What was going on when I was born?

On the sixth Sunday of the National Football League strike, the owners yesterday produced some optimism with their first money offer since the walkout - guaranteeing a yearly raise to every player for the length of his contract as part of a $1.28 billion package. The proposal - confirmed by sources familiar with the negotiations at the Loews Summit Hotel - was given to each of the assembled player representatives from 26 of the 28 teams for analysis. Later, the union made a counterproposal. For what seemed to be the first time since these talks began in a vitriolic atmosphere in Hollywood, Fla., last February, there was some movement on the money package.

A list of the candidates on ballots in the New York metropolitan area and a guide to the key issues in the major races begin on page B10. WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 - Analysts for both major parties agreed today that Democrats are poised to take five or more governorships now held by Republicans in Tuesday's elections, including four in the economically hard-hit industrial Middle West. Republican leaders, resigned to a net loss of several statehouses, said they hoped to ease the sting with an uphill victory in California and a long-shot upset in Alabama. Charles T. Manatt, the Democratic national chairman, contended that his party would ultimately stave off the Republican drive in California, hold on to New York, Connecticut and Alabama and ''net from five to seven governorships'' from the Republicans nationwide. Some Democrats think the party will do even better.

The Palestine Liberation Organization's senior military commander said today that any P.L.O. withdrawal from Lebanon must be preceded by an evacuation of Israeli forces and the signing of a new agreement between the guerrilla group and the Lebanese Government guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian civilians. Khalil al-Wazir, better known by his guerrilla name, Abu Jihad, said in a 90-minute interview in his Damascus residence that the P.L.O. wanted to retain some kind of symbolic military presence in Lebanon under the authority of the Lebanese Government. He said this would assure the 500,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon that they would not be exposed to another massacre such as occurred in the Palestinian camps outside Beirut last month. The P.L.O. leader said that the Palestinians could no longer rely on United States guarantees of safety, such as those he said it had received from Philip C. Habib, President Reagan's Mideast envoy, before the Israelis went into West Beirut.

International Pope John Paul II arrived in Spain on the first papal visit ever made to the predominantly Roman Catholic country. He began his 10-day visit at a time of high political excitement in Spain, which last week elected its first post-Franco Socialist Government. In an address to the Spanish bishops he urged them to defend the church positions against abortion and divorce. The Socialists are expected to seek legalization of abortion. (Page A1, Columns 4-5.) A P.L.O. withdrawal from Lebanon must be preceded by an evacuation of Israeli forces and the signing of a new agreement between the guerrilla group and the Lebanese Government guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian civilians, the P.L.O.'s senior military commander said. Khalil al-Wazir, widely known by his guerrilla name, Abu Jihad, said that the P.L.O. wanted to retain some kind of symbolic military presence in Lebanon under the authority of the Lebanese Government. He said this would assure the 500,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon that they would not be exposed to another massacre such as occurred in the Palestinian camps outside Beirut last month. (A1:1-2.)

A separate section of Criminal Court will be created in Manhattan to deal solely with prosecutions of landlords who disregard buildingsafety laws. The announcement of the move was made jointly yesterday by Mayor Koch and Betty Weinberg Ellerin, the city's chief administrative judge. ''There are owners who are either ignoring these important safety measures or who are not moving fast enough,'' the Mayor said. By concentrating this effort in one courtroom, he added, ''we hope to get more effective and speedier compliance.''

Television viewers in the New York metropolitan area were subjected to such a barrage of political advertisements over the weekend that some media consultants said the effect of the advertisements could be confusing and not helpful to the candidates. Scores of 30- and 60-second commercials for campaigns from New York's gubernatorial contest to local races in New Jersey and on Long Island have saturated the time normally allotted to product commercials on the half-dozen New York stations. ''Between Saturday and Monday evening,'' said Lauritz Weng, sales manager for WCBS, ''there probably won't be a show where you won't see a political advertisement.'' As a result, some experts suggested that the force of individual candidates' television advertising was being diminished or even negated amid a clutter of conflicting and often confusing messages.

From deep in the woods came the off-key blare of a hunting horn, the throaty bark of hounds and the pounding of hooves. Seconds later, hounds and horses dashed into the open, and a field next to a nuclear power plant became a full-dress fox-hunting scene. What shattered the Sunday afternoon stillness of this Suffolk County community today was the opening of the Smithtown Hunt Club's season, a three-hour romp by more than 20 brown and white hounds and 80 elaborately costumed huntsmen in pursuit of an imaginary fox. The members of the club, one of the oldest on Long Island, pay dues of $300 a year to practice what members are fond of describing as one of this country's oldest sports. After all, they say, George Washington imported a pack of foxhounds from England.

President Reagan, in a closing election appeal for the Republican Party, today accused unidentified ''big spenders'' of forcing the end of prayer in schools. In a nationally broadcast political commercial, Mr. Reagan accused his political foes of using ''cruel scare tactics'' in the campaign, and he attacked ''big spenders'' for causing inflation, terms he has used often during the campaign. Then he said, ''They even drove prayer out of our nation's classrooms.'' Mort Allin, an assistant White House secretary, refused to say exactly to whom Mr. Reagan was referring. ''They know who they are,'' he said.

''The proliferation of political advertising is incredible. Very frequently you're seeing two or three ads in a row, and you have to wonder whether the effect may be to block any information from getting through at all.'' - Phil Friedman of Campaign Strategies Inc. (B1:2.)

The earnings of many of the nation's leading corporations plunged in the third quarter as high interest rates, the slack economy and the strong dollar took their expected toll. The depressed profits in the quarter, confirmed now that almost all major companies have filed their reports, resulted in a spate of dividend reductions, plant closings and layoffs. Some of the giants that reduced their dividends included United States Steel, the country's largest steel producer, which halved its quarterly payout to 25 cents; the Aluminum Company of America, which lowered its dividend to 30 cents, from 45 cents; Georgia-Pacific, which cut its payout in half, to 15 cents; Deere & Company, which also halved its dividend, to 25 cents, and Caterpillar Tractor, which made a cut to 37 1/2, from 67 1/2 cents.

Selling a gallon of gasoline has always been a highly competitive game. These days, in a time of weakened demand for gasoline and a deregulated marketplace, that competition - and the confusion it has engendered - may be more intense than ever. In this most recent version of the gasoline price war, some oil companies are trying to trim costs associated with credit card transactions by offering discounts for using cash or discontinuing their card programs. Others are sticking by their plastic and, in fact, are accepting their competitors' gasoline cards.

Every time the American dollar rises by 10 yen, the fuel bill for Japan Air Lines increases $20 million a year, because the fuel is priced in dollars. Thus, the slumping yen - at the time of a drop in worldwide traffic and a poor performance in Japan - has made the carrier extremely cost-conscious. The airline, which is the third-largest carrier internationally, after Pan American and British Airways, earned the equivalent of $23.9 million in the fiscal year ended in March on revenues of $3.14 billion. Since then, the yen has declined 13 percent against the dollar, and in the first five months of the new fiscal year, the airline had losses of $12 million. Airline executives say an improvement in profits depends on fuel savings.