Almost a third of the bombers aborted their missions in the strike against Libya and did not carry out the planned attack, according to the Pentagon. Officials said the planes had suffered malfunctions that increased the risk of civilian casualties. Some critics said the situation showed the planes too vulnerable to mechanical failures. Despite these problems, Robert B. Sims, the Defense Department spokesman, said: “This was a near-flawless professional operation under extremely difficult circumstances. I don’t think there’s been anything like it in U.S. military annals.” Earlier, Mr. Sims had referred to the raid as “absolutely flawless.”
There is wide dissidence in Libya’s armed forces and a goal of the American bombing was to spur those elements to overthrow Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, according to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. In a news conference, Mr. Shultz said that if the Libyan leader were replaced, those in charge would be more oriented toward improving living standards in Libya, where there is widespread illiteracy, and not exporting terrorism. Mr. Shultz said, “If a coup takes place, that’s all to the good.” He said Colonel Qaddafi was “not a direct target” of the attack, even though the Libyan leader’s headquarters and home were hit by bombs and an adopted child was reportedly killed. There has been a flurry of reports in the last two days of clashes between the regular Libyan armed forces and the special revolutionary guards set up by Colonel Qaddafi. A senior White House official said this afternoon that American intelligence officials had received reports that “elements of an army battalion outside of Tripoli had undertaken a mutiny” against forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi on Wednesday, and that units of the Libyan Air Force had been used to quell it.
A carefully concealed bomb was discovered this morning at Heathrow Airport in a bag carried by a woman who was about to board an El Al flight due to leave for Tel Aviv with about 340 passengers. Scotland Yard said later it was “highly likely” that if the device had gone off it would have destroyed the Boeing 747, killing everyone aboard. The woman, who was not named, was still in custody this evening. But the head of the Yard’s antiterrorism branch, Comdr. George Churchill-Coleman, said it appeared she had carried the bomb “in all innocence,” having been duped by an Arab man who dropped her off at the airport. “We believe she did not know she had explosives,” the officer said. The woman, described as being Irish-born, had already passed through the airport’s routine security checkpoint when the bomb was discovered in the course of a manual inspection by a security agent of the airline.
West European foreign ministers, meeting today for the first time since the American raid on Libya, played down the differences between themselves and the United States over the attack, vowing that Europe would press ahead with a new set of anti-terrorist measures. But the 12 foreign ministers of the European Economic Community also renewed a call for “utmost restraint” and urged the United States not to attack Libya again. The meeting today took place amid reports of deep friction between the Western European allies and the United States, which on Wednesday stepped up its criticism of most European nations for having failed to support the American action.
A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman today dismissed as “cynical lies” American assertions that the Soviet Union could have averted a terrorist bombing in West Berlin this month. The spokesman, Vladimir B. Lomeiko, confirmed that an American diplomat in West Berlin had informed his Soviet counterparts on March 27 that Libyan diplomats were planning terrorist acts, and had asked the Soviet Government to restrain the Libyans. “The American representative was unable to cite any factual evidence in support of his allegations,” Mr. Lomeiko said.
A firebomb was thrown at the United States Marine headquarters in Tunisia yesterday and protests were held around the world in the wake of the American air strike against Libya. In Tunisia, a firebomb was hurled from a car at the compound housing Marine guards and other staff members of the American Embassy. An embassy spokesman said that an American-owned automobile caught fire but that no one was hurt.
Andrija Artukovic, who is on trial here on war crime charges, testified today that concentration camps were necessary in the Nazi puppet state of Croatia in World War II and were not set up “just for fun.” But the defendant, who is 86 years old, repeated his denial that he was involved in war crimes from 1941 to 1945, when he was Police and Justice Minister of Croatia. “Camps were not formed without any need, just for fun,” he told the District Court here. “If they were set up, then there was a need for these camps. It was not just without any reason. Partisans and Communists were carrying out dangerous activities against the people and Croatia. They wanted to destroy the Croatian state.” When the prosecutor, Ivanka Pintar-Gajer, noted that women and children had been sent to the camps, Mr. Artukovic said, “I do not know about that.” Mr. Artukovic, who was extradited from the United States on Feb. 12, is charged on four counts in the mass killings of civilians and prisoners of war. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Gangs of Protestants fired guns at policemen and set fire to cars in Belfast tonight. In Lisburn they threw gasoline bombs and stones at the officers, the police said. The riots broke out after the funeral of a Protestant who had been killed by a plastic police bullet during a riot last month. The victim, Keith White, 20 years old, was the first Protestant to be killed either by rubber bullets or the plastic bullets that superseded them since sectarian violence flared in the British province in 1969. A total of 15 Roman Catholics have been killed by the missiles since 1969. Belfast police headquarters said that several shots were fired at the police in Belfast and that roving gangs of Protestant youths set 13 vehicles ablaze in various parts of the city. In Lisburn, a town 10 miles southwest, four cars were set ablaze by the gangs of youths, who also threw gasoline bombs and stones at the police, according to a headquarters report.
Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Stalin, returned to the United States at O’Hare International Airport here on Wednesday and went into seclusion at an undisclosed location. William Wesley Peters, her former husband, would not come to the phone at his office in Phoenix. He sent word through his secretary, Terry Teames, that he was “not at liberty to say where his ex-wife is at the time.” Mr. Peters said he expected her to make a public statement shortly.
Two brothers, prominent Jewish dissidents in the Soviet Union, flew to Vienna, ending a 15-year battle for permission to leave their homeland. Grigory and Isai Goldstein, of Tbilisi, the capital of Soviet Georgia, were accompanied by four family members, including their 78-year-old mother and Isai’s wife and son. The brothers, who first applied for exit visas in 1971, had founded a group in 1977 to monitor Soviet compliance with its international commitments on human rights. The group was later disbanded and most of its members were sent to prison, Isai Goldstein said.
Netherlands and the Scilly Islands sign a peace treaty, ending the war of 1651. Dutch Ambassador Rein Huydecoper signed a peace treaty with the Isles of Scilly, ending a bloodless “335-Year War” that began in 1651. The conflict, considered the longest in history with zero casualties, was a lingering, forgotten dispute from the English Civil War that was finalized after a local historian discovered the lack of a formal peace treaty. Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp had declared war on the Royalist-held Isles of Scilly, which was then forgotten when Parliamentarians took control later that year. In 1986, Roy Duncan, a local historian and chairman of the Isles of Scilly Council, investigated the alleged war and wrote to the Embassy of the Netherlands in London. Dutch embassy staff found that no peace treaty had ever been signed, and Duncan invited the Dutch ambassador to Britain, Jonkheer Huydecoper, to visit the islands and officially end the “conflict”. Peace was declared on 17 April 1986, 335 years after the supposed declaration of war; Huydecoper joked that it must have been horrifying to the Scillonians “to know we could have attacked at any moment.”
The bodies of three Britons kidnapped in Lebanon were found today near Beirut. A note found with the bodies said the three had been killed because of Britain’s role in the American bombing raids on Libya. Hours after the discovery 10 miles southeast of Beirut, another Briton and his driver were seized on the road leading to the Beirut airport; he was on his way out of the country because of the dangers there. The Voice of Lebanon, a Christian-controlled radio station, reported Friday that an anonymous caller said the Briton kidnapped Thursday had been slain and his body left in a Beirut neighborhood, The Associated Press reported. The police said they had no immediate verification. Unidentified gunmen, meanwhile, attacked the unoccupied West Beirut residence of the British Ambassador.
A backlash against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s allowing British bases to be used by American bombers that attacked Libya appeared to intensify today with news of the killings of three British hostages in Lebanon. Two former Prime Ministers, Edward Heath and James Callaghan, had already said in Parliament that Mrs. Thatcher could have resisted American pressure for the use of planes based in Britain under the 35-year-old secret agreement that is the keystone of British-American security arrangements. Three opinion polls have indicated that public opinion was heavily against her decision, with roughly two-thirds of those questioned opposing British support for the raid. Political commentators in both The Times of London and The Spectator, publications normally friendly to Mrs. Thatcher, raised the possibility that the outcome of the next British election may have been determined by the week’s events.
A series of bombs exploded on seven Syrian army buses, killing at least 27 army cadets and injuring many others, Lebanese radio stations reported. The stations, operated by anti-Syrian Christian militias, said that three of the bombs went off on vehicles in Tartus, one of Syria’s main Mediterranean ports, and the four others on troop-transport buses traveling between Tartus and Latakia, Homs and Safita. The cadets were on leave from military training, the broadcasts said. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian authorities.
A Panamanian freighter was hit and set ablaze in a rocket attack in the Persian Gulf, forcing the 18man crew to abandon ship. The freighter, which was hit by two rockets about 20 miles east of the Qatarı island of Halul, was carrying liquefied petroleum gas. One crew member was reported missing. The attack is the first confirmed strike in the Persian Gulf in about two weeks and was in a zone where Iran has been previously blamed for attacks. Iran did claim responsibility, however, for the sinking of an Iraqi frigate off Faw Peninsula of southern Iraq. Tehran radio said the frigate sank “with all on board” but gave no further details. There was no immediate comment from Iraq.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the Indian-born guru expelled from the United States, has been granted a one-year residence permit by Uruguay. A spokesman said the renewable permit, granted last week, allows Rajneesh to live and conduct business in Uruguay. A local newspaper, El Dia, said Rajneesh and about 10 followers are living in a mansion called the Santa Monica, in the oceanside resort of Punta del Este. They are being protected by guards and are using three Mercedes-Benzes for transportation.
President Reagan participates in a briefing for his upcoming meeting with the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Administration officials said today that Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia had assured President Reagan that Australia would continue a security pact with the United States, even if the alliance did not include New Zealand. Australia’s policy would be designed to keep the 35-year old Anzus alliance functioning in the hope that relations between the United States and New Zealand would improve once a new government came to power in Wellington, the officials said after the White House meeting between Mr. Hawke and Mr. Reagan. The Australian leader is also scheduled to hold discussions with other American officials including Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker.
The State Department acknowledged that some U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels have engaged in drug trafficking but said that it knows of no evidence that the rebels’ leaders are involved. “We have discussed this issue with the resistance leaders and have been assured in categorical terms that they will not tolerate the involvement of members of their organizations in drug trafficking,” Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams said. Federal law enforcement officials have been investigating allegations of drug trafficking by several groups of contras, as the rebels are called.
A backer of the Nicaraguan Government has offered to buy the opposition newspaper La Prensa “for an excellent price,” according to the newspaper’s editor. The editor, Jaime Chamorro Cardenal, described the offer as “a strategy to get rid of La Prensa” and said it would be rejected. But he said he feared the offer might be an indication that the Government was planning some form of action against La Prensa.
Three Salvadoran military officers have been accused of carrying out the abductions of prominent businessmen between 1982 and 1986. Two men arrested in connection with two right-wing kidnapping rings told a military judge that Colonel Roberto Mauricio Staben, Colonel Joaquin Zacapa and Major Jose Alfredo Jimenez were involved in at least five abductions. Staben, who has since been removed as commander of the elite, U.S.-trained Arce battalion, and Jimenez are being held in San Salvador. Zacapa left the country before he was implicated in the kidnappings and has not returned. None of the men has been formally charged.
President Jose Azcona acknowledged tonight that some Nicaraguan rebels were based in Honduras. But he said his government had no intention of sending a large number of soldiers to the border to keep them out. He said Honduras “will not devote the resources to guard the backs of the Sandinistas.” In the past the government has flatly denied that the United States-supported rebels, known as contras, were in Honduras. “They come and they go,” Mr. Azcona said. “I believe that near the border they have camps, temporary camps.” Since their fight is in Nicaragua, he said, “they have no reason to install permanent camps in Honduras.”
Brazil’s Supreme Court has granted a United States request for the extradition of a Taiwan national wanted on charges of murdering a prominent Chinese-American journalist in California 18 months ago. The family and friends of the slain journalist, Henry Liu, who was 52 years old, have said he was assassinated for political reasons after he published a critical biography of the Nationalist President, Chiang Ching-kuo. The Taipei Government has denied involvement in the case.
Riot policemen and troops in battle gear arrested more than 500 students at two campus buildings today in a third consecutive day of student unrest, witnesses and police sources said. Most of the students were being released later, the police said. The worst incidents occurred at Metropolitan University, where classes were suspended after clashes Tuesday and Wednesday. Hundreds of students turned up anyway and occupied the campus, throwing stones at the police, who said they made 237 arrests. The police then stormed into the neighboring arts and science faculty of the University of Chile, where at least 300 people were detained.
South Africa’s black children are routinely being beaten, shot, whipped and arrested by the country’s security forces, according to a report issued today by a group of American lawyers. The South African police, in a statement issued in Pretoria, rejected the report’s findings. The report, compiled by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said more than 200 children have been killed in the last year and hundreds more have been hurt in police operations in the segregated townships in which tear gas, birdshot, rubber bullets, metal-tipped whips and even live ammunition are used indiscriminately and excessively. In large-scale and often arbitrary police action, it said, thousands of children, some as young as 7 years old, have been arrested and detained under South Africa’s sweeping security and criminal legislation. Hundreds of students, including many who did not take part in school boycotts, have been arrested, and others have been killed or wounded.”
A Navy salvage ship brought to port parts of a wing, landing gear and fuselage from the destroyed space shuttle, including a piece with the word Challenger stenciled in black on it, officials said at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Experts were examining the recovered material to identify how it fits into the mosaic of wreckage being assembled in a hangar. “We don’t know precisely what this debris consists of until the experts get a chance to look at it,” Lieutenant Commander Deborah Burnette said. Burnette added that there were no reports of further recovery of remains of the seven crew members killed in the January 28 disaster.
The nation’s economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 1986, markedly faster than in the last quarter of 1985, according to the Commerce Department. The 3.2 percent figure was greater than many analysts had expected. Less comprehensive indicators, notably industrial output and capacity utilization, have shown persistent weakness, and industrial output fell in both February and March.
President Reagan meets with Senator Denton (R-Alabama) to discuss activities related to the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism.
The Interior Department, mindful of sharply declining oil prices, will suspend production requirements of low-producing “stripper” wells and allow leaseholders to shut them down without jeopardizing their leases, Secretary Donald P. Hodel announced. The new policy gives leaseholders an opportunity to “shut in” a low-producing well rather than permanently plugging it. The drop in oil prices is causing producers to abandon stripper wells that could become uneconomical to maintain. Stripper wells, which produce 10 barrels of oil or less daily, supply 20 million to 25 million barrels nationwide annually, or about 15% of federal onshore oil production.
A federal safety panel called for setting up a national licensing system for drivers of heavy commercial trucks. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that a uniform licensing program be developed in part to keep a closer eye on problem drivers, some of whom run up violations in one state and then obtain a new license from another by concealing their past. “State agencies should test applicants’ knowledge and performance and check their qualifications, using uniform standards and test procedures developed by the Department of Transportation,” the board said. More than 5,000 people are killed annually in accidents involving trucks, federal statistics show. Legislation is pending in Congress to establish a national drivers’ license program for drivers of commercial vehicles.
With the next Presidential election still two years away, Vice President Bush made a major appearance in New Hampshire today in an effort to solidify his support among its Republican voters. Aides to Mr. Bush said he would probably visit the state two or three more times this year as part of a plan to focus attention on him as the logical successor to President Reagan. New Hampshire is a key state for Mr. Bush’s Presidential ambitions, not only because it will hold the nation’s first primary in 1988 but also because it was here that he was initially defeated by Mr. Reagan in the 1980 race for the Republican nomination. Speech Assails Qaddafi In a speech this afternoon to a joint session of the New Hampshire legislature, Mr. Bush strongly supported the air strikes against Libya last Monday, terming the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, one of the great “monsters of history.”
A coalition of labor leaders, black elected officials, farmers and liberal activists today rallied behind the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s effort to organize a “progressive force” within the Democratic Party. At a news conference opening the founding convention of the National Rainbow Coalition, which Mr. Jackson said would become a permanent political organization, representatives of a variety of disgruntled interest groups were sharply critical of Democratic leaders who, some charged, were driving the party too far to the right. Mr. Jackson, flanked by a variety of party dissidents, said his coalition would function as “enlightened Democrats, not anti-Democrats,” and was ready to “negotiate new relationships” with the party as his forces organized Rainbow chapters at the state and Congressional district levels.
A New York State appeals court affirmed the dismissal of attempted murder and assault charges against Bernhard H. Goetz, accused of the December 22, 1984, shooting of four teenagers he thought were about to rob him on a subway train. Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said he would now appeal the ruling to the state’s highest court. The appellate court agreed that the 39-year-old electronics technician reasonably believed he was in danger and had the right to use deadly defensive force.
The trial of 11 church workers accused of smuggling Central Americans into the United States went to the jury in Tucson, Arizona, after almost six months of court proceedings. In instructing the jury, Federal District Judge Earl Carroll said the moral issues raised by the defendants have no legal bearing on the case and “good motive is not a defense to intentional acts of crime.” The case of 11 church workers accused of smuggling Central Americans into the United States went to the jury today, almost six months after the start of proceedings that have been as rancorous, emotional and complex as the immigration issue itself. At its close, the trial revolved around the same fundamental disagreement in which it began. The prosecution said it was a simple smuggling case and nothing more. The defense said the church workers had acted on religious and humanitarian grounds and in keeping with Unites States law, which grants safe haven to those with a “well-founded fear of persecution.”
An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation described at a pretrial hearing today the techniques used to elicit incriminating statements from a former employee of the National Security Agency who has been charged with spying for the Soviet Union. David Faulkner, the F.B.I. agent, testified that the former agency employee, Ronald Pelton, was determined not to “hang himself” by making incriminating statements. But Mr. Faulkner said Mr. Pelton later acknowledged giving Soviet agents classified information about the security agency’s efforts to intercept Soviet communications.
For a year or more, William R. Matix and Michael Lee Platt slipped undetected between dual worlds of light and shadow. Then, last Friday, the two Miami men were shot and killed by a wounded agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after a gunfight on a sun-splashed suburban street that left two agents dead and four wounded. The investigators say they believe the men were, in the words of one detective, “cold-hearted killers” operating as armored car robbers who shot down anyone who crossed their paths. But in the view of friends and relatives the two Army buddies, who had met as military policemen in Korea, were clean-living upright citizens. “I can ask myself questions a million times for the rest of my life and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get to the bottom of it,” said Tim Platt, the 28-year-old brother of Michael, who was 32. “No one who knew them can make any sense of it.”
Chicago’s Board of Election Commissioners declared today that no one had won a clear victory in a City Council race and a runoff must be held between Luis V. Gutierrez, who has the backing of Mayor Harold Washington, and Manuel A. Torres, who is supported by the Mayor’s rival for political control, Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak. The board said Mr. Gutierrez had received 5,245 votes, Mr. Torres had received 5,225 votes, and a write-in candidate, Jim Blasinski, 21. Mr. Gutierrez needed 5,247 votes to win a clear majority and avoid a runoff. In a 3-to-2 decision, the election board decided to include in the final tally 10 ballots that were found two weeks after the election was held March 18. Jerold S. Solovy, an attorney for Mr. Gutierrez, said there would be no appeal. “This is politics, Chicago style,” he said. Mr. Washington called the decision “the crassest display of arrogance and abuse of power I have ever seen in my life — they literally just walked in and took the election.” The Mayor could gain control of the City Council if Mr. Gutierrez wins the 26th Ward seat, and if his candidate in the 15th Ward also wins in a runoff.
In what Justice Department officials described as one of the largest criminal fraud cases in recent history, a Federal grand jury in Beaumont, Texas today charged 21 people and three marine fuel and shipping companies with fraud, racketeering and theft of fuel. Many of the transactions in the indictment involve the theft of fuel from commercial customers, but the fraud charges also include false billings to the Federal Government by a towing company that purportedly rented vessels to the Defense Department but was actually using the vessels for its own private business, according to Bob Wortham, the United States Attorney in Beaumont, Tex., who announced the indictment late today. J. Michael Bradford, the Assistant United States Attorney handling the case in Beaumont, said that “the evidence and testimony show” that the alleged fraud against the Pentagon “was done on a regular basis.” Mr. Bradford said the total amount of fraud and theft in the case “appears to be in excess of $40 million and possibly as high as $50 million.” He said it was difficult to get a precise estimate “because of the destruction of records.”
The president of a food processing company pleaded no contest today to 10 misdemeanor counts in connection with contamination of a Mexican cheese product that killed up to 80 people last year. Gary McPherson, 45 years old, president of Jalisco Mexican Products Inc., entered the plea to nine counts of selling and manufacturing adulterated food and one count of operating an unsanitary food processing establishment.
Bolla, Cella and Riunite importers announced that their wines had been declared free of contamination from methyl alcohol, which has been linked to 20 deaths in Italy. The importers’ sales have been badly hurt since the Federal Government urged last week that the public avoid drinking any Italian wines.
People exposed to dioxin for long periods have immune systems and livers that are abnormal, but no more illness than normal, according to scientists.
A Washington committee of scientists deliberating over a non-controversial name for the AIDS virus will propose calling it “human immune deficiency virus.” The suggested new name is one that deliberately avoids any similarity with those currently being used by competing American and French scientists who are engaged in a transatlantic legal battle over who first discovered the virus. The American scientists, led by Dr. Robert C. Gallo of the National Cancer Institute, have been calling the virus HTLV-III, for human T-cell lymphotropic virus.
Mount St. Helens belched another plume of ash and gas into the air today. Steve Brantley, spokesman for the United States Geological Survey, said the emission reached about 14,000 feet above sea level, well below the 25,000-foot level reached by a plume the volcano produced Wednesday. He said the emission was a “de-gassing” event. “They are a normal part of the volcano’s behavior and not a sign that a large eruption is imminent,” he said. Scientists had hoped to examine the volcano’s crater today but poor weather delayed the trip. Meanwhile, Pavlof Volcano, an 8,259-foot mountain 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, shot dark ash and steam three miles into the air today. Augustine Volcano, a 4,025-foot mountain 180 miles southwest of Anchorage, emitted a cloud of ash on March 27, disrupting air traffic into the city.
Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to two works of nonfiction, “Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White” by Joseph Lelyveld and “Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families” by J. Anthony Lukas. The award for fiction went to Larry McMurtry for his novel “Lonesome Dove,” about cowboys, trail drives and classic lore.
On this day, I turned 25 years old. Good Lord. Where did the last 40 years go?
Major League Baseball:
Don Baylor hit his 11th career grand slam to break a 2–2 tie in the eighth inning and lead the Boston Red Sox to a 6–2 triumph over the Kansas City Royals. The loss ended a four-game winning streak for the Royals. The Red Sox chased Mark Gubicza (0–2) in the eighth when Dwight Evans walked and Bill Buckner doubled. Steve Farr came into the game and walked Jim Rice to load the bases. Baylor hit a 2–2 pitch over the wall in left field for his third home run of the season. The clout tied him for third place among active players in grand slams. Roger Clemens (2-0) allowed five hits in going the distance. He struck out seven. Clemens retired 14 of 15 batters until Rudy Law doubled to right and George Brett walked with two out in the sixth. Hal McRae reached base on an infield single and, after he collided with Buckner, the first baseman, the ball rolled loose into foul territory, allowing Law to score.
Left-hander Frank Viola (2-1) survived a streak of wildness in the sixth inning to pitch a complete-game five-hitter, and Greg Gagne drove in two runs as the Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 4–1. Gagne had three hits, including a triple.
A two-run single by Mike Laga and Alan Trammell’s run-scoring double keyed a five-run eighth inning, rallying the Detroit Tigers past the Chicago White Sox, 10–6. Jack Morris (2-1) got the win for Detroit.
Who said ex-Yankee Phil Niekro cannot pitch in the major leagues anymore? In case the Yankees thought that the 32 victories he gained for them the previous two seasons were not proof, the 47-year-old knuckleballer presented more evidence tonight. Having been exiled through the waiver system to baseball’s wasteland, Niekro dazzled and embarrassed the Yankees with pitches that fluttered and floated, allowing three hits and no runs in seven innings as Cleveland held on to win, 6–4. The Yankees rallied for all their runs in the ninth inning against Ernie Camacho, who had relieved Niekro with one on and no one out in the eighth. The Yankees had runners at first and third with one out in the ninth when Scott Bailes relieved Camacho and threw two balls to Don Mattingly. Mattingly then hit a wicked, low liner to first that was speared by Pat Tabler, who fell onto the base for a game-ending double play.
The Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7–5. Ray Searage threw the sixth wild pitch of the game to send Pete O’Brien home with the tiebreaking run in a three-run Texas ninth. Oddibe McDowell opened the ninth by drawing a walk off Danny Darwin and then stole second. With one out, Searage (0-1) entered the game and walked Pete O’Brien and Pete Incaviglia to load the bases. After Gary Ward bounced into a fielder’s choice to score McDowell with the tying run, Searage tossed a wild pitch, enabling O’Brien to score from third. Searage then walked Larry Parrish and was replaced by Mark Clear, who gave up a run-scoring single to Don Slaught. Greg Harris (2-1) picked up the victory in relief. Milwaukee scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to take a 5-4 lead. Billy Joe Robidoux led off by drawing a walk off Ricky Wright and moved to second on Ernest Riles’s one-out single. Jim Gantner doubled home Robidoux to knock out Wright and Harris issued an intentional walk to Ben Oglivie to load the bases. Charlie Moore singled to drive in Riles with the tying run and Mike Felder put the Brewers ahead with a sacrifice fly.
The Cubs edged the Expos, 7–6. Shawon Dunston led off the 13th inning with Chicago’s third home run of the game to give the Cubs the victory. Dunston’s home run came off Montreal’s relief ace, Jeff Reardon (1-1), and made a winner of Lee Smith (1-2), who worked three innings, allowing just one hit. Andres Galarraga sent the game into extra innings when he led off the eighth with a towering homer to center field off Jay Baller.
The Giants downed the Padres, 4–1. Jeff Leonard had a two-out, three-run double in the third inning and Mike Krukow pitched a five-hitter for the Giants, who ended the Padres’ season-opening streak of one-run games at 10. The Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were idle today, both had streaks of 10 one-run games after playing each other Wednesday night. The National League record for consecutive one-run games is 11. The Giants, in winning at home for the first time this year, also broke a four-game San Diego winning streak. San Francisco had lost three straight. Krukow (2-0) retired 13 consecutive batters after Graig Nettles singled home Steve Garvey, who had doubled, with one out in the second. The right-hander struck out five batters and walked one in recording the first complete game of the season for a San Francisco pitcher.
Cliff Johnson broke a 4-4 tie with a single in the eighth inning, and Willie Upshaw followed with a two-run triple to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7–4 second-game victory over Baltimore and a split of their doubleheader. In the opener, Mike Flanagan and three relievers combined on a five-hitter and Cal Ripken Jr. hit a two-run homer, his first of the year, as the Orioles won, 5–3. With one out in the eighth, Jeff Hearron drew a walk from Tippy Martinez, and Lloyd Moseby followed with a bunt single. One out later, Johnson stroked his opposite-field single off Don Aase, the fifth Baltimore pitcher, scoring Damaso Garcia, who ran for Hearron. Upshaw then tripled into the right-center-field gap to score Moseby and Johnson. George Bell had snapped a 2-2 tie and and given Toronto a 4-2 lead with a bases-loaded single in the seventh. Moseby started the inning with a single against Brad Havens and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Rich Bordi then issued consecutive walks to load the bases and Bell delivered a line-drive single to center that scored Moseby and Cliff Johnson. In the opener, Flanagan entered the game in the seventh with a two-hit, 5-0 lead before the Jays rallied for three unearned runs to chase him from the game. Flanagan struck out four and did not issue a walk as he evened his record at 1-1.
The scheduled game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Mets in New York was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on August 17.
Kansas City Royals 2, Boston Red Sox 6
Minnesota Twins 4, California Angels 1
Detroit Tigers 10, Chicago White Sox 6
New York Yankees 4, Cleveland Indians 6
Texas Rangers 7, Milwaukee Brewers 5
Chicago Cubs 7, Montreal Expos 6
San Diego Padres 1, San Francisco Giants 4
Baltimore Orioles 5, Toronto Blue Jays 3
Baltimore Orioles 4, Toronto Blue Jays 7
The Dow Jones industrial average, coming off an impressive 38-point rise on Wednesday, still managed a 7.06-point gain yesterday, finishing at a record 1,855.03. Other broader market indicators followed the Dow’s lead. The New York Stock Exchange composite index gained 0.51, to a record 140.09, and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 0.81, to an all-time high of 243.03.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1855.03 (+7.06)
Died:
Paul Costello, 86, American rower (Olympic gold medals, double sculls, 1920, 1924, 1928).
Teddy Kotick, 57, American jazz double bassist (Phil Woods; Charlie Parker; Bill Evans), of a brain tumor.
History Diaries 