President Reagan meets with this advisors and Soviet officials to discuss the prospective upcoming U.S.-U.S.S.R. summit in the U.S. A U.S.-Soviet summit meeting in the United States this year started to take shape. President Reagan and Anatoly F. Dobrynin, the departing Soviet Ambassador, agreed to lay the groundwork. At the same time, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, in a private letter delivered to Mr. Reagan while he was meeting with Mr. Dobrynin, expressed strong interest in “proceeding ahead with a dialogue” that could lead to substantive results in arms reductions, an Administration official said. Mr. Gorbachev’s letter, according to the official, said in essence that “we need to continue the dialogue, we need to make progress on the issues before us.” The letter, delivered by Mr. Dobrynin at a 75-minute meeting with Mr. Reagan in the Oval Office, set “no preconditions,” a White House official said. Mr. Gorbachev, in Moscow, also said that he set no conditions for a second meeting with President Reagan, but that he wanted the talks to produce “practical results.” After the White House meeting, at which East-West relations and international terrorism were discussed, Secretary of State George P. Shultz announced that he would confer in mid-May with the Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard A. Shevardnadze “as part of a preparatory process” for a summit meeting. No specific dates were arranged, although American officials said the White House still wanted a meeting in late June or July. “We didn’t get any nyet from the Soviets,” a White House official said.
The U.S. postponed a nuclear test in Nevada that some Reagan Administration critics had feared would lead the Soviet Union to abandon its moratorium on the underground testing of nuclear weapons. The United States never formally announced that it planned to hold the test. But Administration officials said the test, code-named “Mighty Oak,” had been delayed because of weather conditions and technical problems and was now planned for today.
An Arab terror group, blamed for a string of bombings in France, has threatened similar attacks in Italy and on Italians abroad unless the government there releases two Lebanese prisoners. The group, calling itself the Committee of Solidarity with Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners, issued its warning in a statement published in Beirut newspapers. The group, which set no specific deadline, said it will tolerate no further delay in its demand for the release of Abdullah Mansouri and Josephine Abdo Sarkis, who are serving prison sentences for taking part in terrorist attacks.
Attorney General Edwin Meese III accused the Soviet Union of involvement with terrorists and also said that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat must be held responsible for international terrorist acts. Justice Department officials said that Meese’s talk to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major lobby, was the first time he had specifically named the Soviet Union or Arafat in connection with terrorism. Meese also repeated Reagan Administration charges that Libya and Nicaragua are “active sponsors and supporters of terrorism.”
Expulsion of Libyan diplomats from West Germany and some other key allies was urged by the United States because of evidence linking Libya to last weekend’s bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin that was frequented by American soldiers. Reagan Administration officials said Washington was supplying Bonn and other European countries with what one official called “absolutely convincing evidence” linking Libya to the bombing.
The U.S. appeal to Bonn to close the Libyan Embassy in West Germany’s capital has placed Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Government in a difficult situation because most West German officials are still showing little inclination to adopt stern measures against Libya. However, Bonn was reported planning to expel a few Libyan diplomats. They said Washington was supplying Bonn and other European capitals with what one official called “absolutely convincing evidence” linking Libya to the West Berlin bombing, in an effort to produce concerted European moves against Libya. The United States is trying to “internationalize” the problem so that it is not seen as a purely Libyan-American confrontation. The official said the evidence against Libya was sensitive and could be shared only with a few allies, but it is believed to include intercepted and decoded messages from Libya to its missions in East Germany and elsewhere in Europe, as well as phone taps and surveillance of Libyans in Europe.
A senior Reagan Administration official said today that the United States would formally ask the United Nations in “the next few days” for the secret file kept by the United Nations War Crimes Commission on former Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. The decision comes after a Justice Department review of documents provided by the World Jewish Congress. The review was by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, whose purpose is to track down, investigate and deport Nazi war criminals. The United States request will be made under a 1978 immigration law amendment that says anyone who assisted the Nazis in persecuting people because of their race, religion, national origin or political opinions can be denied a visa or deported.
An Irish Republican Army bomb killed an off-duty militiaman today and Protestant radicals attacked the homes of four police officers on the ninth day of violence against a British-Irish agreement. The off-duty member of the Ulster Defense Regiment was killed in County Tyrone near the border with the Irish Republic when a booby-trap bomb blew up a trailer he was repairing. The Irish Republican Army said in a statement that it planted the bomb. Extremist Protestants attacked the homes of four other police officers early today. There were no reported injuries. The homes of more than 100 police officers have been attacked in five weeks by Protestant gangs, their anger ignited by police curbs on marches and protests against the agreement, which gives Dublin a voice on behalf of Northern Ireland’s Roman Catholic minority.
Italy moved quickly to stop sales of wine adulterated with methyl alcohol and to deal with what is becoming a crisis and scandal in Italy’s nationally important wine industry. Filippo Pandolfi, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, visited Bonn and Paris to reassure two of Italy’s largest wine customers that his Government was moving to stop further sales of the poisonous wines. Since mid-March, 17 people have died in northeastern Italy and 60 more have been hospitalized. They all drank wine containing quantities of methyl alcohol.
Visitors were asked to leave hotels in Norway today in a labor dispute, hotel residents said. Some 14,000 hotel and restaurant workers were locked out by employers after negotiations on an annual wage agreement broke down. In Oslo, all major hotels asked guests to check out and some gave residents a small pack of food to replace breakfast. Hundreds of travelers were affected. A spokesman for the Norwegian Tourist Board said that some smaller hotels that had no union members on their staff were still open, but that most had closed their doors.
Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy, who has been accompanying Vice President George Bush on his Mideast tour, is now on his own mission in the region. The State Department said Murphy’s trip is strictly exploratory, but Bush, in a Bahrain news conference, termed it a new initiative aimed at reviving the stalled Mideast peace process. “We just have to keep pushing any way we can,” Bush said. Murphy, originally scheduled to travel on to Oman and Yemen with Bush, stopped instead in Cairo and then proceeded to Israel. He told reporters in Cairo that the United States is looking for ways to revive the stalled Mideast negotiations.
Ethiopian Jewish clerics married 15 Ethiopian couples in Tel Aviv, defying an injunction by Israeli rabbis that the brides and grooms immerse themselves in a ritual bath as a symbolic conversion to Judaism. The couples were among thousands brought out of their famine-stricken country in a large-scale airlift more than a year ago. The immigrants consider themselves to be authentic Jews, but many Orthodox rabbis in Israel maintain that they must reaffirm their faith before marriage. The rabbis also do not recognize the Ethiopians’ own spiritual leaders.
President Reagan places a call to an American traveler who was shot and held hostage during a 1985 hijacking of Egyptian airline flight 648.
A car bomb exploded in Lebanon’s largest Christian town today, killing at least 11 people, wounding 100 others and setting several buildings ablaze. A Christian radio station, the Voice of Lebanon, said hospitals in the town, Junieh, were overflowing with casualties. Several calls for blood donations were made.
The Reagan Administration formally notified Congress that it intends to sell $354 million worth of missiles to Saudi Arabia. Democratic opponents, including Californians Sen. Alan Cranston and Rep. Mel Levine, said they will try to block the sale, arguing that it threatens Israel. They cited past Saudi aid to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The sale will go ahead after 30 days unless both the House and Senate vote against it. The arms package includes Stinger, Sidewinder and Harpoon missiles.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has opened negotiations with Afghanistan on resuming humanitarian visits to prisoners and wounded war victims interrupted three and a half years ago, Red Cross officials said today. A three-member Red Cross delegation arrived Sunday in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and began talks covering visits to civilian and military prisoners, wounded victims of the Afghan conflict and displaced people, the Red Cross spokesman, Jean-Jacques Kurz, said. The Afghan Government ordered the Red Cross to end its activities on October 8, 1982, Mr. Kurz said.
A bomb exploded this evening at the entrance to a parking lot at the hotel where Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger was scheduled to attend a state dinner with Thailand’s Prime Minister. The police said the bomb exploded in a trash can near a chauffeurs’ shelter of the Erawan Hotel at 6 PM (6 AM, New York time), 90 minutes before Mr. Weinberger was scheduled to arrive. The Defense Secretary would have passed within five yards of the site, according to authorities. Three people were wounded, two seriously, according to the official Thai radio. No group had taken responsibility for the explosion at the Erawan, a Government-owned hotel. The dinner for Mr. Weinberger, given by Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda, was moved to the Hilton Hotel, where Mr. Weinberger was staying. At an airport news conference this morning before he left for Australia, Mr. Weinberger tried to play down the significance of the bomb attack. “I can’t bring myself to believe that anyone would want to do me in,” he said. But Thailand’s Foreign Minister, Siddhi Savetsila, told reporters earlier that he was “really frightened” when he first heard about the blast. Security for Mr. Weinberger has been tight at all stops on his Asian trip.
The Reagan Administration said today that it planned to sell $550 million worth of aviation electronics to China. The transaction, if not blocked by Congress, would be the largest sale of military equipment to Peking since diplomatic contacts were resumed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972. The sale would also mark another step in a slowly evolving military relationship between Washington and Peking begun by President Carter and cultivated by President Reagan and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger. In the past, sales to China have been applauded by advocates of trade with China and those who see China as a counter to the Soviet Union. But they have been criticized by supporters of the Nationalist Government on Taiwan and by conservatives wary of the Communist Government in Peking.
Officials charged with protecting President Corazon C. Aquino are investigating a robbery suspect’s assertion that he was hired to assassinate her at an outdoor rally early last month but backed out at the last minute. The 30-year-old man, identified as Romualdo Mercado, was arrested last Saturday after a Filipino-American businessman accused him of stealing $6,000. During the police investigation of the robbery, Mr. Mercado reportedly said that an army general had offered him the equivalent of $25,000 to kill Mrs. Aquino at a thanksgiving mass held in downtown Rizal Park on March 2. The rally, which celebrated the ouster of the former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, drew hundreds of thousands of Filipinos.
Investigators looking into the plane crash that killed 248 American servicemen and eight crew members in Gander, Newfoundland, in December said today that the Arrow Air jet had several unusual problems during flights just before the accident. In a report to the Canadian Aviation Safety Board, the investigators described a plane in which some windows and panel areas were taped shut; on which a fire ax and then a pocketknife had to be used to open the forward cargo door, and from which fluid was once reported flowing from the top of a wing. Several passengers on earlier legs of the fatal flight “noted that the takeoff distances seemed excessive.” A military helicopter pilot said he believed the plane did not get airborne at Cologne, West Germany, its last stop before Gander, until after the end of the runway. The descriptions from crew members and passengers on earlier flights were presented as part of an eight-day public hearing into the crash of the Arrow Air DC-8 soon after takeoff from Gander on Dec. 12. Arrow Air, operators of the charter airline, will present its witnesses later in the hearing.
A negotiated settlement of the conflicts in Central America seems more distant than ever in the aftermath of the latest failure of the so-called Contadora peace process, according to several Latin American delegates who attended the talks here. No one seems willing to declare that the effort to negotiate a regional agreement is at an end. But it is difficult to find any Latin American official who can say how the deadlock in the talks, dramatized Monday by the unsuccessful conclusion of another negotiating session, is likely to be broken. That prospect has concerned those who see the Contadora negotiations as the only viable alternative to the Reagan Administration policy of increased military pressure on Nicaragua.
South Africa’s governing National Party called a rare congress in an effort to head off a white backlash against racial reforms. The party newspaper, the Nationalist, warned that revolutionaries are turning white fear and concern into hatred and anti-black violence. It said that the congress, scheduled in August, is needed to explain why the government of President Pieter W. Botha is modifying apartheid into a system of “cooperative coexistence.” Whites opposed to any accommodation with blacks have formed two political parties to Botha’s right, and Afrikaner groups that condone white-supremacist violence have also sprung up.
The leader of the Zulus, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, one of the few black leaders still willing to talk to the white Government, has made a scathing personal attack on President P. W. Botha. He said Mr. Botha “is busy dragging white South Africa down” “This man has got his head so deeply buried in the sand that you will have to recognize him by the shape of his toes,” Chief Buthelezi said. Chief Buthelezi made the comments in his opening speech Monday to the KwaZulu parliament in Ulundi, seat of his tribal homeland’s government in northern Natal Province. The attack revealed a deepening split between Chief Buthelezi and Mr. Botha that could make Mr. Botha’s attempts to woo moderate blacks into negotiations far more difficult. Chief Buthelezi said he was beginning to suspect Mr. Botha “actually believes that apartheid gave black South Africans political rights here which are denied elsewhere in Africa.” “He actually believes he has majority support among blacks,” Chief Buthelezi said. The Zulu leader said he was mystified by Mr. Botha’s suggestion in an interview that whites have a generation in which to enact changes.
Some Republicans in the Senate say Vice President Bush’s handling of the issue of oil pricing has created doubts about the Reagan Administration’s policy and may also have done some damage his standing as a Presidential aspirant. Other members of Congress divided along lines dictated by the interests of their constituents in responding to the weeklong confusion set off by Mr. Bush’s appeal for “stability” in oil prices. Since his statement was widely interpreted as an appeal for higher prices for consumers and higher profits for oil companies, many Northern and Eastern members of Congress criticized Mr. Bush. But those from Texas, which he used to represent in the House, and other oil-producing states hailed him as standing up for an industry that has been hit hard with the decline of oil prices to as low as $10 a barrel.
A leader of an investigation into the space shuttle disaster outlined today what he called a “plausible and probable” sequence of failures leading up to the explosion of the Challenger. He said these failures probably began with one or more faulty parts in the right booster rocket and ended when unusually stiff winds buffeted the spaceship and caused the rupture of a rocket seal. James R. Thompson, vice chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s group studying the disaster, said engineers were concentrating their investigation on four major factors that were most likely to have had a bearing on the explosion, Jan. 28, which killed all seven crew members. At a news conference here, Mr. Thompson listed the factors as the rotation of the joints between segments of the rockets, which has occurred to some degree on all liftoffs; cold temperatures before launching; possible degradation of putty in the seals, and poor alignment of the O ring at the joint where the rupture seemed to occur.
As Congress returned to Capitol Hill today from the Easter recess, Republican leaders in the Senate expressed rising irritation with the Reagan Administration, saying it had refused to enter serious negotiations on a Federal budget for the next fiscal year. If the White House maintains this stance, the leaders added, the Congressional schedule could be thrown into chaos and passage of tax legislation, one of President Reagan’s top priorities, would be jeopardized. “The bottom line is that we need to act on the budget and act soon,” said Senator Bob Dole, the majority leader. “The White House cannot afford to sit on the fence and wait and neither can House Democrats or House Republicans or Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans.”
Senator Paula Hawkins (R-Florida) underwent surgery to relieve chronic back and shoulder pain, and doctors said she was in good condition and should be out of the hospital in Durham, North Carolina, in several weeks to resume her reelection campaign. Hawkins was awake and her vital signs were stable after the operation on her upper back and shoulder at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Blaine Nashold said. “Everything looks well,” Bill Hart, a spokesman for the Senator, said after the surgery at Duke Medical Center. Her aides said the Senator might be incapacitated for six weeks. She is in a tough campaign for re-election against Gov. Bob Graham of Florida, a Democrat.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission staff, in a draft report, is calling for a one-year halt to the practice of setting aside federal money for contracts for businesses owned by minority members and women, the commission’s staff director said. The 96-page report, which the commission may consider at a meeting Friday, calls for a moratorium on programs requiring the government to set aside specified percentages of money or work for those businesses, staff director Al Latham said.
AIDS victim Ryan White, who suffers from hemophilia, got the barking of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union in his legal fight to be allowed to return to school in the Indianapolis suburb of Russiaville. The teen-ager has been barred from attending Western Middle School since February 21, when a preliminary injunction was issued at the request of parents concerned that their children could contract AIDS from Ryan. Judge Jack R. O’Neill has scheduled a hearing on the matter for today.
An Eastern Airlines 727 jetliner, bound from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Atlanta with 112 passengers, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia today after an Egyptian passenger said he had a bomb in his briefcase, the authorities said. No bomb was found on the plane, Flight 119, and one federal official said the statement was intended as a joke. It was made to a flight attendant by Amar Sherin Osman, 24 years old, identified by his student visa as an Egyptian national, the police said. “Apparently he did not realize the seriousness of what he did until the plane was back on the ground,” the federal official said. After a search of the plane, passengers reboarded and it continued to Atlanta. The police said Mr. Osman, who attends Bridgeport University in Connecticut, would be charged with providing false information and interfering with a flight crew.
A 16-year-old Death Row inmate thought to be the nation’s youngest was granted a stay of his scheduled Saturday execution by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Ronald C. Ward, who was 15 years old when sentenced in September, was to die by lethal injection one year to the day after the stabbing deaths of two elderly women and their 12-year-old great-nephew, for which he was convicted.
A Federal prosecutor today made his opening statement in his second attempt to convict Governor Edwin Edwards on charges of racketeering and fraud. The prosecutor, United States Attorney John Volz, asserted that Mr. Edwards as governor rewarded his friends after taking $2 million in bribes as a candidate. The first trial of the governor ended December 18 with a hung jury that was overwhelmingly in favor of acquittal. Governor Edwards’s defense lawyer, Michael Fawer, said, “The criminality continues to live only in the minds of the prosecutors.” Governor Edwards, his brother, Marion, and three business associates are charged in connection with a hospital and nursing home investment venture. The four are accused of using Governor Edwards’s influence to obtain valuable state certification for health care facilities in which they held interests.
Forty-six illegal aliens arrived at the new Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, Louisiana tonight, the first of nearly 1,300 who will be kept there behind a 12-foot-high fence topped with razor wire. Once known mainly for its piney woods and cotton fields, for its lumber industry and, after the paper mill shut down, for the highest unemployment rate in the state, this isolated rural region entered another era with the center’s opening. It is the largest alien detention center in the nation and the first one built to be run jointly by the United States Bureau of Prisons and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The first aliens here were from Mexico, Central America and South America. The 300-acre facility, which cost $17.5 million, will eventually house almost 1,000 aliens who have no known criminal record and 300 more who do, to be jailed in separate, high-security quarters not yet built.
George Washington University Hospital has suspended a prominent cardiac surgeon pending the outcome of internal and criminal investigations into the death of a 66-year-old patient, identified as Mary Fisk, who was taken off a life-support system and injected with a medication sometimes used to stop the heart, sources who requested anonymity told the Washington Post. The woman had undergone an unsuccessful bypass operation on March 17. The surgeon, Dr. Benjamin L. Aaron, the Washington hospital’s director of chest and cardiovascular surgery, removed the bullet lodged one inch from President Reagan’s heart after an assassination attempt in March, 1981.
The Department of Agriculture today suspended the license and halted the sale of the first live genetically altered virus to be released into the environment. The action to suspend the license for two weeks came in response to a petition from a Washington-based group that charged that the department had failed to follow Federal guidelines for allowing live genetically altered microorganisms to be released into the environment. The petition, filed Monday by the Foundation on Economic Trends, called for the license to be revoked. The virus, which has one gene snipped from its genetic code, has been marketed since January as a vaccine to eradicate an outbreak of pseudorabies, a devastating herpes disease in swine that is spreading across the Middle West.
The Grumman Corporation, winning its biggest contract ever, received a $1.1 billion order yesterday to provide 99,150 delivery vehicles to the United States Postal Service over the next seven years. The contract awarded to Grumman, which is based in Bethpage, L.I., was also the largest order for vehicles ever placed by the Postal Service. The vehicles will ultimately replace the fleet of small red, white and blue jeep-like vehicles and half-ton trucks now used to pick up and deliver mail in neighborhoods throughout the nation. Grumman said the first of the new vehicles — vans with all-aluminum bodies designed to be lighter and more fuel-efficient than the current fleet -will come off the assembly line in about a year. In all, 9,000 will be produced in 1987 and 18,000 will go into service each succeeding year through 1992.
Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California; it makes his day. Eastwood, the Hollywood actor who became one of the world’s biggest box office draws playing tough cowboys and revenge-minded policemen, today won a landslide victory as Mayor of this resort town of 4,700 people. Mr. Eastwood defeated the incumbent two-term Mayor, Charlotte Townsend, by a vote of 2,166 to 799. Two candidates for the City Council, Robert Fischer and Eleanor Laiolo, who had run on an informal slate with the 55-year-old actor, also defeated incumbents by wide margins.
Josoph M. Henry, a sophomore at Lehigh University, was arraigned Monday in Northampton Common Pleas Court on charges of criminal homicide and rape in connection with the assault and strangulation of a Bryn Mawr freshman in her dormitory room. The victim, Jeanne Ann Clery, 19 years old, who was strangled with a wire spring toy, was found dead in her room early Saturday, the state police said. District Attorney Donald Corriere said he would seek the death penalty “because of the brutality of the murder.” The 20-year-old defendant, from Newark, New Jersey, was also charged with indecent assault, burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and robbery. The defendant was held for a preliminary hearing April 17. Witness testimony at the trial later quoted Henry as explaining after the murder that “he hates whites” and also dismissed his crime as “nothing”.
The National Cattlemen’s Association sued the Agriculture Department to halt the subsidized slaughter of nearly a million dairy cows, saying that the influx of beef is seriously depressing cattle markets. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Lubbock, Texas, means that the program to reduce dairy herds is now under fire on at least two fronts. A federal judge in Rochester, New York, has temporarily blocked the program because of complaints from the Humane Society about a requirement that cows destined for slaughter be branded on the face. Judge Michael Telesca extended his temporary order barring enforcement of the face branding through April 21.
A spring storm that spawned at least one tornado hammered the South with winds of nearly 100 mph and torrential rain, uprooting trees and utility poles, washing out roads and leaving Yorktown, Arkansas, ankle-deep in hail. In Laurel, Mississippi, winds clocked at 92 mph uprooted power poles, overturned three small planes and severely damaged the high school. A sine of severe thunderstorms marched across Alabama, but no damage was reported. The northeastern corner of Arkansas was hardest hit by the eastward-rushing storm.
With gasoline prices falling, the value of the dollar declining and fears of terrorism rising, thousands of American vacationers are making plans to stay closer to home this summer. “People are becoming very patriotic all of a sudden,” said June Magrino, the director of marketing for Hughes International Travel in New York. “They’re staying home. If they live on the East Coast, they want to go to the West Coast or do a cruise down the Mississippi River.” And many intend to be on the road again. “Once the magic dollar mark on the price of gas was broken, people started taking a lot more spontaneous weekend vacations,” said Steve Trombetti, a spokesman for the American Hotel and Motel Association. “People are using their cars as pleasure vehicles again.”
Major League Baseball:
The Atlanta Braves shut out the Montreal Expos, 6–2. Rick Mahler pitched a five-hitter, and Dale Murphy hit a two-run homer for the Braves. Murphy stroked his homer over the right-field fence off Bryn Smith in the seventh inning following a single by Claudell Washington. Washington also knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. The Braves had managed only one hit — a first-inning double by Murphy — before breaking a scoreless tie with three runs in the sixth inning en route to giving Chuck Tanner a victory in his debut as the Atlanta manager.
San Francisco rookie Will Clark thrills the crowd by hitting a home run in his first at bat, and off no less than Nolan Ryan. The Giants beat the Astros 8–3. Candy Maldonado added a three-run pinch-triple in the seventh inning to lead San Francisco past Houston. Maldonado hit the second pitch by the reliever Jeff Calhoun down the right-field line to score Chris Brown, Bob Brenly, and Brad Gulden, who were put aboard by the Houston starter Nolan Ryan. Maldonado’s blow snapped a 3–3 tie. Mike Krukow was the winner, departing for a pinch-hitter in the seventh. Clark became the 53d player in major league history to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat. His drive in the first inning went over the center-field fence.
The San Diego Padres blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1–0. San Diego’s Dave Dravecky pitched a three-hitter, and Terry Kennedy delivered the only run with an infield hit in the third inning. It was the sixth career shutout for 30-year-old left-hander, who yielded singles to Reggie Williams in the third inning, Bill Madlock in the fourth and Dave Duncan in the ninth. The loss ended an 11-game winning streak for Orel Hershiser. The last time that Hershiser lost in Dodger Stadium, where he had also won 11 straight, was September 9, 1984.
The Royals are the first defending champions — besides the Yankees — in 61 years to open at Yankee Stadium, and they start the season on the wrong foot by losing, 4–2. New York scores all 4 runs off starter Bud Black, who gives up a three-run homer to Butch Wynegar in the 2nd. Hal McRae accounts for both KC runs with a two-run homer off starter Ron Guidry, one of two hits Guidry gives up in 5 innings. Guidry wins his first Opener with relief help from Scurry and Dave Righetti. Righetti throttled a ninth-inning effort by the World Series champions and preserved the gala atmosphere at Yankee Stadium.
The Twins edged the Oakland A’s, 3–2. Frank Viola pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and reliever Ron Davis started a double play with the bases loaded to end the game as the Twins beat the A’s at Oakland. Davis came out of the bullpen to face Dusty Baker after Roy Smith, the Twins’ second pitcher, intentionally walked Dwayne Murphy to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth. A walk to Bruce Bochte and Tony Phillips’ double had started the threat. Davis speared a hard grounder and threw to the plate to start the 1-2-3 double play. Oakland’s rookie Jose Canseco was 1 for 3 with a walk.
The New York Mets began the great chase for their first pennant in 13 years tonight with a 4–2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the main men did it: Dwight Gooden pitched six-hit ball and stayed the distance, and Keith Hernandez knocked in two runs with two clutch hits. It was the 15th time in the last 17 years that the Mets had opened the season by winning, and they did it this time after closing spring training with four straight losses and angry words from Manager Dave Johnson. But after a lecture from Johnson before the game, they snapped out of it and gave a kind of classic performance before 48,953 fans in Three Rivers Stadium. It was a strange performance in some ways: R. J. Reynolds, the first batter Gooden faced this season, nailed him with a 400-foot home run. And Gooden struck out only six batters. But he was relentless with the game on the line, and the Mets opened their 25th season in the National League with flags flying.
After hitting a 2-run home run to tie the score in the bottom of the 9th, Seattle’s Jim Presley belts a walkoff grand slam with 2 out in the bottom of the 10th to give the Mariners an 8–4 season-opening win over the Angels. The Angels squandered leads of 3–0 and 4–2 as starter Mike Witt and Donnie Moore were unable to protect. A home run by Gorman Thomas in the fourth was the Mariners’ first step back.
John Tudor pitched a five-hitter tonight as the Cardinals opened defense of their National League title with a 2–1 victory over the Chicago Cubs. St. Louis overcame a two-hit performance by Rick Sutcliffe, who lasted seven innings. Both hits off Sutcliffe came in the fourth inning after Tommy Herr led off with a walk. Herr made it to third as Jack Clark dropped a single in front of Bob Dernier in center field and moved up on Dernier’s throw to third base. Andy Van Slyke, after falling behind on an 0–2 count, lashed a 1–2 pitch for a single into right field that scored both Herr and Clark.
In their opener, the Texas Rangers beat the Blue Jays, 6–3, as rookie Pete Incaviglia goes 1-for-4. Don Slaught hit a two-run homer and Larry Parrish had a three-run drive for Texas. Jose Guzman became the first major league rookie to start and win an opener since Fernando Valenzuela did it in 1981. Guzman, who was 3-2 after coming up from the minors last year, allowed eight hits in eight innings. Greg Harris worked the ninth. Incaviglia, a college slugger with 100 homers in 213 games, was picked 8th last year by the Expos, but refused to play in the minors. With a ‘play him or trade him’ option, the Expos chose the latter, shipping him to Texas in the off-season. Because of this, Major League Baseball will implement a rule that a team cannot trade a player within a year of drafting him, a rule affectionately called the “Pete Incaviglia Rule.”
Montreal Expos 0, Atlanta Braves 6
San Francisco Giants 8, Houston Astros 3
San Diego Padres 1, Los Angeles Dodgers 0
Kansas City Royals 2, New York Yankees 4
Minnesota Twins 3, Oakland Athletics 2
New York Mets 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
California Angels 4, Seattle Mariners 8
Chicago Cubs 1, St. Louis Cardinals 2
Toronto Blue Jays 3, Texas Rangers 6
The stock market staged an impressive comeback yesterday after a week’s decline, as investors were relieved by lower oil prices and encouraged by rumors that there may soon be a cut in the Federal Reserve Board’s discount rate. The average share yesterday rose 80 cents, while advancing issues were outpacing losers by a more than 4 to 1. “Today’s action,” said Edward Yardeni, chief economist at Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., “shows that you can’t keep a good market down.” The Dow Jones industrial average, which set a record decline last week by falling more than 82 points, regained 34.25 points yesterday, to 1,769.76. The day’s gain represented a gain of almost 2 percent in the average’s value. It was the 10th-best point gain ever for the blue-chip indicator and its sharpest rise since March 14, when the Dow climbed 39.03 points.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1769.76 (+34.25)
Born:
Félix Hernández, Venezuelan MLB pitcher (American League Cy Young Award, 2010; All-Star, 2009, 2011-2015; Seattle Mariners), in Valencia, Venezuela.
Carlos Santana, Dominican MLB first baseman and catcher (All-Star, 2019; Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks), in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Eddie Kunz, MLB pitcher (New York Mets), in Portland, Oregon.
Cliff Avril, NFL defensive end (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 48-Seahawks, 2013; Pro Bowl, 2016; Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks), in Jacksonville, Florida.
David Vobora, NFL linebacker (St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks), in Eugene, Oregon.
Javarris Williams, NFL running back (Kansas City Chiefs), in Wharton County, Texas.
Greyson Gunheim, NFL defensive end (Oakland Raiders), in Sebastopol, California.
Erika Sawajiri, Japanese model, singer and actress (“Helter Skelter”, “Pacchigi!”), in Tokyo, Japan
Died:
Yukiko Okada, 18, Japanese idol singer, by suicide.
History Diaries 