Today is Saturday, Aug. 31, the 244th day of 2024. There are 122 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed as the car she was riding in crashed on the Pont de l’Alma bridge in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.

Also on this date:

In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.

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In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people.

In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent of British colonial rule.

In 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk (guh-DANSK’) that ended a 17-day-old strike.

In 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that had claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

In 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.

In 2006, Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” was recovered by Norwegian authorities after being stolen nine days earlier.

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war in his country and around the world: “it’s time to turn the page.”

In 2019, a gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.

Today’s Birthdays:

World Golf Hall of Famer Isao Aoki is 82.
Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 79.
Singer Van Morrison is 79.
Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 76.
Actor Richard Gere is 75.
Actor Stephen McKinley Henderson is 75.
Attorney and author Marcia Clark is 71.
Olympic gold medal hurdler Edwin Moses is 69.
Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 67.
Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s) is 67.
Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 54.
Queen Rania of Jordan is 54.
Golfer Padraig (PAH’-drig) Harrington is 53.
Actor Chris Tucker is 53.
Actor Sara Ramirez is 49.
Former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is 41.
NBA All-Star Jalen Brunson is 28.

The Saints dropped the first game of Friday’s doubleheader 6-5, despite outhitting the Omaha Storm Chasers, but won the second game 8-3 on the road at Werner Park.

In the first game, Omaha got on the board first with two runs in the first inning. The Saints tied the game 2-2 in the third, with a groundout from Brooks Lee that scored Anthony Prato and a double from DaShawn Keirsey Jr., scoring Michael Helman. Saints tied it again at 4-4 in the fifth, but Omaha again answered with two of their own and the Saints’ last seventh-inning run couldn’t bring a third tie, giving the Storm Chasers a final 6-5 victory.

Randy Dobnak started and allowed four runs in four innings. Giovanny Gallegos (0-2) took the loss after surrendering two runs — one earned — while getting just two outs and walking four batters. The two runs scored on a wild pitch from Gallegos and a throwing error by catcher Jair Camargo.

Yunior Severino had three hits for St. Paul.

In the second game, Andrew Morris threw five shutout innings, earning his first Triple-A win.

Patrick Winkel gave the Saints their first run with a single to right in the second inning. Prato’s walk loaded the bases and Payton Eeles tripled on a line drive to right that gave the Saints a 4-0 lead.

The Saints doubled their lead in the third inning, thanks partly to Carson McCusker’s three-run homer, his second in three games.

The Storm Chasers added runs in the sixth and seventh, but couldn’t come near the Saints.

They meet again tonight at 6 p.m.

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For a while there in the ’90s, it looked as if Nirvana changed music forever. And they did, at least for a few years.

But then a new generation of bar bands that got lucky brought back middle-of-the-road mainstream rock, called themselves alternative or post-grunge and sold millions of CDs in the process. Think Hootie and the Blowfish, Counting Crows and the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand’s Friday night headliner Matchbox Twenty.

More than 12 million people bought the band’s 1996 debut “Yourself or Someone Like You” and chances are many of the 12,774 people at the show were among those who did. Its hits — “Push,” “3AM,” “Real World” and “Back 2 Good” — clogged the airwaves for a good two years and every one of them got a hero’s welcome Friday.

Then again, the crowd seemed to love it all, even “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” a single from 2023’s “Where the Light Goes,” the group’s first album in a decade that made it all the way to No. 53.

To be sure, the band gave the sort of energetic, engaging and showbizzy performance that works well at the Grandstand on a Friday night, particularly after a few beers. Lead singer Rob Thomas and company are almost all in their 50s and radiated Minnesota Dad vibes, the type who grew up on college rock and want to tell you how great the Replacements were. (Thomas gave a shoutout to them, as well as Prince, Semisonic and Tim Walz.)

That said, it sounded as if Thomas wasn’t kidding when he sang 2003’s triple platinum hit “Unwell.” The guy who started a solo career after his 1999 Santana collaboration “Smooth” attained supernova status often sounded hoarse and seemed to be struggling to hit the right notes. He didn’t come off like a guy who lost his voice, rather a guy who caught a bug of some sort.

Many of Matchbox Twenty’s catchy, midtempo songs do have darker lyrics than one might imagine, like their 1997 breakthrough hit “Push,” a jaunty little number about an emotionally abusive relationship. Thomas introduced “Back 2 Good” as “a song written by younger, angrier men,” and he wasn’t kidding.

Occasionally, the band hit it out of the park, as they did with 2003’s “Bright Lights,” a Stones-esque gospel rocker that gave guitarist Kyle Cook the opportunity to shine. For the final song of the 85-minute set, the guys covered Simple Minds’ 1985 hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” The rasp in Thomas’ voice worked well with the song, an anthem of sorts to the Gen Xers who loved it in “The Breakfast Club” and loved it again Friday night.

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For a quarterback taking over the starting job, Izaak Johnson felt pretty good about how things played out Friday night.

The Cretin-Derham Hall junior threw for 139 yards and three touchdowns as the Raiders rolled past Tartan 34-6 in the season opener for both teams at O’Shaughnessy Stadium at the University of St. Thomas.

“It felt great,” Johnson said afterward. “I was super nervous at first, but then I realized it was the same game as always.

“My line was doing great and that helped. There are still a bunch of things we have to clean up as an offense. But overall, it was a good game.”

Johnson got things started by connecting with senior Monteff Dixon on a 21-yard touchdown pass with 1:15 to play in the first quarter, then junior Ja’Dale Thompson scored on a 16-yard run in the second.

Johnson finished the half with a 27-yard scoring strike to junior Sam Heath and a 16-yard touchdown pass to senior Owen Prestegaard to put his team on top 27-0 at halftime.

“Everybody has optimism the first game,” Raiders coach Steve Walsh said. “When you get a big lead, it kind of deflates the other team a little. But give them credit, they played hard in the second half. We played sloppy at times throughout the game, but we made enough big plays to win. So that was a good start.”

Indeed, , moving the ball and finally scoring on a 2-yard run by senior Bryant Saloe with 8:47 to play. But Cretin-Derham Hall added a final touchdown on a 23-yard run by Thompson with 3:48 remaining.

“We clearly weren’t awake in the first half and we challenged the kids at halftime,” Tartan coach Matt Diediker said. “It was good to see them respond. But like I told them at the end, you don’t get to count a victory in the second half. It’s the whole game.

“So we have a lot of areas to improve, but we did see some good things tonight.”

So did the Raiders, who next travel to Bemidji (1-0) for a game scheduled for 7 p.m. next Friday.

Senior Tommy Sticha finished with 13 carries for 110 yards against the Titans. Thompson carried the ball eight times for 60 yards and the two touchdowns.

“This was a nice start, but now we have to clean up the little things and focus on Bemidji,” Johnson said.

“(Bemidji) kind of gave us some fits last year,” added Walsh, whose team fell 14-7 to the Lumberjacks at home in 2023. “It was a close game, but we lost. There will be a lot of distractions. Leaving school a little early and a five-hour bus ride. We’re going to spend the night on campus (at Bemidji State) and take a college tour the next morning.

“We’re going to do a lot of interesting things. But first and foremost, we have to take care of the game.”

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