December 15, 1993: "Schindler's List" Premieres

Left to right: The film's producer and director, Steven Spielberg;

and stars Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley

December 15, 1993: Schindler's List premieres, based on the 1980 historical novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Kenneally.

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908 in Zwittau, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Svitavy, Czechia). In 1936, he joined the Abwehr, Nazi Germany's military intelligence unit, collecting information on railways and troop movements. In 1938, the Czech government arrested him for espionage, but he was released under the terms of the Munich Agreement. In gratitude, he joined the Nazi Party.

In 1939, he bought an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland. His connections allowed him to hire Jewish workers: At its peak in 1944, he employed 1,750 people, 1,000 of them Jews. In order to keep higher Nazi officials out of his business, he had to send ever-larger bribes and gifts. But he kept his workers from being deported to the death camps, all through World War II.

Oskar Schindler

By V-E Day, May 8, 1945, with Germany's surrender, Schindler had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black market purchases of supplies for his workers. He moved to the new Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) after The War. He was supported by assistance payments from Jewish relief organizations.

After receiving a partial reimbursement for his wartime expenses, he moved with his wife, Emilie, to Argentina -- ironically, a country to which many ex-Nazis had escaped to avoid capture by the Allies. There, they took up farming. When he went bankrupt in 1958, Schindler left his wife, and returned to Germany, where he failed at several business ventures and relied on financial support from the people who had become known as Schindlerjuden -- "Schindler Jews," the people whose lives he had saved.

He died on October 9, 1974 in Hildesheim, Germany, and was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only former member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way. In 1982, Thomas Kenneally published the novel Schindler's Ark, based on his story. Film director Steven Spielberg, born into a Jewish family after The War, read it, and decided that, one day, he would make it into a film.

In 1993, while Spielberg was finishing production on the film, Oskar and Emilie Schindler received the highest honor that the Israeli government can give to foreign citizens: "Righteous Among the Nations." They also gave that honor to his wife, Emilie.

In the film, Schindler was played by Liam Neeson. Caroline Goodall played Emilie, who lived until 2001, and was present at the film's premiere. Ben Kingsley played Itzhak Stern, Schindler's Jewish accountant, who survived The War, moved to Israel, and lived until 1969.

Ralph Fiennes, already known in his native Britain, became famous in America for playing Amon Göth, commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. He was captured by the Allies, and, in 1946, became the 1st Nazi war criminal to be executed.

The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning 7, including Best Picture, Best Director for Spielberg, and Best Original Score for John Williams. Neeson and Fiennes were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, but neither won.  

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December 15, 1993 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 108-98 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 101-93 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 97-95 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-91 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. David Robinson led all scorers on the night with 37 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Golden State Warriors, 110-104  at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Orlando Magic, 110-109 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Sacramento Kings, 96-95 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

And there were 8 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Boston Bruins, 5-4 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-3 at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Miami Arena.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

June 20, 1975: "Jaws" Premieres

June 20, 1975: Jaws premieres, turning Steven Spielberg into a star director, and inventing the "Summer blockbuster film."

It was based on the novel of the same title, by Peter Benchley, grandson of Robert Benchley of Algonquin Round Table fame. He later regretted writing the book, because the movie led people to go out and kill sharks who had done nothing wrong.

Steven Spielberg was only 27 years old during filming, but he was already a genius, capable of out-Hitching Alfred Hitchcock for fear, suspense and characterization.

The movie was filmed on Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, and "The Vineyard" stood in for the fictional Amity Island.

Roy Scheider, having previously played a second banana in The French Connection, proved that you didn't have to look like Steve McQueen, Paul Newman or Robert Redford to be an action hero.

Richard Dreyfuss, having played teenagers in American Graffiti and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, was so much better playing a young, thoughtful scientist like Hooper than being a rotten old man. It's one thing to play a mean old Republican, like he did in The American President and W., and he was damn good at both. It's another thing to be one.

English actor Robert Shaw played Quint, who became a shark-hunter after surviving the shark attack on the survivors of the Japanese attack on the USS Indianapolis in the waning days of World War II. Surviving a harrowing wartime experience should make a man less of a jerk, not more. Quint never figured this out.

Murray Hamilton played Mayor Larry Vaughn, a coward who pandered to local businesses. He would have made a great modern Southern Republican. In contrast, as Chief Brody, Scheider gives off serious "I'm a Republican of conscience, and that's why I'm now a guest on MSNBC at least 3 times a week" vibes.

Look, I get why some people root for the shark. Frankly, I wept not at all when it chomped Quint up. I would have cheered if it had gotten that useless Mayor, the real villain of the movie. But you're not supposed to root for the shark, any more than you root for the witch in The Wizard of Oz, or Barzini in The Godfather, or Darth Vader in Star Wars, or Thanos in the Marvel movies.

"Smile, you son of a bitch!" is a better "I'm about to kill you!" line than was ever delivered by John Wayne, and neither Clint Eastwood, nor Sylvester Stallone, nor Arnold Schwarzenegger, nor Bruce Willis has ever topped it, either. Nor will they, in whatever time is left to them.

There were 3 sequels by 1987. The less said about them, the better.

Shaw died in 1978, Hamilton in 1986, Scheider in 2008. As of June 20, 2022, Spielberg, Dreyfuss, and Lorraine Gary, who played Ellen Brody, the Chief's wife, are still alive.

I don't like horror movies, and Jaws has too much screaming for me to buy some people's argument that it's a "perfect movie." But it's a great movie, one proven by both the post-9/11 hysteria and COVID to have stood the test of time.

If had not been made then, and were made today, would it have the same impact? Probably not, since we've been desensitized to some forms of fear. Except... You're gonna need a bigger bank account.

In a 2014 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Spielberg. It became a "battle royale" of film directors, with Peter also playing Michael Bay, while "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Alfred Hitchcock, rapper Michael "Wax" Jones played Quentin Tarantino, and rapper Ruggles Outbound played Stanley Kubrick.

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June 20, 1975 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 10-9 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Rudy May didn't get out of the 1st inning, as the Tigers tagged him for 7 runs. But the Yankees nearly came back against Vern Ruhle, with 6 runs in the top of the 9th. Mickey Stanley's home run in the 7th made the difference. Graig Nettles and Bobby Bonds, in his only season with the Yankees, hit home runs. Nettles and Walt "No Neck" Williams each got 3 hits.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1 at Shea Stadium. Tom Seaver and Brooklyn native John Candelaria had a pitcher's duel going, until Willie Stargell hit a home run in the top of the 7th. The Mets tied it in the bottom of the 8th. Met manager Yogi Berra brought Tom Hall in to pitch the 9th, and he had nothing, and neither did Bob Apodaca, and the Bucs scored 3 runs, to make a winning pitcher out of Candelaria.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Rick Burleson hit a sacrifice fly to score Doug Griffin with the winning run in the top of the 12th inning. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-3 with 3 walks. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-5.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 7-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Greg Luzinski hit a home run. Mike Schmidt did not play.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Slaton pitched a 6-hit shutout. Robin Yount went 2-for-4 with a walk. Hank Aaron was available for the Brewers, but did not play. Nor did Cleveland player-manager Frank Robinson insert himself into the game. So that's 2 men with a combined 1,321 career home runs who could have played in this game, but didn't.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rod Carew went 2-for-5 for the Twins, while Steve Brye hit a home run. Bucky Dent went 3-for-4 for the White Sox, while Ken Henderson hit a home run.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Cago Cubs, 8-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 7-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Rose went 2-for-5. Johnny Bench went 1-for- 4 with a walk.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Willie McCovey, who never looked right in a Padre uniform -- then again, in the 1970s, nobody did -- hit a home run.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 12-11 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). The Rangers scored 6 runs in the 1st inning, before the Angels even came to bat, chasing Bill Singer. But Gaylord Perry couldn't hold it, and the Angels led 8-7 after 6.

The Rangers sent the game to extra innings, and scored 3 runs in the top of the 11th. But the Angels scored 4 in the bottom half, the winning run scoring when 2nd baseman Mike Cubbage mishandled Jerry Remy's ground ball. Morris Nettles, no relation to Graig (Morris was black), had an RBI double in the inning.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs. George Brett went 0-for-4. 

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.

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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.

June 11, 1982: "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" Premieres

June 11, 1982: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial premieres. Steven Spielberg directed a story about a being from another planet, mistakenly left behind on Earth by his people, and his attempt to get home, with the help of a suburban American family (children included), with the federal government trying to investigate him to see if he's a threat.

It became the biggest box-office bonanza of all time, and held that title until Titanic was released in 1997.

At the time, we thought it was a heartwarming science fiction story for the whole family. Even my grandmother, who didn't like sci-fi, loved it.

Now, we know the truth: It was a horror movie.

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June 11, 1982 was a Friday. Basketball legend Diana Taurasi was born.

Football was out of season. The hockey season had ended the month before, with the New York Islanders winning the Stanley Cup over the Vancouver Canucks. The basketball season had ended 3 days before, with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship over the Philadelphia 76ers. And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 9-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Dave Winfield, Ken Griffey Sr. and Roy Smalley Jr. each got 2 hits, to no avail. Dennis Martinez (6 innings) and Tippy Martinez (no relation, 3) combined to beat Mike Morgan. Gary Roenicke and eventual Rookie of the Year Cal Ripken Jr. hit home runs for the O's, while Eddie Murray went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Shea Stadium.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-8 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Lee Lacy hit a home run in the top of the 9th inning, ruining a great start by Larry Christenson, and making a winner of Kent Tekulve in relief of John Candelaria. Willie Stargell, in his last season, unsuccessfully appeared as a pinch-hitter. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-3, and Pete Rose went 2-for-4.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-1 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-4, and didn't steal any bases.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-3, and Rod Carew went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs, and Paul Molitor went 2-for-5 with 1 RBI.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.) George Brett went 1-for-5, and Jerry Martin singled in the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 6-2 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. (It was renamed Qualcomm Stadium in 1997.) Tony Gwynn made his major league debut with the Padres on July 19, and did not get into this game.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Jerry Reuss allowed a leadoff double to Eddie Milner, who was brought home on 2 groundouts, and didn't allow another hit for the rest of the game. Johnny Bench was 0-for-2 before being substituted.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers got rained out at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 6, and the Rangers swept it, 4-3 and 11-7.