December 20, 2019: "Star Wars": The "Skywalker Saga" Ends

December 20, 2019: Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker premieres. It officially concludes "The Skywalker Saga."

For most original Star Wars fans, it seemed hollow. As if The Walt Disney Company and producer-director J.J. Abrams had ruined the franchise, much the same way Abrams had ruined Star Trek with his 3 horrible movies with that label.

UPDATE: In 2025, I saw some Star Wars fans saying that Episode IX does not exist, and that "The Saga" ended with Episode VIII, unresolved and ambiguous. As if Episode VIII was any damn good. This is like Star Trek fans saying the Abrams films in that franchise don't exist.

Honestly, I was fine with Episode IX. Seeing old man Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) and Chewbacca (with Joonas Suotamo succeeding the late Peter Mayhew) finishing the job of their contemporaries -- Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher, who died before the release of Episode VIII, and whose scenes for Episode IX were built around outtakes) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) -- was great. Seeing "all the Sith," in the form of a cloned Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) defeated by "all the Jedi," in the form of Rey (Daisy Ridley), was very satisfying. And, of course, unlike George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones, George Lucas believes in happy endings.

As far as I was concerned, balance had been brought to The Force.

*

December 20, 2019 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Two college football bowl games were played. The University of Buffalo beat the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 31-9 in the Bahamas Bowl, at Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in Nassau. And Kent State beat Utah State, 51-41 in the Frisco Bowl at Toyota Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas.

There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Miami Heat, 129-114 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 114-93 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 117-98 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards, 122-118 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Bradley Beal led all scorers on the night with 37 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 114-107 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Sacramento Kings, 119-105 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now Gainbridge Fieldhouse_ in Indianapolis.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns, 126-108 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 109-100 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 106-1012 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Orlando Magic, 118-103 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard scored 36.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Washington Capitals, 6-3 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars, 7-4 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

November 17, 1978: "The Star Wars Holiday Special" Premieres

November 17, 1978: The Star Wars Holiday Special airs. It almost kills the franchise. Like a period-specific hairstyle in a high school yearbook photo, it looks worse every year.

Calling it a "Holiday Special" makes it sound like they're trying to tie the events of Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope -- of course, then known simply as Star Wars -- which take place, as the tagline goes, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... " to the Earth holiday of Christmas.

Indeed, in 1980, Domenico Monardo, a.k.a. Meco, who had a Number 1 hit in the Summer of 1977 with a disco version of John Williams' orchestral theme, produced a record album: Christmas in the Stars, starring Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, with special effects making it sound like R2-D2 and Chewbacca were also involved. Other Star Wars characters were mentioned, but none of their portrayers showed up for the recording session. Too expensive, I suppose. It included a song, sung by a droid, titled "What Do You Get a Wookiee for Christmas When He Already Owns a Comb?" (As it turns out, a brush.)

That was bizarre. The Star Wars Holiday Special was so bizarre (How bizarre was it?), it made Christmas in the Stars look like an installment of The Lawrence Welk Show by comparison.

The "holiday" in question is Life Day, on the home planet of Chewbacca's people, the Wookiees, a planet whose name is canonically mentioned for the first time: Kashyyyk. (Yes, 3 straight Y's.) We are introduced to Chewie's wife, Mallatobuck; their son, Lumpawarrump;  and Chewie's father, Attichitcuk, the Chief of their tribe.

They are the focus of the episode: Three characters we hadn't seen before, and who didn't speak English. There weren't even subtitles for their language. Meanwhile, Chewie and Han Solo are trying to get to Kashyyyk for the holiday, aboard the Millennium Falcon, with Darth Vader chasing them. They make it, and Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, C-3PO and R2-D2 are already there, and the celebration begins.

There is one non-Star Wars human star: Beatrice Arthur, having recently wrapped up her series Maude, but not yet having begun The Golden Girls, plays Ackmena, the operator of the Mos Eiseley cantina. She sings. Yes, Bea Arthur sings. And there's a mid-special cartoon, with most of the major actors' voices, that introduces the character of Boba Fett, one of the few things about this special that people remembered fondly.

The Special was, in TV parlance, a bomb. A bomb big enough to blow up the Death Star. George Lucas later ruled that Life Day, and all the members of Chewbacca's family who were shown or mentioned, are part of the current Star Wars canon, but the special itself is not.

Paramount Pictures figured audiences would eat anything up while waiting for Episode V -- the Empire Strikes Back to be released. They did, but were sick to their stomach. It was a worse next step than Star Trek: The Motion Picture turned out to be, a year later.

The Star Wars Holiday Special completed a trifecta of the film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- with Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees pathetically standing in for The Beatles -- on July 21, and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park on October 28, that marked 1978 as a year when Hollywood executives must have gotten together over big bowls of cocaine and thought, "How can we squeeze the utmost profits out of popular culture, without spending as much money as we did on the cocaine before us?"

One more thing to consider: Like Elvis Presley's posthumous last special, the year before, The Star Wars Holiday Special has only aired once, and has never had an official release on any form of home video -- not VHS videotape, not laserdisc, not DVD, not Blu-Ray. Come to think of it, Elvis In Concert was also on CBS.

And CBS still had a better late 1970s than did NBC. Sure, they aired Elvis In Concert and The Star Wars Holiday Special, but they didn't air Hello, Larry, or Pink Lady and Jeff, or Supertrain.

*

November 17, 1978 was a Friday. Football star Reggie Wayne was born. So were actors Tom Ellis and Rachel McAdams.

Baseball was in the off-season. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Washington Bullets, 143-94 at the Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. The sale of Julius Erving 2 years earlier meant that the Nets went from the best team in the ABA to the worst team in the NBA.

They had gotten better, but they lost this one to the defending World Champions, at home, by 49 points. Despite the big team score, the leading scorer, Elvin Hayes, had just 30 points. But 9 players scored at least 10. Eddie Jordan, who starred for Rutgers at their previous home, the College Avenue Gym, led the Nets with 19. The Nets did recover enough to make the Playoffs, though.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Denver Nuggets, 120-118 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Phoenix Suns, 95-94 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angele Lakers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 121-109 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Golden State Warriors, 100-89 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Indiana Pacers, 126-115 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 4-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. And the Boston Bruins beat the Atlanta Flames, 6-2 at The Omni in Atlanta.

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Birmingham Bulls beat the New England Whalers, 7-1 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 10-6 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Indianapolis Racers, 6-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. I guess it was a bad night for defensive hockey.

August 11, 1973: "American Graffiti" Premieres

August 11, 1973: American Graffiti premieres. It takes people's minds off Watergate and the post-Vietnam hangover, and boosts the nostalgia wave for the 1950s.

Which makes it odd that the film does not take place in the Ike Age. The tagline is, "Where were you in '62?" It had been only 11 years. It would be a film in the Trump years celebrating... the 2nd term of George W. Bush. Something tells me that's not the period they mean when they say they want to "make America great again."

There was already a nostalgia wave for the Fabulous Fifties. Music promoter Richard Nader had been producing "Garden Party" shows at the new Madison Square Garden in New York since it opened in 1968. He sold the place out. One of the surprisingly popular acts at Woodstock in 1969 was Sha Na Na, a bunch of intellectuals from Columbia University who stylized themselves as greased-up doo-woppers. The Hippies loved them. And, of course, 1969 was also the year that Elvis Presley, who owned 1956 and 1957, took over Las Vegas.

That was only 12 and 13 years earlier, but it was nostalgia. People wanted to forget Watergate. They wanted to forget Vietnam. They wanted to forget race riots. They wanted to go back to the era when Dwight D. Eisenhower was America's grandpa, or at least to the era when John F. Kennedy was America's big brother. When the biggest thing they had to worry about was whether they had a dime for the jukebox at the malt shop after school.

And while the film was set in 1962, it leaned heavily on the original rock and roll music of 1955-59: "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & the Comets, "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly & The Crickets, "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry; plus a cover of "At the Hop" by Danny & The Juniors, done by a group brought together for the film, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids.

George Lucas, with science fiction in the back of his mind, directed a film set in Modesto, in central California, with 3 interconnected stories. Ron Howard had already played Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, but this was before he was cast as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, which took the nostalgia wave to television a year later.

Also in the cast, and later becoming stars, were Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Kathleen Quinlan, Susan Richardson, Kay Lenz, Debralee Scott, Joe Spano, and, most iconically, listed in the credits only as "The Blonde," Suzanne Somers. Wolfman Jack, based out of Los Angeles, was already a well-known disc jockey in the West, but the film made him widely known in the East. Soon, he would be a regular guest-host of NBC's late-night music show The Midnight Special.

Hot rods. Diners. Rock and roll. It was a sanitized version of 1962, with no Cold War, no worry about getting drafted, no civil rights struggles. And, since it was California, you didn't have to worry about the local baseball team moving: The team had already moved, and had come to you.

(Okay, that's a bit of a stretch. San Francisco is 90 miles west of Modesto, and Los Angeles is over 300 miles southeast. When the A's moved to Oakland, and made Modesto the home of one of their farm teams, they were "only" 70 miles west.) 

The Baby Boomers still embrace American Graffiti, now that they actually are old. But their initial embrace of it, when many of them were still in college, showed that, even then, they were lamenting a lost youth, and afraid of getting old. They were the generation that JFK told to look to the future. Instead, they have spent half a century looking backward.

I don't blame George Lucas, any more than I blame "Cousin" Brucie Morrow, Dick Clark, Richard Nader, Wolfman Jack, or any other person who actively benefited from, and promoted, the late 1950s and early 1960s nostalgia wave. Let's be honest: Even the surviving members of that generation of the Kennedy family did that. But it does seem like, through their devotion to nostalgia, the Baby Boomers (the elder half of them, anyway), if not betraying their former forward-looking ideals, have frequently let them down.

*

August 11, 1973 was a Saturday. This was also the day that DJ Kool Herc hosted a party in The Bronx that has become known as "the birth of hip-hop." I have a separate entry for this event.

Kind of a strange combination of events: It's like the past, the present and the future all collided.

These Major League Baseball games were played on that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 7-3 at Yankee Stadium. Vida Blue outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Gene Tenace hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI for the A's. He would, of course, later star for the Yankees. It was Old-Timers Day, and 46,293 fans came out. I don't know how many were at Herc's party a few hours later.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 8-7 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Bobby Bonds singled home Garry Maddox, off Tug McGraw, with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Bonds had also hit a home run. Don Hahn and John Milner hit home runs for the Mets.

Running out the string for the Mets, Willie Mays doubled to lead off the 9th in a pinch-hitting appearance for his former team. It was the 3,286th hit of his career. There would be only 7 more, plus 3 more in the 1973 postseason.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Roger Moret outpitched Nolan Ryan. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Dusty Baker hit 2 home runs, Darrell Evans 1. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, but it was a single, not a home run. Willie Stargell went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-2 before being replaced by a pinch-runner. George Brett had made his major league debut for the Royals 9 days earlier, but did not play in this game.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 3-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Tony Oliva went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 3 RBIs. Rod Carew went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Harmon Killebrew did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Reds led 4-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, but Lou Brock's 3-run home run sent the game to extra innings. The Reds scored 3 in the top of the 10th, including an RBI triple by Johnny Bench. The Cards were only able to respond with 1 run, on a home run by Ted Simmons. Pete Rose went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Montreal Expos and the San Diego Padres were not scheduled. 

June 12, 1981: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" Introduces Indiana Jones

June 12, 1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark premieres, introducing the character of Indiana Jones.

The film is a collaboration of what were then the 2 biggest names in moviemaking: Steven Spielberg, director of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed; while George Lucas, producer and writer of the Star Wars films, produced. Spielberg told Lucas of his vision of making a film that captured the fun and suspense of the "cliffhanger"-driven film serials of the 1930s and '40s, with a "pulp fiction" style hero.

At first, we only know his "trade name": Indiana Jones. The details of his life came out in later movies and TV shows based on the character. Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr. is born on July 1, 1899 in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father was teaching archaeology. In spite of his conflict with his father, Henry, who nicknamed himself "Indiana" after his childhood dog, went into the same line of work. (Lucas' full name is George Walton Lucas Jr.)

The 1992-93 ABC series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles focused on 2 periods in his early life: A tour his father, and his mother, Anna, took him on at age 10 in 1909, when he was played by Corey Carrier; and his activities in World War I and its aftermath, when he was played by Sean Patrick Flanery. (That's how he spells his surname, with 1 N.) The stories are narrated by a 93-year-old Indy, played by George Hall, wearing an patch over his right eye.

(That show's status as canon has since been called into question, as it mentions Indy having a daughter named Sophie, who appears to have been born after Mutt, but before Indy finally married Marion. It's not clear who her mother is, but it's certainly not Marion. According to non-canon books about Indy, he was briefly married in 1925-26 to Scottish archaeologist Deirdre Campbell, but they had no children.)

A scene at the start of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, taking place in 1912 Utah, provides something of an origin story, as it tells of how 13-year-old Indy, played by 18-year-old River Phoenix, got his fedora hat, his whip. the scar on his chin, and his fear of snakes.

In 1925, Jones began teaching archaeology at Marshall College, in Bedford, Connecticut. (Neither the school nor the town actually exist. It should not be confused with Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Scenes for Marshall College were filmed in Connecticut, at Yale University in New Haven.) There, he met professor Abner Ravenwood, who became his mentor; and Abner's daughter, Marion, who became his girlfriend -- at age 15. It wasn't shame on his part that ended the relationship, it was the nature of his work, causing him to leave her behind.

The 2nd film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, takes place in 1935, and shows Indy, played by Harrison Ford, fighting gangsters in China, and then a cult in India. This film had some hard-to-watch scenes, and was one of the reasons the Motion Picture Association of America created the PG-13 rating in 1984, for films that were too rough for a PG but not violent or sexy enough for an R.

The 1st film in the series, from the viewer's perspective, was released in 1981, under the title of Raiders of the Lost Ark. At the time, there was no indication that it would be a series. It has never officially been renamed Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Most Indy fans tend to call it simply Raiders, anyway.

Prior to Temple of Doom, a prequel-as-next-movie was rare. So the 1st movie in the series from the viewer's perspective is the 2nd from Indy's. It's 1936, Nazi Germany is starting to flex its international muscle, and the U.S. Army asks Indy, with his historical and archaeological expertise, to find something before the Nazis can: The Ark of the Covenant, the vessel in which the ancient Israelites stored the tablets with the original inscription of the Ten Commandments, supposedly written by God Himself.

Despite their hatred of all things Jewish, the Nazis believe that possession of the Ark will give them power that will make them unstoppable. So you can see why the Army would want an American to stop them.

In order to find the Ark, he needs certain things that only Dr. Ravenwood had. Since he's dead now, he has to reunite with Marion (Karen Allen). She's not happy to see him, but when the Nazis come for her and the clues to the Ark's location, she has little choice but to join forces with Indy, who is also aided by Egyptian excavator Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir (John Rhys-Davies).

Indy has to battle Nazi agents, led by the black-coated, bespectacled Arnold Toht (Ronald Lacey) and their lead archaeologist, French mercenary René Belloq (Paul Freeman). At one point, he is faced with a Nazi-allied Egyptian swordsman (Terry Richards), flashing a scimitar like a great martial artist. Indy calmly pulls his gun and shoots him dead. (The scene was changed because Ford was battling the flu, and didn't feel like swordfighting.)

Ultimately, while Indy finds the Ark, the Nazis take it. They restrain him and Marion at the testing site as Belloq ceremonially opens the Ark, but finds only sand inside. At Indy's insistence, he and Marion close their eyes to avoid looking at the opened Ark, as it releases spirits, flames, and bolts of energy that kill Belloq, Toht, and the assembled Nazis before sealing itself shut. They open their eyes to find the area cleared of bodies and their bindings removed.

Back in Washington, the federal government rewards Indy for securing the Ark, and tell him that it has been moved to an undisclosed location for "top men" to study. In a large warehouse, the Ark is crated up and stored among countless other crates. (In the 4th film, this warehouse is revealed to be part of Area 51 in Nevada.)

The film was a runaway success, and inspired 2 more films before the decade was out: The aforementioned Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. The "present" scenes of the latter are in 1938, as Indy is asked by the government to beat the Nazis to another artifact, this time the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper. Indy calls upon Sallah and his estranged father (Sean Connery) for help. One thing leads to another, and Indy goes to Berlin, puts on a Nazi uniform, and comes face-to-face with Adolf Hitler. Who gives him an autograph. (It's a long story.)

Indiana Jones became a legend, with several ripoffs and/or homages, including Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider video games and films, and Tia Carrere's Dr. Sydney Fox in the 1999-2002 TV series Relic Hunter. In a 1992 episode of Seinfeld, George shows up wearing a fedora, and Jerry addresses him as "Indiana."

In a 2013 episode of The Big Bang Theory, Amy says she has never seen Raiders, so Sheldon shows it to her, and she points out that if Indy hadn't gotten involved, the Ark would still have killed the Nazis, and Indy would have saved a lot of time, money and physical effort.

And in 2022, the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History featured series regular "Nice Peter" Shukoff as Indy, battling Lara Croft, played by Croix Provence. Her Lara correctly pointed out that much of Indy's image was based on Secret of the Incas, a 1954 adventure film starring Charlton Heston. The 1885 H. Rider Haggard novel King Solomon's Mines, with its adventurer Allan Quatermain, were filmed in 1937 with Cedric Hardwicke and 1950 with Stewart Granger, and were also an inspiration for Indy.

Years went by without an Indiana Jones IV, and people were beginning to wonder if there would ever be one. But with Ford committed to Star Wars sequels, Tom Cruise signing a deal for a Top Gun sequel as he approached age 60, and Sylvester Stallone returning to play both Rocky Balboa and John Rambo at an age when he should have hung up both his boxing gloves and his bandana, an Indy 4 was inevitable.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is set in 1957, and references are made to the adventures of "Colonel Jones" in World War II, leading to fans' suggestions that such a story might have made for a better film. This time, with the Nazis in the rearview mirror, it's the Soviet Union that is the artifact-chasing enemy, led by Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett).

After losing his first tussle with Spalko, and subsequently surviving a nuclear bomb test (if you haven't seen the film, don't ask), Indy goes home, and is found by Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), a motorcycle-riding "greaser" like Marlon Brando in the 1953 film The Wild One. Mutt says that his mother has been kidnapped by the Soviets -- and his mother turns out to be Marion Ravenwood. When they find her, she tells Indy that Mutt is also his son: His birth name was Henry Walton Jones III. Although father and son don't get along, in order to save both parents, Mutt ends up managing to get Indy to conquer his longstanding fear of snakes.

That is the film's highlight, along with a moment when Ford channels his other legendary character, Star Wars' Han Solo, and says, "I've got a bad feeling about this!" Even the long-delayed wedding of Indy and Marion at the end seems anticlimactic. As for the resolution of the plot... don't ask. But in spite of the silliness of the story, and some mixed reviews, it became the 2nd-highest-grossing film of 2008.

If Indiana Jones, the character, were real, he would be 123 years old in 2022, which would be astronomically unlikely. Then again, he did drink from the Grail back in 1938... But then, he still lost an eye and began using a cane sometime between 1957 and 1992... Unless we want to toss The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles from canon... 

UPDATE: A 5th film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, set in 1969 (meaning the 80-year-old Ford is playing a 70-year-old action hero), premiered on June 30, 2023. It began with a sequence set in 1944, with a computer-aided "de-aged" Ford once again battling Nazis, and backing up the suggestion that there was a better film to be made about "Colonel Jones" than Crystal Skull turned out to be.

But when it gets to the "present" sequence, in the Summer of 1969, we find out that Mutt was killed while serving in Vietnam, and this led to Marion filing for divorce from Indy. Retired from teaching, and with nothing left to do except drink, he is found by the daughter of the now-dead associate from the 1944 adventure. She snaps him out of it long enough to race neo-Nazis, led by the villain of the opening sequence, to finding the Dial of Archimedes, which, despite being invented in 212 BC, can act as a time machine.

As with the Ark, the Nazis get it away from Indy. As with the Ark, he warns them that it won't work the way they hope it will. As with the Ark, they don't listen to him, and use it anyway. As with the Ark, Indy turns out to be right.

They get back to 1969, and Indy and Marion reconcile. Rhys-Davies, Welsh, returns as Salah, now a cabdriver in New York, but at least actual Egyptian actors were cast as his children and grandchildren. 

Despite the recent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor won by his portrayer, Ke Huy Quan, no mention is made of Short Round, who would be 46 by 1969. Nor is Indy's TV daughter Sophie mentioned. And he still doesn't have the eye patch. This last (?) movie leaves us with so many questions, but at least Indy and Marion are happy together.

A 2022 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History featured "Nice" Peter Shukoff playing Indy, and rapper Croix Provence playing Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider video game and film franchise.

June 12, 1981 was also the premiere date for Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I; and the original version of Clash of the Titans, the last of the classic stop-motion special effects films of the great Ray Harryhausen.

*

June 12, 1981 was a Friday. This was also the day that Major League Baseball's Strike of '81 started. I have a separate entry for that. Since every MLB team stopped on June 12, and no other sports were running at the time -- the NBA season ended on May 14, and the NHL season on May 21, and the NFL season didn't start until September 6 -- there were no scores on that historic day.

But there was a major sporting event: Larry Holmes successfully defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World, defeating former Champion Leon Spinks, by a technical knockout in the 3rd round, at a venue named for another former Champion, the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

And Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima was born.

May 25, 1983: "Return of the Jedi" Premieres

May 25, 1983: Star Wars: Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi premieres. It was originally supposed to be Revenge of the Jedi, but George Lucas found out that Star Trek II was going to be subtitled The Vengeance of Khan. If this was ever true, it was changed to The Wrath of Khan.

A cartoon in the science fiction fan magazine Starlog showed Ricardo Montalban wearing Darth Vader's armor and telling Luke Skywalker, "Don't look so surprised. You didn't really think there could be two evil geniuses in the galaxy, did you?"

For some Star Wars fans, especially those who consider Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back to be the greatest film, of any kind, ever -- you know, the ones who root for Darth Vader, and make you ask if they root for the Witch in The Wizard of Oz, Barzini in The Godfather, the shark in Jaws, and just who they root for in Casablanca and other World War II films -- this is where it all started to go wrong for the franchise:

* The pandering to the fact that the boys who loved the first movie were now teenagers, so Princess Leia had the "slave bikini."

* The too-easy, eventually retconned-away death for Boba Fett, who -- let's put it this way: Epic Rap Battles of History got it right in 2015, when they called him "the most overrated character anybody ever saw."

* Obi-Wan telling Luke that, "Darth Vader killed your father" was the truth "from a certain point of view." One later confirmed by Vader's own word the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series.

* Finding out that Leia was actually Luke's sister, making their earlier kisses pre-incest.

* The Ewoks.

But it all works out in the end.

Until 2015, when Star Wars: Episode VII -- The Force Awakens premiered, and we found out that, from the Original Trilogy's characters' perspective, it was all for nought, as they had to do it all over again.

*

May 25, 1983 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the California Angels, 7-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Former Yankee Tommy John went the distance for the Angels, while Shane Rawley did not have good stuff. Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew, both available for the Angels, did not play. Ken Griffey Sr. hit a home run for the Yankees, and Dave Winfield went 2-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 7-6 at Shea Stadium. Dave Kingman and George Foster hit home runs for the Mets, but it wasn't enough. Between them, the Mets' 1st 2 pitchers in this game, Neil Allen and Rick Ownby, pitched 6 innings, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits and 5 walks. In 3 weeks, they would be traded to St. Louis for Keith Hernandez.

* The Montreal Expos beat the San Diego Padres, 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Steve Rogers pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose both went 0-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray went 2-for-4, and Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Craig McMurtry pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench went 2-for-3 with a walk. The aforementioned Keith Hernandez went 0-for-4, but drew a walk, and had an RBI on a groundout.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Carl Yastrzemski, in his final season as a player, did not play in this game.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett hit a home run.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. It took 4 pitchers -- Mike Madden for 6 innings, Frank LaCorte for 2, Frank DiPino for 1/3rd, and Bill Dawley for 2/3rds -- to pitch a 3-hit shutout for the Astros.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-6 at the Oakland Coliseum. Robin Yount went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Paul Molitor was injured, and did not play.  Rickey Henderson also did not play.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

The NFL was out of season. The USFL was in its 1st season, but was in midweek. The NBA Finals were between Games 1 and 2, and the Philadelphia Flyers went on to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers. The Stanley Cup had been awarded 9 days earlier, when the New York Islanders swept the Edmonton Oilers.

In soccer, the European Cup Final -- the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League -- was held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Juventus of Turin, Italy went into the Final with 6 members of the Italy team that won the previous year's World Cup, including hero scorer Paolo Rossi, goalie Dino Zoff, and sweeper Gaetano Scirea (who was having his 30th birthday).

But an early wonder strike from Felix Magath holds up, and outgoing German champions Hamburger SV (Sport-Verein, "sports club") win, 1-0, and take the trophy known as Ol' Big Ears.

May 25, 1977: "Star Wars" Premieres

May 25, 1977: Star Wars -- or, as people born after 1990 know it, Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope -- premieres.

July 16, 1977: My father took me to see it, at the Menlo Park Twin Cinema on U.S. Route 1 in Edison, New Jersey. That theater has since been demolished, as has the old Menlo Park Mall. The new Mall has a multiplex cinema.

You hear that 20th Century Fox fanfare, and then that pause, and then that John Williams score, through Dolby stereo speakers, when you're 7 years old, and your previous science fiction experience has been watching the original Star Trek TV series, the Tom Baker version of Doctor Who, and the old Flash Gordon serials on TV with your father... and you totally get it when, years later, you first hear the expression "the magic of the movies."

And then came that "opening crawl," letting you in on the story, as with the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s and '40s that did so much to inspire this saga. 

No title above it. This was simply "Star Wars."

As James Doohan would have said,

"No bloody Episode I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, or IX!"

Lucas envisioned a 9-episode "Skywalker Saga." It's now been done, plus 2 films and a few TV series of "Star Wars Stories," intended to add some background to the 9.

As with Star Trek, without which Star Wars would have been all but impossible, the fandom is deeply passionate, and has made many quotes from the series familiar. "I've got a bad feeling about this!" "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." "I find your lack of faith disturbing." "Let the Wookiee win." "Use The Force, Luke!" "The Force is strong in this one." "You're all clear, kid!" "Never tell me the odds!" "That'll do nicely." "Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!" followed by Chewbacca laughing, followed by "Laugh it up, fuzzball!" "Judge me by my size, do you?" "Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'" "I love you!" followed by "I know." "It's a trap!" "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." "I hate sand!" "So, this is how liberty dies: With thunderous applause." And, most of all, "May the Force be with you."

And Darth Vader never said, "Luke, I am your father!" In Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back, the exchange went like this:

Vader: Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Vader: No. I am your father.

Luke: No... no... that's not true! That's impossible!

Vader: Search your feelings: You know it to be true!

Luke: Noooooooo! No... 

The effect of Star Wars -- and the subsequent release, on November 16, of Steven Spielberg's UFO film Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- was immediate and irrevocable. It changed the movie industry forever. Science fiction, which had been kind of a joke for a while, became a cash cow. The "Summer blockbuster," "invented" 2 years earlier by Spielberg with Jaws, became a necessity for Hollywood studios, thanks to George Lucas, who wrote and directed this film. He and Spielberg would make some of the biggest films ever made, some of them together.

Paramount Pictures had been planning to bring Star Trek back as a TV series, but shifted instead to making Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The 1930s newspaper comic strip and film serial characters Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon were reimagined, the former as an NBC series, the latter as a feature film. TV knockoffs included ABC's Battlestar Galactica; the CBS kids' shows Space Academy and Jason of Star Command, the later including Star Trek actor James Doohan; and the NBC parody Quark -- not to be confused with the later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character: Unlike the original USS Enterprise, this show's ship actually was hauling garbage in space!

Even the James Bond franchise got into the act. In 1955, Ian Fleming published Moonraker, in which Agent 007 investigated the theft of fighter jets. In the Summer of 1979, EON Productions, producers of the Bond films, put the story in space, with the Moonrakers becoming space shuttles.

With over 40 years of hindsight, Moonraker wasn't all that bad a Bond movie (although, at 51, Roger Moore was starting to look too old to play Bond), or even an especially bad a science fiction movie (only the last half-hour or so takes place in space). But 2 minutes of orbital laser battle between U.S. Marines and Sir Hugo Drax's thugs have rendered the film ridiculous in many people's eyes. The realization that Jaws and his new nerdy but stacked girlfriend do not fit Drax's idea of the ideal population of a rebuilt postapocalyptic masterpiece society, powerfully pulled off by Richard Kiel and French actress Blanche Ravalec without saying a word, makes for one of the best messages of any Bond movie.

Star Wars affected popular culture beyond movies and television. Baseball's New York Yankees frequently use Williams' familiar theme song to introduce their players on special days, like Opening Day and postseason games, and Williams' "Imperial March," a.k.a. "Darth Vader's Theme," to introduce the opposing players.

And some baseball teams, including the Yankees -- more likely to be at home on the day than teams in other sports -- hold "Star Wars Night," featuring people in costumes on the field, and film-themed giveaways, such as bobblehead dolls of a star player holding a lightsaber. This is usually done on May 4, which is "Star Wars Day," as a pun: "May the fourth be with you." If a team is on the road that day, but at home on May 25, the anniversary of the 1st film's release, they can do it that day.

Peter Cushing died in 1994, Alec Guinness in 2000. Kenny Baker died in 2016, although, by Episode VII, R2-D2 could be filmed using an actual robot rather than an actor. Carrie Fisher also died in 2016, after filming Episode VIII but before it could be released, and unused footage of her was used to form her role in Episode IX. Peter Mayhew died in 2019, having played Chewbacca through Episode VII, and then handing the role over to Joonas Suotamo for Episodes VIII and IX. David Prowse and Jeremy Bulloch died in 2020. 

As of May 25, 2022, George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels, James Earl Jones, Frank Oz and Billy Dee Williams are still alive. (UPDATE: Jones died in 2024.)

In a trilogy of episodes for the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Darth Vader was played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as Adolf Hitler. In a 2020 episode, done with LEGO animation, Nice Peter voiced Luke Skywalker -- referencing the Hitler vs. Vader Trilogy by saying, "I am a rhyming Jedi, like my father before me" -- against Harry Potter, voiced by British YouTuber Dave Brown, a.k.a. "Boyinaband."

*

May 25, 1977 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Reggie Jackson, in the midst of the controversy where it was alleged that he insulted Thurman Munson and called himself "straw that stirs the drink," went 0-for-3, but Roy White hit a home run.

It was only the 6th career game, and 4th career start, for Gil Patterson, and it would be his only major league win, as he outpitched Bert Blyleven. His last major league appearance would come on August 27, and he continued to pitch through injuries until 1982. He would last considerably longer in baseball as a pitching coach, including with the Yankees and especially with the Oakland Athletics, helping to build their 2000s "Big Three" of Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder.

But it was the 1st game of a twi-night doubleheader, and, in the nightcap, the Rangers won, 1-0, with Gaylord Perry outdueling Mike Torrez. Jackson went 1-for-3 in this game, 1 of only 6 hits that Perry, possibly throwing the spitball, gave up. Still, the Rangers started 2 future Hall-of-Famers, allowed just 3 runs, and still escaped with only a split.

* The New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled, each given a travel day.

* The Minnesota Twins swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, 13-5 and 9-4. Larry Hisle and Dan Ford hit home runs for the Twins in the 1st game. Carlton Fisk and Dwight Evans hit home runs for the Sox in the 1st game. Nobody homered in the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, Rod Carew went 7-for-11 with 3 RBIs, while Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-7.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Kansas City Royals won the 1st game, 4-1. The Baltimore Orioles won the 2nd game, 7-2. For the O's, Brooks Robinson, in his final season, went 1-for-3; while Eddie Murray, in his 1st season, went 1-for-4; and neither of them played in the 2nd game. For the Royals, George Brett went 3-for-10.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-5 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. In a battle between a stripped-bare team (the A's) and an expansion team (the Jays) for the title of worst team in baseball, a Jays error led to a Manny Sanguillen double and a Mitchel Page single driving home 2 runs in the top of the 10th. The Jays scored 1 in the bottom of the 10th, but couldn't finish the comeback. The A's would finish with 98 losses; the Jays, 107.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Bruce Bochte, later to be an All-Star for the Mariners, singled home the winning run for the Indians in the bottom of the 12th inning. Dennis Eckersley went all 12 for the Tribe.

* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Frank Tanana pitched a 3-hit shutout, striking out 11, and was supported by home runs from Bobby Grich and Bobby Bonds.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Steve Carlton won it, and Mike Schmidt went 1-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-5 at San Diego Stadium. (It was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium in 1980 and Qualcomm Stadium in 1997.) The Braves, who would go on to be the worst team in the National League with 101 losses, thought they had the game won in the top of the 12th, when Barry Bonnell hit a home run. But in the bottom of the 12th, Dave Winfield tied it with a home run, and the Braves never got another out, as 3 Padres singled and 1 walked, Jerry Turner singling in the winning run off Rick Camp.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The winning pitcher was Charlie Williams, who, in 1972, had been traded to the Giants, even-up, for Willie Mays.

Football was out of season. The NBA was between Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals, which the Portland Trail Blazers would win over the Philadelphia 76ers. It remains the Blazers' only title.

The Stanley Cup had been awarded 9 days earlier, when the Montreal Canadiens completed a Finals sweep of the Boston Bruins. It was the 2nd of 4 straight Cups for the Canadiens, who, over the course of the season, including the Playoffs, played 90 games, and lost only 10 (68 wins, 12 ties).

The World Hockey Association title had not yet been decided. Six games had been played, and the defending Champion Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques were tied 3-3. The next night, in Game 7 at Colisée de Québec, the Nordiques unloaded with an 8-2 win, to take the WHA's trophy, the Avco World Trophy, a.k.a. the Avco Cup. (Avco, or Aviation Company, was a defense contractor who had bought the trophy's naming rights. It is now owned by Textron.)

The Jets would take the last 2 WHA titles, in 1978 and 1979. They, the Nordiques, the Edmonton Oilers and the Hartford Whalers were then admitted to the NHL. The original Jets moved to the Phoenix area in 1996, and are now known as the Arizona Coyotes. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers became the new Winnipeg Jets. Neither team has ever won a Stanley Cup. The Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995, becoming the Colorado Avalanche. They won the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001.

And the European Cup Final was held at the Stadio Olimpico, in Rome, Italy. Liverpool Football Club beat Borussia Mönchengladbach, of Germany, 3-1. Through 2022, Liverpool have won more European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles than any other British team, 6. But this has been surpassed by Italy's AC Milan, with 7; and Spain's Real Madrid, with 14.

May 21, 1980: "The Empire Strikes Back" Premieres

May 21, 1980: Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back premieres, the sequel to the 1977 blockbuster.

To the franchise, the film introduces the characters of Emperor Palpatine (alluded to in the previous film but not shown), Jedi Master Yoda, and Lando Calrissian, and the elephantine All-Terrain Armored Transports (AT-ATs); takes the character of Boba Fett, introduced in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, and puts him in live-action for the first time; and drops the biggest bombshell, or "plot twist," in film history: 

Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones, physical form by David Prowse): Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill): He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Vader: No. I am your father.

Luke: No... no... that's not true! That's impossible!

Vader: Search your feelings: You know it to be true!

Luke: Noooooooo! No... 

This, of course, leads to the additional twist in Episode VI, with Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) also being a child of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, making her Luke's sister, throwing a massive monkey wrench into the love triangle between Luke, Leia and Han Solo (Harrison Ford).

There are people who believe The Empire Strikes Back is not just the greatest Star Wars film, but the greatest film of all time, in spite of the fact that it doesn't have a happy ending. (Sure, Luke and the rebels get away, but... ) These are people who root for Darth Vader, for the Dark Side of The Force.

These are people who probably root for the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, for the shark in Jaws, for Barzini in The Godfather. I wonder who they root for in World War II films.

To put it another way: If you think Empire is better than Jedi because it was darker and had an unhappy ending, then why isn't Godfather III your favorite Corleone movie?

Boba Fett has featured in 2 episodes of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History. In 2013, Atul Singh played him, with Ray William Johnson providing his voice, stepping into the 3rd and last battle between Adolf Hilter, played by "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist, and Darth Vader, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff. In 2015, Fett was played by rapper-gymnast Ivan "Flipz" Velez, with Nice Peter providing his voice, against Marvel Comics anti-hero Deadpool, played by actor Robert Hoffman, with Epic Lloyd providing his voice. 

 

*

May 21, 1980 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 4 and 5, and the New York Islanders went on to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games. The NBA Finals ended 5 days earlier, with the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Philadelphia 76ers in 6 games.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Graig Nettles and Ruppert Jones both hit home runs in the top of the 11th inning, to make a winning pitcher of Rudy May, despite his having blown a save for starter Tom Underwood. Eric Soderholm, Lou Piniella and Bobby Brown also hit home runs. Reggie Jackson did not play.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 5-1 at Shea Stadium. Pete Falcone outpitched J.R. Richard.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-8 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the San Diego Padres, 4-3 and 3-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell only batted once, drawing a walk as a pinch-hitter in the 1st game.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Eddie Murray went 1-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Tony Armas singled home the winning run in the top of the 14th inning. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 3-for-5 with 2 stolen bases. George Brett went 0-for-6, and was batting .247. He eventually got up to .401, before dropping to .390.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 9-8 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rod Carew went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle. The M's scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win it. Robin Yount went 0-for-4 with a walk. Paul Molitor went 1-for-4 with a walk.