What was going on when I was born?

TWO items caught the attention of a visitor at Tom Seaver's locker stall in the White Sox clubhouse. This was on a late afternoon before a recent ball game. One of those items was The New York Times crossword puzzle that the veteran pitcher had begun before being interrupted: He had just completed 4 Down, ''Spud feature,'' three letters (he penned in ''eye'') and 13 Across, ''Bailey, Belli et al.,'' seven letters (he wrote ''lawyers''). The other item was a White Sox cap hanging on a hook. It was a dark blue cap inscribed with dry perspiration stains, perhaps worn in his last outing a few days previously.

''We're all terribly anxious to get home and hug our loved ones and touch American soil again.'' - Allyn Conwell, a former hostage. [A7:1.]

Dr. James Oleske pulled a plush rabbit from the pocket of his lab coat, but was unable to quiet his 4-year-old patient. Instead, Dr. Oleske turned the restive boy from his back to his stomach and prescribed Valium as a sedative. ''See you, old buddy,'' Dr. Oleske said, leaving the hospital room with a salute and a strained smile. Then he approached a staff physician. ''Resuscitate,'' Dr. Oleske said, ''but no respirator.''

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. A Washington dispatch on page 1 Friday reported on a speech by David A. Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, about the Federal deficit.

The banking industry is bracing for another round of regulation, but this time not from the Federal banking agencies. If the Securities and Exchange Commission acts as expected, it will vote Monday to require all banks that offer brokerage services to the public to register those operations with the commission. After a controversial and at times bitter debate with both the banking industry and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the S.E.C. staff is expected to ask the four commissioners - one seat is vacant - to endorse a proposal that would compel any bank that does even a modest amount of brokerage business to come under the commission's oversight and adhere to its regulations on such matters as capital requirements. According to bankers and other securities experts, the commissioners are expected to approve the staff recommendation, which would affect an estimated 2,000 banks.

Stocks of companies that posted better-than-expected earnings, those that were takeover targets and even one that owns a very fast horse led the gainers on the nation's major stock exchanges in the second quarter. Companies that posted disappointing earnings, many technology-related concerns and even a horse breeding and race track company whose stock stumbled out of the starting gate were among the biggest losers during the three-month period, which saw the Dow Jones industrial average surge to a new high. Steadily dropping interest rates spurred the Dow Jones industrial average in late May past the 1,300 level for the first time. The index closed on Friday at a record high of 1,335.46, up 5.4 percent from its 1.266.78 level at the beginning of the quarter. The American Stock Exchange market-value index closed on Friday at 230.89, up just slightly from its 229.59 level three months ago. The Nasdaq composite index of over-the-counter issues rose 6 percent during the quarter, to 296.2 from 279.2.

Just over a month after deposit runs severely disrupted Maryland's 102 privately insured savings and loan associations, Maryland officials say they are pleased by the progress they have made toward restoring faith in that part of the state's financial system. But the officials concede it could be months before they know the extent of the financial problems suffered before the runs began and the additional damage inflicted when depositors jammed the thrift units to withdraw their money. Some industry executives, meanwhile, as well as some politicians outside the office of the state's Democratic Governor, Harry R. Hughes, fear that Maryland taxpayers may have to bail out depositors if some of the bigger thrift units do not receive coverage from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. That is because, under newly enacted Maryland law, thrift units with assets exceeding $40 million have until Jan. 1 to obtain Federal insurance. Otherwise they have to be merged or liquidated by the state, in which case the taxpayers would make up any losses suffered by depositors.

Tensions are rising, because of the development of antimissile research programs, over the exchange of ideas and information taking place among scientists from the United States and the Soviet Union. The exchanges revolve around nonmilitary matters and are limited to so-called pure, or theoretical, science, according to experts in the United States and Europe. But a debate is intensifying over whether the meetings should be sharply curtailed. Many of these Russian and American scientists work in military laboratories and their meetings are occurring at a time when both nations are searching for powerful space weapons. These weapons have yet to be perfected and will almost certainly depend for their success on future developments in theoretical science.

Neither angry words by Dave Johnson nor heat by Dwight Gooden spared the Mets today as they lost for the fifth straight time, and this one was a downer: The St. Louis Cardinals played Gooden to a 1-1 tie in eight innings and then beat Jesse Orosco in the 11th. The score was 2-1, the seventh loss in the last eight games for the Mets, the 17th in their last 25, and they now have lost seven of their last eight series. They also fell into fourth place, five games behind the Cardinals, in the four-team race in the National League's East, and that's the farthest they have trailed anybody this season. Johnson berated his players in a clubhouse meeting Saturday night but took their latest tumble more stoically, even though their last 19 hits have been singles and they scored only 11 runs in six games on a memorably bad trip.

The Hostage Release 39 U.S. hostages were freed by their Lebanese Shiite captors in Beirut, then driven to Damascus in a Red Cross convoy, where the jubilant group boarded a flight for Frankfurt on their way home. They were released under an arrangement mediated by Syria. [Page A1, Column 6.] The final obstacle to the release of the hostages was removed Saturday night when the Reagan Administration accepted a proposal by Syria to issue an old United States policy statement on Lebanon, a senior Administration official said. The official said Syria proposed issuance of the policy statement as a means of inducing the Shiite captors to free the Americans. The statement, read by a State Department spokesman to reporters, said in part that the United States ''reaffirms its longstanding support for Lebanon.'' [A1:5.]

The Legislature recessed for the summer today after resolving the remaining major issue - whether rent controls would be continued for thousands of New York City apartments. At 2:17 this morning, after voting to allow the state to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to build two new prisons and voting to approve sweeping changes in the state's racing industry, the Senate recessed. This afternoon, at 5:09, the Assembly followed suit. ''We've had a very good legislative session,'' said the Senate majority leader, Warren M. Anderson, rising to address his colleagues after the last bill had been passed. Citing the enactment of sweeping personal income tax cuts, the approval of legislation to restrain rising malpractice-insurance premiums and a measure that would grant broad flexibility to the State University, the obviously tired Binghamton Republican thrust his fist into the air and shouted, ''Free at last.''

A senior Reagan Administration official said today that the final obstacle to the release of the 39 American hostages was removed Saturday night when the Administration accepted a proposal by Syria to issue an old policy statement on Lebanon. The statement said the United States ''reaffirms its longstanding support for the preservation of Lebanon, its Government, its stability and security, and for the mitigation of the suffering of its people.'' The statement fell far short of what the hostages' captors were demanding - a public pledge from the United States that it would not retaliate militarily after the hostages were released. But Syria, the American official said, had assured Washington that the issuing of the statement would induce the ing the Shiite Lebanese Shiites to free the Americans. The 39 Americans, who were aboard a Trans World Airlines jet when it was hijacked over Europe on June 14, were released today.