July 21, 1983: The Diana Ross Concert In Central Park

July 21, 1983: Diana Ross takes a stage set up on the Great Lawn of in Central Park in New York, in front of 800,000 people. The cable network Showtime aired it live, worldwide.

Two months earlier, on May 16, Ross had reunited with her former Supremes mates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the 1st time since New Year's Eve 1969, as part of the Motown 25 TV special. The friction between Miss Ross and the others was obvious, and they never reunited again.

It did, however, get Ross' name back into the headlines, as she hadn't had a hit in 3 years, and she was only 39 years old and still looked and sounded fantastic. She worked with the City of New York to build a playground, with her name on it, with proceeds from a free concert in the Park.

Midway through the beginning of the show, a torrential downpour began. Ross tried to continue performing, but the severe weather forced the show to be stopped after 45 minutes. Ross urged the large crowd to exit the venue safely, promising to perform the next day.

The next day's concert suffered no rain, but the memorabilia that was supposed to be sold to raise money for the playground had already been destroyed by the storm. When journalists discovered the exorbitant costs of the two concerts, Ross faced criticism from Mayor Ed Koch and the Parks Department commissioner. During a subsequent mayoral press conference, Ross handed Koch a check for $250,000 for the project. The Diana Ross Playground opened in 1986.

*

July 21, 1983 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Charlie Puleo, who grew up a Met fan in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey, and had started his career with them, was the winning pitcher for the Reds. Johnny Bench, in his final season, did not play.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Houston Astros, 9-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Mike Schmidt went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk and an RBI. Pete Rose went 3-for-6 with 3 RBI.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 4-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Paul Molitor went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The San Diego Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* A doubleheader was split at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). The Detroit Tigers won the opener, 5-1. The California Angels won the nightcap, 3-2. Over the 2 games, Reggie Jackson went 3-for-7 with a walk and an RBI, and Rod Carew went 0-for-8, a rare bad day at the plate for him.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-7 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Eddie Murray went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Cal Ripken went 1-for-5.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 14-13 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Steve Henderson made an error on a Tony Armas fly ball that gave the Red Sox the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. The Red Sox got home runs from Armas and Dave Stapleton; the Mariners got 2 from Richie Zisk and 1 from Jamie Nelson.

* The rain that drenched Central Park also hit Yankee Stadium, postponing the New York Yankees' game with the Kansas City Royals. It was made up the next day as part of a doubleheader. The Yankees won the opener, 7-6. After Goose Gossage blew the save in the top of the 9th, Don Baylor bailed him out by singling home Steve Kemp with the winning run. Dave Winfield hit a home run.

The Royals won the nightcap, 3-2. Former Oakland pitchers Vida Blue and Matt Keough, briefly teammates in 1977, had a pitcher's duel in this one. The Royals led 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th, but Don Mattingly singled Kemp home. Both teams scored in the 11th inning. But in the top of the 12th, George Frazier gave up singles to Frank White and Don Slaught, and Jay Howell gave up the game-losing single to Willie Wilson.

Three days later, George Brett would put too much pine tar on his bat, and get called out after hitting a home run, and the Yankees won -- only for American League President Lee MacPhail to overturn the call, and give the game to the Royals.

And the Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins were rained out at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The game was rescheduled for the following Sunday, July 24. The Twins swept, 7-5 and 5-4.