June 13, 1982

Just after the dramatic two-run eighth-inning home run that would give the Yankees their seventh loss in eight games, the man in the third-base coach's box quietly shook the rookie's hand as he jogged through the noise. When the crowd at Memorial Stadium demanded a curtain call from the rookie, the coach did not turn around to look. ''Same thing,'' said Cal Ripken Jr., the rookie whose home run gave the Orioles a 5-3 victory tonight. ''Shake your hand, get out of the way.'' Ripken smiled. ''I think it's a coverup,'' he said.

Britain last week suffered its worst casualties of the Falklands war, but the losses only seemed to increase Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's determination to push for military victory. Striking before dawn yesterday, British forces surprised Argentine positions near Stanley amid indications that the final assault against the 7,000-man Argentine garrison was under way. Negotiations with Argentina would be ''unthinkable,'' Mrs. Thatcher said, after Argentine planes had set afire two landing craft, killing at least 43 British troops. Argentine news agencies claimed more than 500 British soldiers were killed or seriously injured in the air attack at Fitzroy, 15 miles south of Stanley; fuel supplies and ammunition exploded. Taking advantage of temporarily clear skies, Argentine jets demonstrated that the British remained vulnerable to mainland-based air attacks, an indication that even after Stanley is captured, the cost to Britain of holding the Falklands may be high. The Argentine Mirage and A-4 Skyhawks came in ''on the deck,'' low beneath British radar, hitting the Sir Galahad and the Sir Lancelot, 5,674-ton landing craft. Both ships were abandoned.

British and Argentine troops were pitted in a major battle today for control of Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands, the Argentine high command announced. Military sources said heavy casualties were being incurred by both sides, and the independent news agency Noticias Argentinas quoted a military source this afternoon as having said that the British had ''succeeded in some penetration of the first Argentine line of defense'' about 10 miles west of the capital, which is the key Argentine stronghold on the islands called the Malvinas by Argentina. (In London, Defense Secretary John Nott said that British troops had advanced more than five miles before dawn in what he described as ''a brilliant surprise night attack'' that had caught the Argentine defenders asleep. Page 26.)

Perhaps I had read just one too many interviews with a modish theater director who had been offered the chance to stage an opera in his own image. Or possibly it was that midnight snack of shredded beef, Hunan-style. In any event, I found myself in my dreams interviewing the latest rage of the stage, Ben Trovato. In what follows, I will hide behind the persona of Q while Mr. Trovato masquerades as A. Q. First of all, Mr. Trovato, which opera or operas will you be directing here or elsewhere in the near future? A. I have not made up my mind. Several of your leading houses have asked me to stage such monumental trifles as ''Die Meistersinger'' and ''Rigoletto,'' but I would feel suffocated at being thrust back into the dismal past with such moribund artifacts. I am not interested in opera of any period, of course, though obviously a decision of some sort must be made soon. My tax man is pressing me.

MANCHESTER AMID an amiable hubbub, it was a time for bottles to gurgle and for glass after glass to be filled and refilled. The occasion was a sampling of both the winning and losing wines in the second annual Amateur Wine Making Contest, run by the Connecticut Grape Growers Association. The event, held last Sunday at Manchester Community College, provided a chance to ''get a handle on what the possibilities are'' for local amateur wine making, said David Kelly, the spokesman for the four-year-old group. ''The wines ranged from professional quality wines to undrinkable wines,'' said Howard Bursen, wine maker and general manager at Hamlet Hill Vineyards, in Pomfret. Mr. Bursen, two other professionals and three noted amateur wine makers judged the contest along classical wine-tasting lines.