. The 49ers had broken a 20–20 tie at 6:35 of the fourth quarter on a 9-yard run on the first play by Wendell Tyler, following a 55-yard punt return by Dana McLemore. Billy Sims scored on a 2-yard run in the first quarter to give Detroit a 7–0 lead, but Joe Montana hit Carl Monroe with a 5-yard toss on the last play of the first period to make it 7–7. In the second quarter, the Detroit place-kicker, Eddie Murray, sandwiched field goals of 39 and 43 yards round a 2-yard run by Tyler, so San Francisco held a 14–13 lead at halftime. Danielson put the Lions ahead by 20–14 with a 2-yard pass to James Jones at 8:24 of the third quarter.
Born:
Jack Peñate, British rockabilly singer-songwriter and musician (Matinée), in London, England, United Kingdom.
Dusty Ryan, MLB catcher (Detroit Tigers), in Merced, California.
Died:
Manos Katrakis, 79, Greek actor (“Antigone”; “Marinos Kontaras”).
History Diaries 