President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened talks in Reykjavik today, and the Soviet leader told Mr. Reagan he would not set a date for a summit meeting in the United States unless prospects for signing a major arms control pact were high, a ranking Administration official said tonight. To meet Mr. Gorbachev’s concerns, the United States and the Soviet Union set up two separate working groups, one on arms control and the other on human rights and other issues. United States officials expressed optimism that the creation of the working groups — and an agreement by Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev to meet Sunday morning 30 minutes earlier than planned — were hopeful signs in the efforts by both nations to narrow differences and arrange a full summit in the United States later this year or sometime in 1987. United States officials said the bulk of today’s talks between the two leaders focused on arms control, with Mr. Reagan expected to raise human rights and other issues Sunday, the final day of the talks. Officials described the nearly four hours of talks as “businesslike,” and said they were marked by friendly exchanges. President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev began talking about arms control in the afternoon meetings.
President Reagan asks why the Soviets reneged on purchasing the agreed upon 6 million tons of grain from U.S. growers — they replied that, due to the drop in oil prices. they did not have enough money.
President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev concluded two of their three scheduled meetings here today, and the two sides seemed to be crystallizing areas of agreement on arms control, human rights and other issues. At the same time they seemed to be heading toward setting a date for a full summit meeting in the United States, some time next spring. The agreement today to establish two working groups, one on arms control and the other on human rights and other issues, was generally regarded as a positive sign. The move seemed to indicate that the leaders would press for concrete results from their discussions. The two meetings today were kept close to the schedule of two hours each, unlike their meetings in Geneva last November, when all sessions spilled well over the schedule.
As President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev take up the subject of medium-range missiles, arms-control experts are urging the United States to stop insisting that Pershing 2 ballistic missiles be kept in West Germany. The experts are say ground-launched cruise missiles should be substituted for the 108 Pershing 2 missiles. On Friday, West Germany confirmed that the first cruise missiles had been deployed. The Soviet Union wants the ballistic missiles withdrawn on the ground that they are faster than the cruise missiles and thus pose a greater threat by allowing less warning time. But officials in the Defense Department are opposed. They argue that the Pershings should stay in West Germany as long as the Soviet Union keeps the equivalent SS-20 missiles.
A senior Soviet official today called President Reagan’s proposal for a phased reduction in nuclear testing “a trick and maneuver” designed to draw attention away from the need for a total test ban. The official, Georgi A. Arbatov, a Central Committee member and director of the U.S.A. and Canada Institute, said Moscow considered the American proposal, which was on the agenda for talks today between Mr. Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, to be inadequate. Mr. Arbatov and Yevgeny P. Velikhov, vice president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, said at a news conference that Mr. Gorbachev would have the final word about testing. They did not rule out the possibility that he might accept something short of a total test ban.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl has spurned advice from the right wing of his own party and unequivocally endorsed a radical reduction of American medium-range nuclear weapons stationed in West Germany and other NATO countries. According to well-placed Government sources, Mr. Kohl has supported the position of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher in drafting a letter to President Reagan that did not specifically link reductions in medium-range weapons to similar cutbacks in Soviet short-range systems targeted on Europe. Right-wingers in Mr. Kohl’s Christian Democratic Party and military experts in the Defense Ministry had expressed alarm that a proposal to limit the two superpowers to 100 medium-range warheads each in the European theater would leave West Germany vulnerable to highly accurate shorter-range Soviet systems recently deployed in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. This faction pressed for Bonn to insist on a tight linkage of reductions in intermediate and short-range systems. But, according to the officials, Mr. Kohl and his Foreign Minister feared that such a demand to Washington might torpedo the chances for a breakthrough on what is known as I.N.F, or intermediate-range nuclear forces.
Raisa M. Gorbachev shrugged in her silver fox coat when she was asked if she was sorry Nancy Reagan had not come north to Iceland. “There must be a cause for her not coming,” the Soviet First Lady replied. “Maybe she had something else to do. Or maybe she is sick.” And then she walked off in her stiletto-heeled suede boots to sell the charms of the Soviet Union to a fascinated public. There are many on this island in the North Atlantic who are more interested in “the wife gap,” as it is known, than in the missile gap. Some of the Americans felt that the Russians had put one over on them by not giving more notice that Mrs. Gorbachev would be going to Iceland, so Mrs. Reagan’s schedule could be arranged to permit her to go, too.
The Soviet diplomats ordered expelled by the United States who are still in New York are generally unknown to fellow diplomats and United Nations officials. Of the 25 Soviet diplomats who were labeled intelligence agents and ordered out of the country by October 1, 11 have not left, according to Administration officials. Their future remains unclear and could come up at the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting in Iceland, before the end of a two-week “grace period” granted by Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The 11 were busy working in the Soviet Mission this week, according to Soviet officials. Reagan Administration officials have identified nine of the Soviet diplomats as agents of the K.G.B., the intelligence and domestic security agency, and two of them as agents for the G.R.U., the Soviet military intelligence.
Yugoslavia has released a third Yugoslav-American citizen held on charges of hostile political activity, the State Department said today. The Belgrade Government earlier freed two men jailed on similar charges after members of Congress threatened trade retaliation. Anita Stockman, a State Department spokeswoman, said Gradimir Hadzic of Los Angeles was freed today. She had no further details on the case. On Friday, Yugoslavia released Pjeter Ivezaj, a Detroit school system employee of Sterling Heights, Michigan, and Veroljub Radvivojevic of Thousand Oaks, California.
A bomb went off outside the Athens City Council office early today, a day before nationwide local government elections. A left-wing Greek terrorist group said it was responsible. The blast, at 1:30 AM, caused no injuries and only minor damage. A guard spotted the parcel bomb near the entrance of the six-story building and threw it into the street, a police spokesman said. The leftist group, Revolutionary Popular Struggle, said in a statement sent to the leftist Athens daily newspaper Eleftherotypia that it had attacked the offices “to promote revolutionary change in Greece.” The group has taken responsibility for more than 100 minor bombings since 1976. In the elections Sunday, Greeks will choose presidents of 5,700 villages and mayors of 280 towns and cities. Runoffs will be held October 19 in places where no candidate wins an overall majority.
Six suspected terrorists are being deported from Britain, Scotland Yard reported. A Yard spokesman would not specify the nationalities or affiliations of the six, but London’s Sunday Telegraph said they are members of a “hit squad” from the Abu Nidal terrorist organization and identified them as five Arabs and a Swede. The newspaper added that authorities “had intelligence indicating that the six were preparing to attack an American or British target in London.”
Yugoslavia has released a third American who had been held on charges of hostile political activity, the State Department said. Two other men, jailed on similar charges, were freed earlier after members of Congress had threatened retaliation against Yugoslav trade. The third man freed was identified as Gradimir Hadzic of Los Angeles. He and Veroljub Radivojevic, of Thousand Oaks, California, were reportedly arrested in September while on vacation in Yugoslavia and charged with distribution of hostile propaganda. Also freed was Peter Ivezaj, a Detroit school system employee.
Peruvian diplomat Javier Perez de Cuellar was elected to a second five-year term as secretary general of the United Nations. Approval by the 15-nation Security Council and the 159-member General Assembly was unanimous. Perez de Cuellar, 66, did not actively seek reelection, but last week, representatives of all five permanent members of the Security Council jointly visited him at his residence and asked him to stay on. In accepting the new term, he told delegates that in view of the United Nations’ financial crisis, it would have been “tantamount to abandoning a moral duty” not to continue. His new term will begin January 1.
The Shia Muslim militia Amal, in a Syrian-sponsored peace effort, lifted a 12-day siege imposed on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. The move came after the Palestinians reportedly handed over some of their weapons and five guerrillas accused by Amal of firing on a militia checkpoint in the area, 40 miles south of Beirut. An Amal source said the Palestinians kept their heavy weapons and “fighting could flare up at any time.” The Shia Muslims are striving to prevent the Palestinians from rebuilding a guerrilla base in southern Lebanon.
A widespread purge of opponents of the main militia commander in Christian parts of Lebanon has been going on for the last two weeks, and 60 men have been killed so far, according to reports published in the press here. The reports, quoting the police and Christian religious sources, said the victims had been summarily executed, and that in one Christian village the local authorities had discovered a mass grave. Bullet-riddled bodies have been found in several quarters of East Beirut and other Christian districts, the state-controlled press agency reported. It said two bodies were recovered Friday near a bridge in a northeastern suburb of the capital. This raised to 23 the number of victims discovered in the last 10 days, the agency said.
Iran said its commandos, helped by Kurdish guerrillas, pushed deep into northern Iraq and heavily damaged oil fields, an oil refinery, a power station and other key installations in a bid to cripple Iraq’s economy. The official Iranian news agency said its forces struck near Kirkuk, 94 miles from the border, before pulling out at dawn. The report indicated that the raiders were flown into action by helicopter, but it did not say how many troops took part. Iraqi officials denied the Iranian claims. But gulf-based shipping executives said the Iraqi refinery at Kirkuk apparently was damaged and was operating at only half capacity.
Western military experts, who have seen only satellite photographs, say they believe Iraq’s defenses along its 733-mile war front with Iran are an impressive feat of military engineering. At ground level, they are equally impressive. On a visit to the III Corps operational area east and north of Iraq’s second largest city of Basra, a visiting journalist was shown a complex defense system that begins with concrete-roofed infantry bunkers along the front line, backed up with a nearly identical line and prepared tank-firing positions a few thousand yards back, ready for use by reserve forces in case of an enemy breakthrough. The defenses are supported by an intricate network of roads, communications centers and supply dumps to permit rapid deployment of units in battle. Many military analysts and Iraqi officers, however, believe a major offensive by Iranian troops could crack the line at some point.
U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger arrived in India today, and after an initial meeting with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi held out the prospect of eventual production here of weapons designed in America. Mr. Weinberger seemed eager to draw India away from its traditional arms supplier, the Soviet Union.
Monsoon floods in northeast Bangladesh have flooded at least 10 towns and cut roads and rail links with Dhaka, officials said today. They said the Khowai River, swollen by eight inches of rain in two days, flooded railway lines near Shaistaganj and the Muhuri River disrupted power supplies at Moulvi Bazar. The main road between Dhaka and Sylhet was severed and most townspeople were evacuated from Habiganj.
Kidnap victim Hans Kunzli, free after three months of captivity with Muslim separatist rebels on a remote Philippine island, had lunch with President Corazon Aquino at the presidential palace in Manila. The 45-year-old Swiss businessman appeared to be in good health. He was turned over to the government Friday after weeks of talks with the captors, a group led by the pirate Salih Sappari. Authorities said no ransom was paid but would not say how Kunzli’s release was accomplished. A Filipino woman companion seized with Kunzli on July 19 was released a week later to relay a demand for a $100,000 ransom.
Pacific nations are preparing for a crucial session of fishery talks in their region. The outcome of the talks between the United States and 16 Pacific nations will play an important role in determining Washington’s future relations in this region.
Aftershocks from an earthquake that killed at least 100 people rocked the Salvadoran capital all Friday night and this morning as poorly equipped rescue workers clawed through rubble in an effort to recover survivors and the bodies of the dead. Precise casualty figures are not available, but rescue officials estimated that the quake may have killed as many as 500 while injuring hundreds and leaving thousands homeless. [ The League of Red Cross Societies said at least 400 people had been killed, Reuters reported from Geneva. ] Problem Grave, Duarte Says In a televised address in the early hours of this morning, President Jose Napoleon Duarte declared a state of emergency and appealed for help. “The problem is grave,” he said. “There are thousands of people left homeless. Our water, electrical plant and communication facilities have all suffered heavy damage.”
Mother Teresa, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1979, escaped unhurt today from an air crash in which her small plane killed six people at a dusty airstrip in rural Tanzania. The aircraft crashed on takeoff, plowing into a crowd at Hombolo airport, 200 miles west of Dar es Salaam. One of the six dead was a nun in Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, according to a sister reached by telephone at Tabora. Neither Mother Teresa nor a nun traveling with her were hurt. Mother Teresa had been due to fly from Hombolo to attend a ceremony in Tabora on Sunday, at which seven nuns were to take their first vows. The cause of the accident has not been established, but Radio Tanzania said the chartered aircraft wobbled soon after takeoff, failed to gain altitude and then dropped on the ground. Hombolo is a remote village where six sisters of Mother Teresa’s order run a small clinic.
Mozambique’s Government accused South Africa today of sending commandos into Maputo and planning an air raid on the capital, and it told its citizens to be on the alert. In Johannesburg, a South African Defense Force spokesman called Mozambique’s charges mere speculation and said Mozambican leaders were apparently suffering “a severe attack of nerves.” A Mozambican communique read on the national radio said, “The South African warmongers are preparing direct attacks on our country by the South African armed forces with the ultimate aim of overthrowing the Mozambican Government and installing a puppet regime.” Mozambique first reported that South African was planning a raid on Friday, when Security Minister Sergio Vieira said South African commandos had infiltrated Maputo. The Government said it heard of the plan from South Africans “opposed to the policies of the warmongers.”
President Reagan today signed a stopgap bill to finance Federal operations for five days, reversing the Administration’s announced intention and averting a shutdown of the Government. The President signed the bill in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he is meeting with the Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The bill was flown there today. The shutdown of the Government that was announced for today had been put off this morning because Administration officials were reconsidering the decision to veto the measure, which Congress approved Friday, said Edwin L. Dale Jr., spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. The uncertainty about closing down the Government added to the confusion surrounding the budget process as the House and the Senate struggle to pass the last remaining budget bills and adjourn for the year next week. The Government has been running on stopgap financing bills since the fiscal year 1987 began on October 1 because Congress has yet to reach agreement on a full-year comprehensive appropriations measure. That bill is now in conference between the House and the Senate, and the effort to reach a compromise is being complicated by strong veto threats from the President if any of a long list of provisions is included in the final version.
With about three weeks left in the 1986 political campaign, the Democrats seem sure to gain ground in the Senate, but they appear to have only slightly better than an even chance to regain control. Public opinion polls and interviews with people who closely follow politics in the key states indicate that if the election were held tomorrow, the Democrats would probably pick up four seats now held by Republicans and the Republicans would be likely to win one seat now held by a Democrat. That would amount to a net gain of three for the Democrats. They need a net gain of four to win control. But in four states the contests appear at the moment to be too close to call, and the outcome in these races will probably decide the final result for the Senate. If all the other races go as they now seem likely to, the Democrats would have to win two of these four to achieve their goal of controlling the Senate in the final years of President Reagan’s term.
Vice President Bush said today that he had met three times a Cuban-American who helps direct secret flights that drop arms to contra rebels in Nicaragua. Mr. Bush called the man “a patriot,” but denied personally playing a role in directing the missions. Eugene Hasenfus, an American captured after a Nicaraguan missile brought his plane down last Sunday, said at a news conference in Managua Thursday that two Cuban-Americans who “work for the C.I.A. did most of the coordination for the flights.” He identified one as Max Gomez.
U.S. business leaders meeting in Hot Springs, Virginia, expressed frustration over the nation’s huge trade deficit despite assurances from the Reagan Administration that the worst of the trade problem appears to be over. Members of the Business Council, wrapping up a three-day retreat, expressed impatience that the trade deficit is continuing to worsen even though the dollar has fallen by 35% in value in the last 18 months. The executives said unless trade begins to improve soon, even the modest economic growth they expect over the next two years will fail to materialize.
The number of people satisfied with the way things are going in the country has declined from 66% in March — the highest percentage recorded in the seven years the measurement has been taken — to 58% today, according to the Gallup Poll. The current figure, however, remains the next highest recorded. The percentage of Americans who are satisfied with the way things are going in their own personal lives remains at a seven-year high point of 84%.
House and Senate negotiators made progress today on resolving their differences over a comprehensive immigration bill, but a Reagan Administration official expressed “very serious objections” to a key portion of the bill relating to foreign agricultural workers. The Administration’s concerns, stated publicly today for the first time, injected a new note of uncertainty into Congressional efforts to pass an immigration bill before adjourning next week. The Senate approved its version of the legislation by a vote of 69 to 30 in September 1985, and the House of Representatives passed its version on Thursday, 230 to 166. The compromise on foreign agricultural workers, drafted by Representative Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of Brooklyn, was essential to the bill’s success in the House. Senators most concerned about the issue have indicated that they support the farm worker provisions of the House bill, which would offer legal status to certain illegal aliens who have been working on American farms.
After a summer of extraordinary concern about Houston’s role in future space ventures, three recent developments here have provided a dramatic lift to space-related industries and to Houston’s overall economic prospects. The most important was a decision by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to drop plans to move key work on the $8 billion space station project from the Johnson Space Center here to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The proposal, which would have cost the Johnson center almost 2,000 current and anticipated jobs, was bitterly fought by Texas Congressmen. In the last two weeks Space Industries of Houston and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation have announced plans to build and market a $250 million orbiting laboratory and workshop, and the Grumman Corporation has announced plans to move part of its space systems division to Houston from Long Island.
A referendum on the November 4 ballot that calls for the secession of black neighborhoods in Boston has touched off an emotional dispute and raised fears of renewed racism here. The proposal would seek to carve out a new 12-square-mile city in the heart of Boston, with about 22 percent of Boston’s 600,000 population, including most of its black residents. It would be named for Nelson Mandela, the jailed South African black nationalist leader. The question on the ballot asks voters in 10 legislative districts in Boston if they want to instruct their state representatives to pass a bill that would create a separate city. Supporters of the nonbinding referendum contend it would enable blacks in poor neighborhoods like Roxbury to obtain more municipal services, including better schools and police protection. But opponents, who include some of Boston’s leading black ministers and Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, argue that it would reverse important recent gains by blacks here and would leave the new community with an annual deficit of $135 million.
While polling indicates that it will probably lose, a strong campaign is being waged here to liberalize Oregon’s marijuana laws through a statewide vote in the election next month. The proposed law would allow Oregonians 18 years and older to cultivate and possess marijuana for their own use. A decade ago the Legislature eliminated arrests for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, but it has balked at moving further. Sharp lines have been drawn over the proposition, drafted by private citizens and placed on the ballot by signatures of 87,000 of voters. A statewide poll indicates, however, that two-thirds of the registered voters surveyed opposed the proposal.
Seven former members of the Miami Police Department have gone on trial here, accused of possession of cocaine and racketeering and of involvement in a case in which three suspects in a narcotics case drowned. As the prosecution began presenting testimony in Federal District Court here Monday in its effort to prove that the seven had been involved in a plan to sell cocaine stolen from dealers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested two more Miami police officers in a drug-related case. A third officer was arrested Wednesday by a team of Miami police officers and Drug Enforcement Administration officers and charged with selling cocaine. Meanwhile, it was reported that a Federal grand jury had begun investigating possible corruption in City Hall. The F.B.I. is said to have obtained thousands of pages of city records related to official and private activities of two city commissioners and a former mayor. Another commissioner was called to testify before the jury Friday.
The self-defense strategy appears to be emerging as a viable defense in cases of children who murder a parent or close relative. Defense attorneys are now more likely to mount vigorous and highly publicized arguments that battered children reach a point where they will kill in self-defense.
Hundreds of thousands of fish killed by spreading red tide piled up on Padre Island beaches as a state ban on clam and oyster fishing was extended both ways from Corpus Christi along more than 180 miles of Texas coast. In heavy concentrations, the microorganism imparts a reddish color to seawater, makes clams and oysters poisonous and can kill fish, shrimp and crabs, said Kirk Wiles, who oversees the state Health Department’s shellfish program. “It is moving to the south and has been moving to the south fairly rapidly,” said Wiles, who surveyed the coast by airplane. “Some areas are heavily, heavily impacted.” He said that oysters and clams infected by the organisms, while generally not lethal to humans, can cause numbness in the mouth and extremities.
The three major television networks reached tentative agreement on a three-year contract with 900 news broadcasters. The agreement came after CBS, NBC and ABC agreed to postpone a plan to have broadcasters assume technical duties, said Dick Moore, a spokesman for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in New York. The networks wanted reporters to operate cameras and microphones, edit tape and feed stories. The union vigorously opposed the proposal, saying it would hurt news coverage and diminish the role of the reporter. Moore said the tentative pact calls for an increase in pension and benefits and a raise in the base for pension contributions.
A tentative settlement to a teachers strike in suburban Chicago was reached, but walkouts in nine other school districts in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio kept more than 34,000 students out of class. Faculty members of Proviso East and West high schools in Illinois are scheduled to meet Monday and are expected to decide to return to work Tuesday, school and union officials said. A one-day strike by 37 teachers in Oakland, Illinois, ended Friday. Negotiations resulted in a base pay increase of $270 to $13,720. The 488 students are to return to class Tuesday. In addition, strikes continued at two community colleges in Illinois and at Temple University in Philadelphia.
The California State Board of Education has rejected all math textbooks proposed for kindergarten through the eighth grade, a move that affects three million public school pupils in California and could have national repercussions. The board, at the urging of Bill Honig, the State Superintendent of Schools, passed a motion Friday to reject the 14 series of books and to give the publishers one year to bring the books up to the board’s standards. The board followed the recommendation of its Curriculum Development Commission, which said the proposed textbooks did not help students learn to reason and think through problems. “I think by pushing it this way, you’re going to see the whole market change,” Mr. Honig said after the meeting. “We’re finally saying, ‘Look, we’re the market and we’re going to set the market.’ ” California represents about 12 percent of the textbook market, the largest share in the nation.
About 40 parachutists defied stiff winds today and jumped off the 876-foot New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia to the delight of nearly 200,000 onlookers. With winds swirling at 20 miles an hour, only the most adventurous of the 400 who registered for the seventh annual bridge jump actually risked the dangerous leap into the chilly New River waters.
U.S. Army officials wanted a better bayonet for their combat forces, so they found one that resembled a hunting knife and could be used as a saw or converted to scissors to cut wire. It also had to be insulated against electric shock. The Army said it abandoned its traditional bayonet for infantrymen and special combat forces because it found that many soldiers were carrying special knives and wire cutters to perform tasks the double-edged bayonet could not handle. Officials now believe that in the M9 Multipurpose Bayonet System they have found a knife that can do most anything.
A sharp rise in cocaine use among patients receiving methadone in the last year has led some drug experts to question whether the methadone programs, begun in the early 1970’s to treat heroin addiction, are effective at keeping addicts drug-free. The results of drug tests regularly administered to patients in New York’s methadone maintenance programs indicate that 35 percent of the people in the programs are now using cocaine. Some researchers, in fact, say methadone maintenance programs might actually increase the likelihood that former heroin addicts will try cocaine. The issue is of particular concern in New York, where the majority of state-financed programs treat addiction with methadone, an orally administered drug that stops the craving for heroin but is ineffective in treating cocaine addiction. Of 43,000 people in state-financed treatment programs in New York, 33,000 are in methadone maintenance programs.
Heart patient Bernadette Chayrez died in an Arizona hospital during an operation to transplant a human heart. The 40-year-old mother of three had already received two artificial heart implants.
Major League Baseball, American League Championship Series, Game 4:
Trailing 3–0 entering the bottom of the 9th inning, California rallies for 3 runs off Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi, and goes on to defeat the Red Sox 4–3 in 11 innings to take a 3–1 lead in the American League Championship Series. Roger Clemens, the Game 1 loser for the Red Sox, started Game 4, and was solid for most of the game. Boston put up a run in the sixth on Bill Buckner’s RBI double with two on off Don Sutton. In the eighth, Spike Owen hit a leadoff single off Vern Ruhle, moved to third on a groundout and wild pitch, then scored on Marty Barrett’s single. Chuck Finley relieved Ruhle and a passed ball and error on Buckner’s ground ball allowed Barrett to score to make it 3–0 Red Sox. Another error and walk off Doug Corbett loaded the bases, but Rich Gedman hit into a forceout to end the inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Doug DeCinces led off with a home run. After the next batter grounded out, Dick Schofield and Bob Boone singled. After coming within two outs of a complete game, Clemens was removed, and Boone was replaced with a pinch runner. Gary Pettis, batting next, doubled to score Schofield. Ruppert Jones was intentionally walked to load the bases, a fatal mistake, as two batters later, Brian Downing was hit by a pitch, bringing in the tying run. Angels relief pitcher Doug Corbett pitched a perfect tenth and eleventh innings, and California broke through in the bottom of the 11th inning as Jerry Narron scored on Bobby Grich’s one-out single off Calvin Schiraldi, giving California a 4–3 win and a 3–1 series lead.
Boston Red Sox 3, California Angels 4
Major League Baseball, National League Championship Series, Game 3:
Game 3 was a back-and-forth contest won by the Mets when Lenny Dykstra hit a two-run, walk-off homer against Astros’ reliever Dave Smith in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving New York a 6–5 victory and 2–1 series lead on a Saturday afternoon at Shea Stadium. Houston broke through with four runs in the first two innings against Mets’ starter Ron Darling, highlighted by Bill Doran’s two-run home run in the second. Darling then threw three scoreless innings and the Mets came back by scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth innings as Darryl Strawberry’s three-run homer off Houston starter Bob Knepper tied the game 4–4. Years later, Strawberry said that part of the credit for the home run came from Keith Hernandez, who was on second base during the at-bat, and that Hernandez signaled to Strawberry that Knepper was going to try to pitch him inside and to keep his right shoulder (the shoulder facing the pitcher) down when swinging at the inside pitches, which led to the home run. However, the Astros struck back against reliever Rick Aguilera in the top of the seventh as a throwing error by Ray Knight led to an unearned run that came home when Denny Walling’s fielder’s choice scored Doran for a 5–4 lead. Knight’s gaffe was the only error committed by the Mets in the series. With the Astros still leading in the bottom of the ninth, closer Smith allowed a lead-off bunt single to Wally Backman. The Astros argued afterward that Backman ran out of the baseline running to first while trying to avoid a tag from Smith. However, the umpire declared that Backman stayed close enough to the basepath while trying to avoid the tag that it was allowed. Backman advanced to second on a passed ball, and Danny Heep then flew out to center field for the inning’s first out. The next batter was Dykstra, who won it for New York by lacing a Smith pitch over the right-field fence for a two-run homer. Dykstra’s homer was the first come-from-behind, walk-off home run in postseason history. Jesse Orosco won the game in relief for New York by working two scoreless innings.
Houston Astros 5, New York Mets 6
Born:
Henry Melton, NFL defensive end (Pro Bowl, 2012; Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Grapevine, Texas.
Jamar Chaney, NFL linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders), in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Died:
Norm Cash, MLB first baseman (5 × MLB All-Star; World Series champions, 1968; AL batting champion, 1961; Detroit Tigers), drowned.
