The nuclear power plant that exploded in the Soviet Union last month had more safety features and was closer to American reactor designs than Western experts had assumed in the days soon after the accident, nuclear experts say. Although it probably would not have met United States safety standards, the experts say, the Chernobyl plant incorporated enough of the advanced safety features used in American reactors to raise questions among some experts about the effectiveness of nuclear plant designs in this country. The conclusions are based on technical drawings and other information obtained through Government and international scientific sources by American nuclear experts in recent days. The experts say it has become clear that a large structure of heavy steel and concrete surrounded the No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl, and that at least some of this containment structure was designed to withstand pressures similar to those in many American reactors. The roof of the Chernobyl plant was blown off by a hydrogen explosion April 26, allowing radiation to spread over the Ukraine, Eastern Europe and parts of Scandinavia.
In the three weeks since an explosion destroyed reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Soviet Union has mobilized vast resources of men and machinery in a huge operation to contain and overcome the disaster. As Soviet press coverage of the accident has expanded, so have details of an operation involving some of the country’s best scientists, scores of ministries and factories, hundreds of workers and soldiers, tons of supplies and fleets of helicopters, trucks and heavy equipment. The operation, coordinated at Politburo level in Moscow and at a special headquarters set up in the local party headquarters in the city of Chernobyl, 11 miles from the power plant, has been aimed simultaneously at “entombing” the damaged reactor in sand, lead and concrete, decontaminating the area and preventing any further spread of radioactive dust. Factories and specialists from across the Soviet Union have been enlisted for the effort. Papers have given instructions to people who want to volunteer their services, and a special account has been opened at savings banks across the country for people to make donations for the operation.
The Federal Government is now suggesting only a few restrictions on European travel in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. No current hazards to health have been detected in the United States, American officials said last week. A State Department advisory suggests no travel now to Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, or the region within 100 miles of the Chernobyl reactor.
Some of the people evacuated from the danger zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have been temporarily resettled next to another Ukrainian nuclear station still under construction, a Moscow paper has disclosed. The paper, Moskovskaya Pravda, said in Tuesday’s issue, just received in the West, that 144 newly completed apartments in the settlement of Neteshin, next to the Khmelnitsky station, had been placed at the disposal of the evacuees.
The Reagan Administration may reconsider its commitment to abide strictly by the terms of the 1972 antiballistic missile treaty if Congress does not support President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, according to a report by the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The warning comes when the Administration has tried to protect the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as “Star Wars,” from Congressional budget cuts. The report to Congress states that the Administration’s current research on antimissile defenses is consistent with a strict interpretation of the ABM treaty and will remain so “as long as the program receives the support needed to implement its plan.” The arms control agency suggested that if adequate support is not forthcoming, it may have to “restructure” the “Star Wars” programs and adopt a looser interpretation of the treaty’s provisions. The report is an annual assessment to Congress on the “arms control impact” of U.S. military programs.
The report comes amid continuing debate within the Administration and among experts outside government over how the antiballistic missile treaty should be interpreted. The treaty sharply restricts research on antimissile technology and the deployment of antimissile systems. Last year, some senior Administration officials declared they had a new interpretation of the treaty that allowed the testing and development of some new types of antimissile systems included in the “Star Wars” concept, such as lasers. That interpretation was publicly questioned by some former Government officials who negotiated the treaty and by the United States’ European allies. Some Administration experts also privately questioned this interpretation. In the face of these criticisms, the Administration stated that it would restrict itself to the original, stricter version of the treaty, even though it maintained that a broader interpretation was legally justified.
The police at English Channel ports mounted a huge security and surveillance operation today after getting reports of a terrorist plot to blow up a passenger ferry as it made the trip between Britain and the Continent. Armed police reinforcements with dogs and equipment to detect explosives have been sent to ferry and Hovercraft ports on Britain’s southeastern coast in what a spokesman called a “substantial increase” in security measures that began Saturday. The operation will continue for several days, according to the police. “It’s an all-ports activity,” said Ken Tappenden, superintendent inspector at Kent County police headquarters, where a control room has been set up to run the security operation.
Anti-nuclear demonstrations at the site of a proposed West German nuclear reprocessing plant in the Bavarian town of Wackersdorf erupted in clashes that injured 132 policemen, 25 of them seriously, a police spokesman said. Protesters hurled stones, ball bearings and Molotov cocktails at police who responded with water cannon using a fluid laced with CS riot gas. Witnesses said several demonstrators were hurt. Meanwhile, the ecologist Greens party, meeting in Hanover, adopted an election plank calling for West Germany’s immediate withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The United States and Turkey are locked in what a senior Turkish official called a “dialogue of the deaf” that is blocking renewal of an expired five-year agreement under which the United States maintains a significant military and intelligence presence in this country. In a visit in March, Secretary of State George P. Shultz had a public argument with a luncheon group of Turkish textile exporters that deepened a Turkish sense of stalemate instead of advancing the negotiations, as both sides had hoped. Disputes between the United States and Turkey, unlike similar disputes Washington has had with Greece, are conducted with restraint and an absence of inflammatory language. And there has so far been no Turkish threat to close the bases on which American forces operate under the umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But a note of exasperation is evident in conversations with Turish officials.
A 1948 United Nations War Crimes Commission report says Kurt Waldheim was responsible for the deaths of hostages held by the Nazis in World War II, according to an article in the current issue of Newsweek magazine. The magazine article cautioned that the report was not a finding of guilt, but said the commission did say it was “satisfied that there is, or will be at the time of trial, sufficient evidence to justify prosecution.”
Complex, long-term changes in the Syrian-Israeli military balance of power have created a situation in which a miscalculation by either side could ignite an armed conflict, according to Israeli, Arab and Western military experts. These changes include a marked strengthening of the Syrian Army since 1982 to a point where its leaders may now believe it can challenge Israel without another Arab partner, according to a number of senior Israeli military sources, Arab analysts in London and Beirut and Western experts on military affairs. In addition, they cite these developments:
— Syrian attempts to take advantage of the Israeli public’s reluctance to go to war at this time.
— Some recent Israeli provocations of Damascus, such as the downing of two Syrian MIG-23’s in Syrian airspace.
— Syrian nervousness about the possibility of a joint American-Israeli retaliation for purported Syrian involvement in international terrorism.
— Economic problems in both Syria and Israel that have left each with lighter fingers on their triggers since neither can afford — literally — to be caught off guard.
“Add them all together and there is no question that the threat of war between Israel and Syria is higher today than at any time since 1982,” said Zeev Schiff, one of Israel’s leading military writers. “But that doesn’t mean something is going to happen tomorrow, or even in six months. My feeling is that we can still control the situation.” The experts said the danger, which has been rising steadily over the last two months, does not derive from any recent movements of men or armor on the ground, and no evidence of such movements could be seen on a recent tour of the Golan Heights. Clearly, both sides see constraints and opportunities in the present environment, Mr. Schiff said. For now it appears that the constraints, whether on Syria or Israel, outweigh any opportunities to be derived from starting a conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said he sees no immediate danger of war between his country and Syria, but he insisted that the Arab nation must answer questions about “directly supporting acts of terror.” Interviewed on CBS-TV’s Face the Nation,” he reiterated Israel’s charge that Syria played a role in the failed attempt to place a bomb aboard an El Al jetliner April 17 in London and said he “would be very much surprised” if it was done without the knowledge of Syrian President Hafez Assad. Assad has denied any involvement.
Libya’s chief diplomatic representative in Madrid organized and financed an anti-Zionist terror group identified as “The Call of Jesus Christ” that planned attacks against Jewish and U.S. interests in Spain and Portugal, the daily El Pais reported. It said the allegations against Ahmed Mohammed Nakaa, Libyan charge d’affaires, were made by Faisal Hanna Joudi, a member of the group arrested this month with nine others. Nakaa denied the charges, claiming that the United States was behind them.
Clashes between supporters of Afghanistan’s new Communist Party leader, Najibullah, and his predecessor, Babrak Karmal, have been reported from several parts of the country, rebel sources in New Delhi said. The most serious confrontation was said to have taken place in the southern city of Kandahar, where rival factions of the Afghan army clashed using rocket launchers. Soviet helicopters reportedly rocketed a military barracks at Shahr-e-Jadid, three miles east of the city, to quell the fighting.
About 2,000 youths battled riot police in the South Korean city of Kwangju on the sixth anniversary of a student uprising there that turned into a bloody revolt against martial law. Witnesses said the crowd, prevented by ranks of police from marching on a local government office, headed for a Christian social center. Officers fired tear gas to stop them, and the demonstrators retaliated with rocks. At one point, a youth leader jumped on a memorial service podium and shouted, “Let’s execute (President) Chun Doo Hwan! Let’s put an end to U.S. and Japanese influences supporting Chun!”
Aviation officials from China and Taiwan met for the second day in Hong Kong to negotiate the return of a Nationalist cargo jumbo jet whose pilot defected to the mainland on May 3. However, the two sides continued at loggerheads on the transfer of crew and plane and scheduled further talks today.
Soldiers guarding the Philippine presidential palace were relieved of duty after a burglary in the bedrooms of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife, Imelda, the second break-in since President Corazon Aquino came to power in February. There have been reports that Marcos supporters are looking for documents and Imelda Marcos’ “little black diary,” allegedly left behind when the Marcoses fled to Hawaii.
When Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney returned late last week from a two-week tour of Asia, he found a lot more to worry his Conservative Government than its links to the investigations of the Washington lobbyist Michael K. Deaver. Within the last week, a senior minister resigned amid charges of impropriety, a Member of Parliament deserted the Conservative backbenches to become an independent and a third M.P. was charged by the police with 50 counts of influence peddling. The Deaver issue never arose when Mr. Mulroney appeared in the House of Commons on Friday to field questions from the political opposition abouts his other problems. But from the questions, it seemed that the Prime Minister’s efforts to give Canada a higher diplomatic and economic profile abroad had been undercut once again by scandal or political blunders at home.
Former President Joaquin Balaguer widened his lead to 35,000 votes in the official count in the Dominican presidential election today, but his closest rival, Jacobo Majluta Azar, declared himself the winner and called for a recount. The leaders of the armed forces moved quickly to declare full confidence in the honesty of the electoral process. Mr. Majluta, the 51-year-old President of the Senate, said in a press conference that his computers showed him winning the election, adding, “the triumph is ours and nobody is going to take it away from us.”
Nicaraguan anti-government rebels ambushed a vehicle carrying 12 West German construction workers Saturday, wounding one and capturing eight, a Defense Ministry representative said today. The attack occurred before dawn near Nueva Guinea in Zelaya Province, about 120 miles southeast of Managua, the representative, Lieutenant June Mulligan, said.
The recent arrests and convictions in Kenya of several people on sedition charges -the first major political crackdown since a failed coup in 1982 -has cast new light on the political intrigues and insecurities bubbling beneath this East African country. At least nine people, including a university lecturer and two senior civil servants, have been given jail terms ranging from 15 months to five years for their reported involvement in a clandestine socialist organization called Mwakenya. In addition, at least a score of people have been detained, among them a prominent Kenyan author and a reporter for the state-owned news agency. The authorities said some of the detentions were in connection with the clandestine circulation of seditious pamphlets that undermined “the root of national stability and peace.” Mwakenya was accused of seeking to take over the Government by unlawful means.
The South African police said today that they had uncovered the biggest cache of arms ever found in the country’s 25-year-old war between the white Government and black nationalist guerrillas. Violence and protest erupted in other parts of South Africa in what seemed to be a deepening of the conflict between radical and conservative blacks. In Alexandra township north of Johannesburg, by contrast, about 250 liberal whites laid flowers at the graves of eight blacks killed in township protests, saying their wreaths represented “a symbol of our shared future together.” At Crossroads squatter camp outside Cape Town, scores of homes were burned in what residents said were clashes between pro-Government vigilantes and radical anti-apartheid activists. In the so-called Kwandebele tribal homeland north of Pretoria, the police said, at least two people died in a seemingly growing revolt against the white authorities’ plans to declare the poverty-stricken area an independent state next December. Under the policies of apartheid, 10 so-called homelands have been created and four of them have accepted nominal independence from Pretoria — a status recognized by no one but their creators. Kwandebele, which is supposedly for people of Ndebele ethnic origin, is due to take this form of independence in December.
President Reagan enjoys lunch on the Truman balcony with the First Lady and their daughter Maureen Reagan Revell.
President Reagan spends much of the morning catching up on homework for the following day.
Doctors amputated the lower legs of one of two teen-agers who survived a blizzard on Oregon’s Mt. Hood that killed nine others. Giles Thompson, 16, returned after the one-hour surgery to the coronary-care unit at a Portand hospital and showed signs of improvement. “It was a difficult decision to make but it was either amputation or his life,” said Dr. Leo Marx. “His arms and legs look good at this time and his family is with him,” said hospital spokeswoman Barbara Hood. Meanwhile, the condition of the only other survivor, Brinton Clark, 16, of Portland, continued to show improvement.
A bomb that exploded as a heavily armed couple held 167 children and adults hostage in an elementary school in Cokeville, Wyoming, was only partially detonated, officials said. “There were seven blasting caps that didn’t go off,” said Cokeville Elementary School Principal Max Excell, who acted as an intermediary between the authorities and David and Doris Young during the standoff on Friday. The Youngs died, and 79 people were injured. “They (the caps) were attached to powder that would have exploded like a grain elevator,” said Excell, speaking to the congregation at the Cokeville Mormon meeting house.
What was to have been the country’s most comprehensive study of any toxic effects of the herbicide Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans has stalled six years after it was authorized, and may be abandoned, because of disputes over how to conduct the work. The study was mandated by Congress in 1979 as part of a $70 million effort to settle once and for all the conflicting allegations of poisonings of American soldiers in Vietnam from the tons of herbicide that was sprayed during the war to remove the jungle canopy that concealed enemy troop movements from the air. But, partly because researchers now believe that fewer men had been exposed to the herbicide and its toxic component dioxin than they originally thought, and partly because of sometimes bitter bureaucratic disagreements over responsibilities and procedures within government, the survey has now been suspended while Federal agencies decide what to do. The study, to be conducted by the Federal Centers for Disease Control, aims to compare the health histories of 18,000 veterans. But Congress and Federal agencies disagree over how to select the men for the study and how to classify their likelihood of exposure to Agent Orange.
A nostalgic excursion for 1,000 employees, families and guests of the Norfolk Southern Corporation and its subsidiary, Norfolk & Western Railway, ended in chaos this afternoon when 13 cars of a 23-car train derailed. More than 160 people were hurt, four critically. The derailment occurred at 2:12 P.M. in a desolate area of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, two-tenths of a mile from the Chesapeake city line in the city of Suffolk. The remoteness of the area made it difficult for rescue squads to reach the injured. “It’s eight miles down a railroad track, and no roads to the site,” said Sgt. William Harrison of the Chesepeake Police. Some victims remained trapped in debris for 90 minutes.
The union for striking TWA flight attendants said that workers would unconditionally return to work even if members reject the company’s latest contract offer in the 9-week-old walkout. “If the membership rejects the (TWA) offer, our offer of unconditional return remains and we will continue our attempts to settle our contractual dispute through any economic and lawful means except for the withdrawal of our services,” said Karen Lantz, a vice president of the 5,700-member International Federation of Flight Attendants. Union President Vicki Frankovich said in a taped telephone message to the membership that the time and place of Wednesday’s meeting to consider the TWA offer would be announced later. The two sides have not met for contract negotiations since April 24. TWA has hired more than 2,200 replacements and about 1,000 strikers have crossed the picket lines, TWA representative Sally McElwreath said.
A suspect sought in the slayings Saturday of five people at a Colorado Springs bar and a neighboring convenience store committed suicide today after the police called his home and told him to surrender, officials said. The suspect, Gilbert Eugenio Archibeque, 29 years old, was named in an arrest warrant alleging five counts of first-degree murder. He was tracked to his apartment after a neighbor recognized him from a photograph taken by a surveillance camera at the store. Patrolman Ralph Sanchez said that when Mr. Archibeque was told to surrender, he replied, “O.K.,” then shot himself in the head with a .357-caliber revolver.
The National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that it was investigating the report of a near-collision of two airliners taking off on intersecting runways in Chicago Saturday. The pilot of one plane, a USAir DC-9, pulled his craft off the ground prematurely, at slower than normal takeoff speed, to avoid hitting the other plane, an American Airlines Boeing 727, Government and airlines spokesmen said. It was not immediately clear how high the DC-9 was when it crossed the path of the 727, which was apparently still on the ground.
Women politicians are poised to make significant gains this year in races for governor, the Senate and other statewide offices, political analysts. Voters in Nebraska primaries set the stage for a historic election by nominating women as gubernatorial candidates in both major parties. In tomorrow’s primary in Oregon, former Secretary of State Norma Paulus is expected to win handily the Republican nomination for governor. The National Women’s Political Caucus estimated recently that nearly 20 women were running for governor this year.
11 million hands will link from the Battery in New York City to Long Beach Pier in California on May 25 to support a relief program for hungry and homeless Americans headed by a Los Angeles promoter, Len Kragen. Mr. Kragen, who sponsored an African famine relief program, hopes with the help of 5.5 million Americans to raise at least $50 million.
Most Americans are well aware of how to stay in good health, but instead they smoke, drink, ignore seat belts and do not use smoke detectors, a federal survey showed. Oddly enough, however, at least one official saw the report of the Health and Human Services Department as encouraging. Patricia Golden said: “I would think that we are highly encouraged by the number of people that know (about good health practices) and we will begin to see the payoff of that knowledge as the years go by.”
Harold E. Stassen, the former Minnesota governor who ran for President seven times, won his party’s overwhelming vote of confidence for his congressional candidacy. At the Independent-Republican Party’s 4th District convention in St. Paul, the 79-year-old Stassen won support on the first ballot. Stassen will challenge Democrat Rep. Bruce F. Vento, a five-term incumbent, in the November 4 election. The endorsement marked the first time Stassen has won the party’s backing since he was elected to his third term as Minnesota governor in 1942.
Through most of the 1970’s, the only new business that came to Camden County, Georgia was the traffic off Interstate 95. There was shrimping and a paper mill, but like the local school enrollment, the economy was mostly on the decline. Then the Navy announced plans to turn a 25-square-mile expanse of slash pine and saw grass marshland into the East Coast base for the Navy’s new Trident submarine. By 1998, the $1.6 billion base, the largest peacetime construction project in Navy history, will swell the county’s population to nearly 40,000 residents, more than three times its current size. The King’s Bay submarine base is the largest of several military projects that will bring jobs, economic benefits and growth to communities around the nation, as the Reagan Administration continues a military buildup.
Two tornadoes that buzzed Jackson, Alabama, turned the sky pink and then disappeared without touching down. Authorities in Texas, meanwhile, called off a search on a lake about 80 miles north of Houston and said they believed that 26 people reported missing in a sudden storm were out of danger. The twisters were part of a slow-moving storm system that pushed high winds into southeast Texas and capsized boats during a bass-fishing tournament on Lake Livingston, where at least two people drowned.
Multimillionaire computer designer Steve Wozniak finally got his college degree. Wozniak, who dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley, 13 years ago to co-found Apple Computer, received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and engineering sciences at — and delivered the commencement address for — Berkeley’s College of Engineering. In his speech, Wozniak said he has discovered that “issues are. . . more complex . . . the answers not so obvious” than they had seemed before his educational hiatus. Wozniak, 35, left Apple in a management dispute, and re-enrolled at Berkeley under an assumed name, he said, “to avoid scaring the students and professors.”
Two men were killed and a woman was critically injured late Saturday when a small plane attempting to take off from an Atlantic City airfield crashed through a chain-link fence, skidded onto a highway and struck several cars as it broke apart and burst into flames. The pilot and co-pilot of the chartered twin-engine Cessna, which was carrying two people home from a casino junket, escaped serious injury. But one passenger, a Long Island man, was killed, and his wife suffered head injuries and burns in the crash at Bader Field about 11:30 P.M. On the highway off the end of the runway, a 25-year-old off-duty police officer, alone in his car at a stoplight, was killed in a fiery explosion when one of the plane’s engines fell off, hurtled across a half-dozen traffic lanes and plowed into his automobile. “The pilot tried to take off, but he never got off the ground,” said Detective Sgt. Steve Mangam of the Atlantic City police. “He tried to abort the flight, but he was going 125 miles an hour and he couldn’t stop.
“Singin’ in the Rain” closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 367 performances.
The Celtics won 111–98 and swept the Bucks in the Eastern Conference final and advanced into the NBA championship round a third straight year. The Celtics, 11–1 in the playoffs, will await the outcome of the Western Conference final in which the Houston Rockets lead the Los Angeles Lakers, the defending champions, by a 3–1 margin. Larry Bird, who finished with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, got 17 of his points in the final quarter. Fourteen of those came after Coach K. C. Jones shifted him into the backcourt after Dennis Johnson had fouled out of the game with 4:57 remaining and Boston ahead, 95–92. For the rest of the game, the Celtics played with a front line of Bill Walton, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale with Ainge as the ball-handler.
The sign read: “A-Keem, A-Saw, A-Conquered” and that’s exactly what Houston’s Akeem Olajuwon did to the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday. Fulfilling the exhortation on the fan’s banner, Olajuwon scored 35 points in a ruggedly played game, leading the Rockets to a 105–95 victory and placing the defending NBA champions within one game of elimination from the playoffs. The Rockets lead the best-of-seven series 3–1 and a loss by the Lakers in Los Angeles on Wednesday would sent Houston into the NBA championship finals against the Boston Celtics.
Major League Baseball:
The Atlanta Braves defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 5–2. Bob Horner hit two home runs for the 25th time in his career, backing the combined six-hit pitching of Zane Smith and Paul Assenmacher to lead Atlanta. Smith (4–5) allowed six hits over seven innings. Assenmacher pitched two innings of hitless relief to pick up his third save. John Tudor (3–3) was the loser. Atlanta took a 2–0 lead in the fifth inning. With one out, Omar Moreno tripled to left field. One out later, Horner drilled a 2–1 pitch over the center-field fence for his first home run of the game. Atlanta added three runs in the seventh to take a 5–2 lead. With one out, Billy Sample singled to center field and stole second. One out later, Murphy singled to right to score Sample and chase Tudor. Horner hit the first pitch from the reliever Todd Worrell over the left-field fence for his seventh home run of the year. Horner became only the 43rd player in major-league history to have two or more home runs in a game at least 25 times.
The Baltimore Orioles smashed the Oakland A’s, 12–4. Eddie Murray drove in seven runs, four with his 14th career grand slam, as Baltimore trounced Oakland and won for the eighth time in nine games. Rich Bordi (2–0) was the winner. Chris Codiroli (3–4) was the loser. Murray, who has knocked in 12 runs in his last six games, connected off Jose Rijo to cap a six-run Baltimore outburst in the seventh inning. Larry Sheets, with 16 runs batted in in his last 17 games, drove in two runs with a fifth-inning double that put Baltimore ahead for good, 5–4.
A throwing error by George Wright allowed Steve Lyons and Marty Barrett to score in the bottom of the 10th inning today, giving the Boston Red Sox a 5–4 victory over the Texas Rangers. The Red Sox lost Al Nipper, a right-handed pitcher, in the sixth inning when he suffered a four-inch gash to a major muscle in his right knee when he tagged out Larry Parrish in a play at the plate. Nipper underwent a 75-minute operation tonight at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester and was reported to be in stable condition. He was expected to be out for six weeks. Bob Stanley (2–1) pitched one-third of an inning for the victory. Texas had taken leads in the ninth and 10th innings. Greg Harris (2–6) was the loser. With the Red Sox trailing, 4–3, in the bottom of the 10th, Lyons singled with one out and advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Harris. Barrett followed with a single to right field. Wright, who attempted a diving catch, missed the ball, then threw it to the third baseman Steve Buechele, who allowed the ball to get by him. Both runners scored.
The White Sox downed the Royals, 5–1. Carlton Fisk hit a three-run homer and Floyd Bannister scattered seven hits in seven innings to give Chicago its fifth straight victory. Bannister (2–4) struck out six and walked two. Gene Nelson pitched the last two innings. Bret Saberhagen (2–4) took the loss. Chicago got four runs in the third inning to take a 4–1 lead, three of them on Fisk’s home run.
Dave Parker hit a three-run homer to help Tom Browning, who won 20 games last year, get his first victory of the season, as Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh, 7–3. Browning (1–4) scattered six hits over six innings for his first victory since September 28. He walked four and struck out five, pitching out of bases-loaded threats without harm in the first and third innings by retiring Tony Pena both times. Ron Robinson finished up for his second save, giving up Jim Morrison’s seventh home run of the season leading off the eighth inning. Parker’s seventh homer highlighted a ragged first inning in which the starter Mike Bielecki and the reliever Larry McWilliams walked five.
Davey Lopes hit a two-run double to cap a four-run second inning to lead Chicago past Bob Knepper and the Astros, 5–2. Knepper (7–2), who was trying to become the first eight-game winner in the major leagues, hurt himself with wildness in the second inning. Ron Cey drew a leadoff walk and Gary Matthews followed with an infield hit. Jody Davis advanced the runners with a sacrifice and Shawon Dunston was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Knepper then hit Scott Sanderson, a pitcher, in the knee with a pitch, forcing home a run. After Bob Dernier squeezed home Matthews, Lopes doubled to center for a 4–0 lead. Guy Hoffman (1–1) won his first career National League game, working five and one-third innings in relief of Sanderson, who was forced to leave the game after being hit by Knepper’s pitch.
The Mets salvaged the final game of their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers today, 8–4, with star-quality help from a couple of unlikely sources: George Foster, who knocked in four runs with two home runs, and Randy Niemann, who pitched nearly four innings of scoreless relief to protect the lead Foster had supplied. For both players, it was a case of good times following hard times. Foster, who is 37 years old and earns $2 million a year, is often resented and often booed in New York because the home runs are fewer now. In Saturday’s game, he struck out three times, leaving four men on base. And Niemann, who is 30 and scrounging for work, had not won a game in the big leagues in almost four years. The win keeps the Mets 3 games ahead of Montreal.
The Twins downed the Brewers, 5–3. Kirby Puckett delivered a single and a two-run double to back the four-hit pitching of Bert Blyleven as Minnesota ended a seven-game losing streak. The victory was Minnesota’s first in nine games at Milwaukee County Stadium since August 22, 1984. Blyleven (4–3) did not walk a batter and struck out seven in pitching his third complete game. Minnesota chased Tim Leary (3–4), the Milwaukee starter, with a four-run sixth inning.
The Yankees exploded once more, collecting a season-high 16 hits and crushing the Seattle Mariners, 11–3, before 40,182 at the Stadium. In winning the last two games of the series, they totaled 22 runs and 29 hits, reaching double figures in runs on consecutive days for the first time since September 1984. The two-game outburst came after the Yankees had scored just six runs in a three-game losing streak. But then came some weekend changes: the pitching coach, Sammy Ellis, was dismissed, and the hitting coach, Roy White, was moved from the first-base coaching box to a spot next to Piniella in the dugout. White’s presence has already had a contributing effect in some ways. Bobby Meacham had three hits, scored two runs and drove in two others, then said that White had been offering some helpful advice in the dugout. “Roy has always talked to me, even when he was coaching first,” Meacham said. “But today and yesterday, he was a little more help because he was there each and every at-bat, reminding me of certain things — do the same things when I’m hitting the ball good, watch for flaws when I’m not. It’s a slight change, but it’s a good change.”
Hubie Brooks, the National League home run leader, highlighted a seven-run first inning with a grand slam today, leading the Montreal Expos to an 8–3 victory over the San Diego Padres. Tim Raines tied a league record in the inning by hitting two doubles, equaling a mark set by several players. Floyd Youmans (3–3) pitched the first seven innings for Montreal, giving up six hits and two runs. Mark Thurmond (2–3), the San Diego starter, failed to retire any of the six batters he faced. The home run by Brooks, his 10th of the season and his third career grand slam, came after Raines opened with a double, Mitch Webster singled and Andre Dawson walked to load the bases. Tim Wallach and Andres Galarraga followed with singles to chase Thurmond. Tim Stoddard took over and gave up a two-run double to Vance Law, who later scored when Mike Fitzgerald singled for the final run of the inning.
The San Francisco Giants downed the Philadelphia Phillies, 4–1. Jeff Robinson pitched three and two-thirds innings of one-hit relief as San Francisco took advantage of five Philadelphia errors. Robinson entered with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth and got Glenn Wilson to ground into a double play. He then struck out six over the next three innings to record his fourth save. Scott Garrelts (4–3) got the victory.
The Blue Jays routed the Indians, 10–2. Damaso Garcia, who earlier this week burned his uniform top and hat in frustration after two of his errors led to a pair of loses in Oakland, hit a pair of two-run singles to lead Toronto. Jim Clancy (4–2) pitched a seven-hitter over eight innings, struck out five and walked one. Cleveland, since winning 10 in a row, has lost 5 straight, and 10 of its last 11. Don Schulze (2–1) was the loser.
The scheduled game between the California Angels and the Tigers at Detroit was rained out in the third inning. Wally Joyner, the California rookie, lost what would have been his 16th home run of the season when the Angels’ game against the Detroit Tigers was called. Joyner hit a two-run homer in the second inning, and one inning later, the game was called. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on August 19.
St. Louis Cardinals 2, Atlanta Braves 5
Oakland Athletics 4, Baltimore Orioles 13
Texas Rangers 4, Boston Red Sox 5
Kansas City Royals 1, Chicago White Sox 5
Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Cincinnati Reds 7
Chicago Cubs 5, Houston Astros 2
New York Mets 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
Minnesota Twins 5, Milwaukee Brewers 3
Seattle Mariners 3, New York Yankees 11
Montreal Expos 8, San Diego Padres 3
Philadelphia Phillies 1, San Francisco Giants 4
Cleveland Indians 2, Toronto Blue Jays 10
Born:
Adam Bałdych, Polish jazz violinist, contemporary classical composer, and music producer, in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland.
Died:
John Bubbles Sublett, 84, American tap dancer (Black & Bubbles).
History Diaries 