President Reagan has decided to stay within the limits of the unratified 1979 treaty on strategic arms limitation by dismantling two Poseidon submarines, Administration officials said today. The White House and other officials described the decision as tentative because the United States has to consult its allies and Congress about the move. But the allies have generally urged continued compliance, and so have majorities of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The issue arises now because the 1979 treaty set a limit of 1,200 on the number of multiple-warhead missiles each side may have. Unless the United States dismantles the Poseidons or other older missile launchers, it will exceed the limit next month when a new missile-carrying Trident submarine begins sea trials. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said today that Mr. Reagan’s tentative decision on continued compliance was in line with the policy, stated last June, to “go the extra mile” and not to undercut the treaty while pressing Moscow to resolve American concerns over Soviet compliance.
Although the treaty, signed in 1979, has not been ratified, each side has said it will observe its terms as long as the other does. The United States has charged Soviet violations, but the details have been a matter of dispute. “What we do in the future,” Mr. Speakes said, “depends on our national security needs and our commitments to our allies in meeting the threat that we face, which in turn depends on what the Soviets do.” The treaty compliance issue will come up again for review in December, when the United States must decide whether to dismantle older missile launchers to accommodate additional cruise-missile-carrying B-52 bombers under a treaty limit of 1,320 on the combined number of multiple-warhead missiles and bombers. Government critics of the 1979 treaty said Mr. Speakes’s language meant that the United States, in effect, had decided to exceed the 1,320 limit in December unless the issue of Soviet compliance is cleared up by then. But Government supporters of the treaty said it was not clear what action Mr. Reagan would take. Officials said the United States had also decided to respond to purported Soviet violations with “proportional responses” that are considered consistent with the treaty. The responses include placing high priority on two Air Force programs involving a small mobile missile known as Midgetman and an advanced cruise missile.
The Reagan Administration, in a new justification for underground nuclear testing, said today that a total test ban might encourage other nations to develop their own atomic weapons. The Administration, in a letter made public today, also said a total ban would force the United States to expand its own nuclear arsenal. For more than 20 years, it has been an assumption of those advocating limits on nuclear arms, that a comprehensive ban on nuclear tests would be a first step in persuading other countries to halt development of nuclear weapons. For instance, a report by American experts on ways of limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons said earlier this month that “a comprehensive test ban treaty could make a significant contribution to containing proliferation.”
Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, said today that a meeting with President Reagan was possible only if it promised “real progress in disarmament.” “Unfortunately, one does not see such a readiness on the part of Washington,” Mr. Gorbachev told workers at the Oct. 7 machine tool plant here. The comment by the Soviet leader, who has been in East Germany for a party congress, was the second in two days about the prospects of a summit meeting. On Sunday, in Potsdam, he said in response to a question about the bombing of Libya, that a meeting was possible if the United States stopped “attempting to poison the international atmosphere.” Today, in East Berlin, Mr. Gorbachev said: “We will not allow ourselves to be caught napping by anyone, and we will not allow anyone to use negotiations as a smokescreen. This also applies to a new Soviet-American summit meeting. It can occur only when the necessary international atmosphere exists.”
Over the last five days the East German Communist Party has broadcast its conviction that it is the most successful, and thus the weightiest, of the Soviet Union’s Eastern European allies. But in the view of several diplomatic and academic analysts, the 11th East German party congress has left a tantalizing question mark over how much leeway Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, intends to allow his powerful ally in pursuing its special relationship with Bonn. By personally attending the congress — after sending fairly low-ranking delegations to similar gatherings in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia — Mr. Gorbachev underlined the importance that East Germany has assumed in the Warsaw Pact, particularly since the Solidarity upheaval in Poland and the unraveling of the Polish economy. The Soviet leader was generous in his praise for the relatively disciplined East German economy, which, without Hungarian-style market-mechanism experiments, has produced the highest productivity levels and perhaps the most plentiful standard of living anywhere in the Communist world.
A United Nations spokesman denied today that Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar had made a statement attributed to him about his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim, who is running for the Austrian presidency. At issue is a quotation in a memorandum drafted by Mr. Waldheim’s son, Gerhard, in defense of his father’s wartime activities. The senior Mr. Waldheim denied charges that he had been involved in war crimes when he served as a German Army lieutenant in the Balkans during campaigns against Yugoslav partisans and the deportation of Greek Jews.
A survivor of a Nazi concentration camp told a court in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, that she saw babies slaughtered and carted off like “logs of wood” but that she knew nothing of defendant Andrija Artukovic’s role as police and justice minister of Croatia. Ruza Rubcic, 74, a retired teacher, was the first witness at the trial of Artukovic, 86, who was. extradited February 12 from the United States and charged with murdering civilians and prisoners of war while serving the Nazi puppet state of Croatia in 1941-45.
The Socialist Spanish Government said today that it would dissolve Parliament and hold general elections five months early. Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez asked King Juan Carlos to sign a decree dissolving the 350-member Parliament on Wednesday. Deputy Prime Minister Alfonso Guerra said the election would be held June 22. The term of the Socialists, who won a landslide victory in 1982, ends in November, and the party’s popularity has been slipping. Political commentators said the government wanted to maintain the momentum of its victory in the referendum March 12 on continued membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They also suggested the Socialists wanted to prevent erosion of their popularity caused by unease over possible Libyan-related terrorism.
The Vatican announced that it will send senior representatives to what it described as the first formal encounter between Roman Catholic Church leaders and Marxist scholars from Communist Bloc countries. A statement said a symposium on “society and ethical values” will be held in Budapest, Hungary, for three days starting October 8. It will be sponsored jointly by the Vatican and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Two terror suspects are brothers, according to the authorities in Bonn. A Jordanian was reported today to have been arrested in connection with the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque, and authorities identified him as a brother of a man seized in London last week on suspicion of trying to blow up an Israeli airliner. According to security sources and Western diplomats, the suspect arrested in West Berlin over the weekend is Hazim Mansour, a brother of Nezar Hindawi, a 35-year-old Jordanian who was seized in a London hotel on Friday in connection with an incident at Heathrow Airport. “Despite the difference in name, he’s definitely the brother,” said a diplomat, who added that Mr. Mansour had operated under a number of aliases. “He has a checkered past and a lot of multiple passports,” the diplomat said.
The Administration has decided against seeking the indictment of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in connection with the 1973 slayings of two American diplomats in the Sudan, the Justice Department disclosed. Attorney General Edwin Meese III told Congress that the United States lacks both the jurisdiction and the evidence to seek the indictment, a spokesman said. In a letter to the Senate, the Justice Department said the law providing for federal criminal liability for the murder of U.S. diplomats abroad was not passed until 1976.
A former Libyan diplomat has been arrested in Rome on suspicion of plotting at least a year ago to kill the United States Ambassador to Italy and the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian Ambassadors, Italian authorities announced today. The Libyan, described as an employee of the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company in Rome, was identified as Arebi Mohammed Fituri, 47 years old. He was taken into custody on Sunday night. Magistrates also issued an arrest warrant against a second Libyan diplomat, Mussbah Mahmud Werfalli, 39, who left Italy last April.
The row of craters extended from a pockmarked elementary school to a demolished house about 500 yards away. But a navy building behind the school stood largely unscathed. The navy building might have been a target of the American warplanes that raided Libya’s second largest city six days ago. Or the jets might have been aiming at two communications towers nearby.
President Reagan said today that before the American bombing attack on Libya last week, some allies proposed an “all out” attack against that nation. At the same time, Administration aides indicated that President Francois Mitterrand suggested stronger United States measures before the air strike was carried out. One Administration official said Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany and Prime Minister Bettino Craxi of Italy also “favored stronger military action” against Libya in private talks with Americans but had told the United States, in the official’s words, that “we can’t come out publicly for you.” Today, the 12 foreign ministers of the European Community agreed to a package of measures designed to limit Libya’s ability to sponsor terrorist attacks.
The 12 foreign ministers of the European Community agreed today to a package of measures aimed at limiting Libya’s ability to sponsor terrorist attacks. The steps included immediate reductions in the numbers of Libyan diplomats stationed in Europe. Overcoming initial objections by Greece, the foreign ministers agreed to move somewhat beyond a set of recommendations made at a similar meeting in The Hague a week ago. At that time, the ministers announced that they would reduce the size of Libyan diplomatic missions abroad, restrict the movements of Libyans in the European countries, and impose stricter visa requirements on Libyan citizens wanting to travel in Europe.
Common Market countries agreed to a package of measures aimed at limiting Libya’s ability to sponsor terrorist attacks. The steps agreed to by the 12 foreign ministers of the European Community included immediate reductions in the number of Libyan diplomats stationed in Europe.
Iran charged that Iraq has again resorted to the use of chemical weapons in their 5 1⁄2-year war, after suffering 4,000 casualties in a major weekend battle in the Iranian-occupied Faw Peninsula. The Iraqis said the report was fabricated. The fighting raged between the oil port of Al Faw and an Iraqi naval base at Umm Qasr, near Kuwait. Last month, a U.N. investigation team visited the area and confirmed that Iraq had deployed chemical weapons. A U.S. report reached similar conclusions.
A Bangladesh ferry sank in a storm in the Dhaleswari River, leaving nearly 500 passengers feared drowned, the authorities reported. They said about half the 1,000 passengers swam ashore.
Ambassador Richard Walker met today with Kim Young Sam, the opposition leader, to discuss the political situation, Mr. Kim’s aides said. A United States Embassy spokesman said, “It is the Ambassador’s position to meet all elements of people in Korean society.” A Kim aide said the opposition leader “met with Walker for two hours over lunch and we can say only that they discussed the current domestic political situation.” The two men have shaken hands a few times at social gatherings, but this was the first time they met to discuss specific issues. Mr. Walker, who has met occasionally with some opposition figures, has been accused of avoiding the two most influential opposition leaders, Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung.
President Reagan participates in a briefing on the upcoming Tokyo Economic Summit.
Japan, rarely bold in its foreign policy, has been thrown into a state of virtual diplomatic paralysis for the last week by the American air strikes against Libya. Unlike every other major United States ally, the Japanese Government has yet to issue any statement clearly stating what it thinks of the American action. Displeased officials also have disputed senior members of the Reagan Administration, who were quoted in Japanese press reports from the United States as saying that Japan supported the raids. Publicly, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and other leaders have said only that they are monitoring the situation and hope that it will not worsen. They have issued no substantive statement indicating support or disapproval of Washington’s position.
Two unidentified gunmen shot dead the newly appointed Mayor of a small southern city today. The slain Mayor, Abdulgafar Lutian, had been named to head the Mindanao town of Alicia by the new government of Corazon C. Aquino but had been unable to physically take office because the municipal hall had been occupied by supporters of his predecessor, Harun Kiram. Mr. Kiram had warned that if he was removed from office, bloodshed could result. The barricade at the mayoral office was one of a number that have been raised around the country as elected officials protest their replacement by “officers in charge” who have been named by the Minister of Local Government, Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. So far, Mr. Pimentel has selected and appointed 55 of 75 provincial governors, 48 of 60 city mayors and close to half the mayors in the nation’s towns. He is also naming hundreds of new vice governors, vice mayors, provincial board members and local councilmen.
Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas accused government troops of killing three children, raping a girl and disfiguring a corpse. In an interview, Rivera y Damas said he does not have many details but that the incidents took place in Chalatenango province, where the army has been conducting a drive against leftist guerrillas. The military press office had no comment on the charges.
A car bomb exploded in Lima, Peru early today outside the residence of the United States Ambassador, blasting a hole in the outer concrete wall and breaking windows. An embassy spokesman said no one was injured. The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a pro-Cuban group, said in a statement that it had planted the bomb in retaliation for the American bombing of Libya last week. The explosion cracked a 15-foot section of the wall around the residence where Ambassador David Jordan lives and punched a hole three feet wide in the thick concrete. It shattered windows and rocked the neighborhood. A police sergeant at the scene said the bombing occurred about 10 minutes after a four-hour curfew ended at 5 AM. He said police officers saw two men running away after the explosion at the rear of the area.
A car packed with explosives blew up in central Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, injuring 50 people, officials said. Two other explosions were reported in Maputo’s suburbs. The Mozambique National Resistance claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying it was part of a new strategy of attacking major cities. The right-wing group, backed by the South African government, is demanding new general elections and power sharing. It has wreaked havoc on the country’s economy, and hundreds have been killed in its 10-year campaign.
Three people were wounded by land-mine explosions today after a weekend of violence in South Africa in which a black policeman and eight other people died, authorities reported. A black taxi driver and his black passenger were seriously wounded when they drove over a land mine near Ermelo in the rural eastern Transvaal Province. A black tractor driver was hurt in another land-mine blast nearby. The police say they suspect the African National Congress guerrilla group of planting the mines. The dead policeman, the 32d black member of the force to be killed since rioting began two years ago, was hit over the head by rioters in Atteridgeville near Pretoria on Sunday. The police said five blacks died in a black area south of Durban when two factions of the Mkhize tribe fought.
South Africa’s two major sporting bodies called for an end to the country’s apartheid policies. The South African Sports Federation and the South African National Olympic Committee also called for accelerated talks to find a constitutional solution giving everyone the right to vote in a system acceptable to all races. In another move toward conciliation by a major South African institution, the conservative, Afrikaner-dominated Dutch Reformed Church held an interracial rally in Pretoria. A speaker urged the 10,000 people assembled “to ask God to help us stop blood and tears.”
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called on the Reagan Administration today to curtail its policy of providing covert aid to a anti-Communist insurgencies around the world. Senator Leahy said support for rebels in Nicaragua, Angola and elsewhere had increased strains between the Central Intelligence Agency and the two Congressional committees that oversee its activities. “The new reliance on covert paramilitary action as a normal instrument of foreign policy, even as a substitute for foreign policy, has strained the current oversight process to the breaking point,” he told the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Under existing procedures, the Congressional committees must be notified of expected intelligence operations and they can object. The Administration can carry out covert actions without the committees’ approval, but it then runs the risk of having financing cut off or restricted by the full Congress.
President Reagan participates in an interview with various representatives from the wire services.
Many banks lowered their prime lending rate by half a point, to 8 ½ percent, its lowest level since 1978. The move quickly followed the Federal Reserve’s decision on Friday to lower the rate it charges on loans to financial institutions to 6 ½ percent from 7 percent. “The Fed ratified the movement in short-term rates,” said Daniel T. Van Dyke, head of the United States forecasting service at the Bank of America. “It gave the banks confidence in the direction of rates.”
The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 today that a person suing a news organization for libel must prove damaging statements are false, at least “on matters of public concern.” The decision held unconstitutional a Pennsylvania statute that presumed damaging statements to be false and put the burden of proof on the news organization to show that the statements were true. The decision also invalidated similar rules in eight other states, including New Jersey. Before today’s decision, at least 12 states, including New York and Connecticut, had already shifted the burden of proof to those suing for libel to show that damaging statements were false. The law in some states has been ambiguous.
The Supreme Court ruled today that in order to obtain an overall settlement in a civil rights case, the lawyers for the plaintiffs may agree to give up any right to collect fees from the defendants. Lawyers who represent plaintiffs in civil rights cases had urged the Court to bar enforcement of such fee waivers, on the ground that they should not be placed in the ethical dilemma of choosing between their own fees and the good of their clients. The 6-to-3 decision upheld an agreement by a lawyer representing mentally and emotionally handicapped children in Idaho in a suit against state officials. The state agreed to improve its education and treatment services, but only on condition that the lawyer and the plaintiffs give up any right to assess the state for the fees. The lawyer later challenged the agreement.
The Republican-controlled Senate, after a month of delay and frustrating talks with the White House and House Democrats, today began debate on a 1987 budget with the leadership unsure of the outcome. “We have to face a budget vote whether we like it or not,” said Senator Pete V. Domenici, the chairman of the Budget Committee. His panel’s proposal would reduce President Reagan’s military budget request by $25 billion in 1987 while raising revenue by $18.7 billion. The majority leader, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, brought that plan to the floor this afternoon after failing to get the White House to consider some compromise and after a meeting with House Democratic leaders failed to prod them into moving on their own budget plan.
The House passed and sent to the Senate a bill creating a federal commission to regulate gambling on Indian reservations and imposing a four-year moratorium on all casino-type gaming and track betting not operating as of January 1. The bill, approved by voice vote, allows games operating as of January 1, 1986, to be “grandfathered in.” Bingo and social games such as poker and Indian traditional games are excluded from the moratorium. During the moratorium, the General Accounting Office would study the costs, benefits and problems of regulating casino-type gambling, horse and dog racing, jai alai and other betting games.
Federal regulations covering the training of truckers hauling hazardous cargoes are vague and need strengthening to reduce the risk of a major disaster, three House subcommittee chairmen said. Reps. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colorado), Cardiss Collins (D-Illinois) and James J. Florio (D-New Jersey) released a study blaming human error for about two-thirds of the transportation accidents involving hazardous substances such as toxic chemicals and radioactive materials.
A federal judge late tonight denied a stay of execution for David Livingston Funchess, a Vietnam veteran who was to die in Florida’s electric chair at 7 AM Tuesday for killing a couple in a tavern in 1974. Lawyers for Mr. Funchess said they would appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta after Judge Howell Melton issued a 23-page decision denying the stay. Veterans’ groups supporting a stay for Mr. Funchess, a 30-year-old former marine who was decorated five times for service in Vietnam, said that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and that the condition led to his crimes. His lawyers argued that at the time of his trial in 1975 the disorder was not completely understood. Mr. Funchess was sentenced to death for the December 1974 murders of Anna Waldrop and Clayton Ragan. Another inmate scheduled to die Tuesday morning, John Earl Bush, was granted a stay of execution Monday by the Florida Supreme Court. Mr. Bush, 27, was convicted of the murder of Julia Slater, the 18-year-old granddaughter of Ralph Evinrude, the outboard motor manufacturer, in 1982.
A lawyer for Elizabeth Bouvia, a quadriplegic who won a court decision to stop doctors from force-feeding her, filed an emergency order today to prevent them from ending her morphine treatment. The lawyer, Richard S. Scott, said doctors at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster were preventing Mrs. Bouvia from receiving the only method “found to be effective in pain control.” Mr. Scott, who is also a physician, added that Mrs. Bouvia was probably addicted to the drug and that detoxification would be too agonizing. The request for the emergency order was filed today in the California District Court of Appeal. It was not known when the request would be heard. Daniel Mikesell, a deputy Los Angeles County attorney, said doctors at the hospital decided to end Mrs. Bouvia’s morphine treatment and switch her to non-narcotic painkillers. He said the decision did not stem from the court decision last week that forced doctors to remove a feeding tube from the patient. Mrs. Bouvia, 28 years old, has had cerebral palsy since birth and also suffers from severe progressive arthritis. In 1983, she was denied court permission to starve herself to death.
Texans celebrated the 150th year of independence from Mexico with the ringing of church bells and simultaneous fireworks displays in 10 cities. The two-day birthday bash was led by the official state observance at San Jacinto Battleground State Park, east of Houston. It was at that site that Texas troops led by Sam Houston defeated Mexican General Lopez de Santa Anna on April 21, 1836, and won Texas’ independence. Just as the Battle of San Jacinto culminated Texas’s fight for independence, today’s festivities were the high point of a yearlong barrage of events marking Texas’s 150th birthday. Governor Mark White said the lessons of the past were particularly important now that the drop in oil prices has sent the state’s economy into a tailspin.
Attendance at schools in Indianola, Mississippi, returned to normal as a boycott ended, but black leaders who want their candidate named school superintendent say the economic squeeze on white merchants in the Delta town will continue. Officials said 2,801 of the district’s 3,007 pupils attended school, the first day classes were held in a week. School board members had closed the system April 14 after a four-day boycott had kept 80% of the district’s pupils out of class. The school system is 93% black and has never had a black superintendent.
Banks are charging the nation’s 71.6 million credit card holders an average of 19.37% interest, more than twice what the institutions pay for the money, Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said. Credit card interest rates could have been more than four points lower if banks made the same profit on the cards that they earned on other types of loans, Schumer said. Kirk Willison, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, said consumers should think of the credit card rate as a service charge rather than an interest charge.
A key program to reserve contracts for businesses owned by minority group members and women has been highly effective, according to an advisory panel of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The study, on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, contradicts a report drafted by the staff of the commission, which said such programs were ineffective.
An acne skin cream prescribed for teen-agers may spur cell growth in aged skin, a University of Pennsylvania researcher said at a meeting at the Boston University Medical Center. Dr. Albert Kligman, a professor of dermatology. said the skin of 28 elderly women in a Pennsylvania nursing home became thicker and more plastic after topical applications of cream containing the drug retinoic acid. The acid, a derivative of vitamin A, has been used in the treatment of acne for the past 15 years.
Strong winds and 12-foot seas drove five of six salvage ships to safety in Port Canaveral, Florida, curtailing underwater recovery of more wreckage from the space shuttle Challenger. The Stena Workhorse, a platform ship operating an unmanned sub, remained on the job with its main objective being the search for the segment below the bottom joint of the right booster. Investigators believe leakage of explosive gases and flame from that joint set off a deadly chain reaction that destroyed the shuttle and killed its crew members January 28.
Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone’s vault on live TV and finds nothing, except great ratings for his spectacle. All-in-all, the much-touted mystery of Al Capone’s vault underneath the old Lexington Hotel was a bust. But Old Scarface Al would probably have enjoyed it just the same, as nearly 100 reporters, camera crews and photographers gathered to watch the opening of a sealed area that had been discovered during renovation of the hotel, once Capone’s headquarters. It brought to mind something Capone himself once said: “It’s really a shame to disabuse the public, to destroy one of their most popular myths. But honestly, there is not, nor has there ever been, what might be called a Capone gang.”
Bob Hering sets Formula One power boat record (165.338 mph, Arizona).
Rob de Castella won the Boston Marathon and Ingrid Kristiansen won the women’s division. The time for de Castella, of Australia, for the distance of 26 miles 385 yards was 2 hours 7 minutes 51 seconds and that for Mrs. Kristiansen, of Norway, was 2 hours 24 minutes 55 seconds.
Major League Baseball:
The Braves beat the Houston Astros, 8–2, as Glenn Hubbard hit a three-run homer and Bob Horner added a two-run home run, backing Joe Johnson’s eight-hit pitching for Atlanta. Johnson (2–0) struck out three and walked two in his first complete game. The right-hander was making his second start against the Astros this year. Nolan Ryan (2–2) took the loss.
The Tigers edged the Boston Red Sox, 5–4. With two out in the seventh inning and Detroit nursing a 4–3 lead, Darnell Coles drilled a 3–2 pitch from Al Nipper for his first home run of the season, the decisive run as the Tigers snapped Boston’s four-game winning streak. Coles’s two-out home run, the third of his career and the second in two years in Boston, made a loser of Nipper (1–2).
The Oakland A’s downed the California Angels, 6–2. Jose Canseco hit two homers and drove in four runs for Oakland, and Joaquin Andujar pitched three-hit ball over six innings for his first American League victory. Andujar (1–1) departed with a stiff shoulder after the sixth inning. Steve Ontiveros finished, allowing four hits for his first save. Canseco, the rookie outfielder, hit a homer in the third to stretch Oakland’s lead to 2–0, then hit a 450-foot opposite-field drive in the seventh, his fourth homer of the season.
The Cleveland Indians’ Tom Candiotti pitched a three-hitter, striking out a career-high 10 batters, to shut out the Baltimore Orioles, 7–0. Andy Allanson went 4 for 4 and knocked in three runs. Candiotti (1–1), a 28-year-old who developed a knuckleball in the minor leagues last season, walked four and allowed only a fourth-inning single by Fred Lynn, a fifth-inning single by Floyd Rayford and a ninth-inning single by Eddie Murray. The right-hander played in the minors in 1985 after spending parts of the previous two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. He had pitched one shutout for Milwaukee in 1983. Rayford, who was playing in his first game of the season after being sidelined by a bone chip in his left thumb, committed four errors to tie an American League record for third basemen shared by 19 others.
It had been months since Ed Whitson’s performance in a game left him believing that he may yet return home and pitch in triumph. He stood near his locker tonight and spoke of confidence and hope: The Yankees had beaten the Kansas City Royals, 8–4, and Whitson had won the game. It was no small achievement. There had been boos in the Bronx, then the decision by Manager Lou Piniella to restrict Whitson’s starting assignments to the road. Tonight’s start was his first since April 9, the second game of the season. The right-hander gave up two runs in the first inning this evening, then retired 16 of the next 18 batters. He left with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh. Rod Scurry, who replaced him, ended the threat. There were other notable developments: Don Mattingly had three doubles, his first extra-base hits of the season, and drove in five runs, and Brian Fisher closed out the victory by retiring all five batters he faced.
The Mets won their fourth straight game last night when they rallied three times at Shea Stadium to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6–5, and they did it in this precise sequence: They scored two runs for a tie in the third inning, two for a tie in the eighth and two for a victory in the ninth. These were not the same Pirates who won 57 games and lost 104 last season for the poorest record in the major leagues. These were the new Pirates: new ownership, new manager, new players and new tricks — like a squeeze bunt by Joe Orsulak in the ninth inning that looked like the ultimate tie-breaker on a night of tie-breakers. But every time the Pirates took the lead, the Mets came back. In the third inning, the Mets were trailing by 2–0, but Gary Carter tied the score by hitting a home run. In the eighth, they were losing by 4–2 when Ray Knight hit a home run, his third in six games. And in the ninth, they were losing again, 5–4, when Tim Teufel doubled to tie the game and Carter singled to win it.
The Twins’ Frank Viola pitched a four-hitter, and Tom Brunansky had a pair of run-scoring singles to lead Minnesota to a 5–2 win over the Seattle Mariners, snapping a three-game losing streak. Viola (3–1) walked five and struck out nine. He was helped by four Minnesota double plays. Brunansky singled home Randy Bush in the first and drove in Kirby Puckett in the seventh, giving the Twins a 5–2 lead.
The San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5–1. Chili Davis drove in San Francisco’s first three runs with a pair of homers as the Giants stretched their winning streak to five games. Davis’s homers off Rick Honeycutt (0–2) gave him three in two games. He was batting .151 with no extra-base hits before Sunday’s victory over San Diego. Roger Mason (1–1) pitched a three-hitter as the Giants (9–4) moved into first place in the National League West, one-half game ahead of Houston. They stand five games over .500 for the first time since June 4, 1983. Last year, the team won only seven games in April and finished last with a 62–100 record.
Cliff Johnson’s three-run double in the eighth inning gave the Toronto Blue Jays a 7–6 victory over the Texas Rangers tonight. Lloyd Moseby started the winning rally with a single, and one out later Rance Mulliniks singled to center, moving Moseby to third. With two outs, George Bell hit a run-scoring single that knocked the rookie starter Ed Correa out and brought on the reliever Greg Harris (2–2). Harris got Jessie Barfield to hit a routine grounder to shortstop, but Curtis Wilkerson bobbled the ball for an error, loading the bases. Johnson then hit an opposite-field double to score Mulliniks, the pinch-runner Kelly Gruber and Barfield.
The scheduled game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cubs at Chicago was postponed due to snow. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on June 13.
Houston Astros 2, Atlanta Braves 8
Detroit Tigers 5, Boston Red Sox 4
Oakland Athletics 6, California Angels 2
Baltimore Orioles 0, Cleveland Indians 7
New York Yankees 8, Kansas City Royals 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 5, New York Mets 6
Minnesota Twins 5, Seattle Mariners 2
Los Angeles Dodgers 1, San Francisco Giants 5
Texas Rangers 6, Toronto Blue Jays 7
Reacting to cuts in the discount rate and prime lending rates at banks, Wall Street sent stock prices to record levels yesterday even though trading volume tapered off. The Dow Jones industrial average, which fell 14.63 points on Friday as investors suddenly became skeptical that interest rates would come down, retraced its steps by advancing 15.50 points yesterday, closing at 1,855.90. That surpassed the record 1,855.03 it reached last Thursday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1855.9 (+15.5)
Born:
Alexander Edler, Swedish National Team and NHL defenseman (Olympics, silver medal, 2014; NHL All-Star, 2012; Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings), in Östersund, Sweden.
Dan Skuta, NFL linebacker (Cincinnati Bengals, San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars), in Burton, Michigan.
History Diaries 