It’s April 13, 1996, and we had the most exciting game of the young season. The Orioles stormed back from five runs down in the fifth inning. After B.J. Surhoff tied it with a homer in the eighth, Brady Anderson ended it with a homer in the 10th.

“161-1,” The Baltimore Sun’s Ken Rosenthal started his column. “You laugh. The Orioles might never lose again. … Right now, the Orioles are the Chicago Bulls of baseball.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, April 14, 1996)

The Twins jumped all over O’s starter Kent Mercker, scoring three in the first and knocking him out in the fifth with the score 6-1. But then the Baltimore bats woke up. Everyone who started had at least one hit, and it was 6-4 when Surhoff stepped into the box to face tough lefty reliever Eddie Guardado with one man on in the eighth.

Surhoff had grounded out against Guardado earlier in the game, but he learned from what happened.

“He was sitting over there watching everybody missing those high fastballs,” said O’s manager Davey Johnson. “He’s a pretty good high fastball hitter, and he went up there and got it.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8D, April 14, 1996)

In the ninth, Anderson jumped all over the second pitch he saw from Twins reliever — and father of a 6-month old infant — Pat Mahomes. The blast ended the game, and Brady’s teammates mobbed him at the plate.

“Jeffrey [Hammonds], Devo [Mike Devereaux], and [Tony] Tarasco had me wrapped up pretty good,” Anderson admitted.

“I got my shots in,” said Bobby Bonilla, smoking a cigar. “He deserved it. You hit the game-winner, you’ve got to pay the price.”

Brady told Rosenthal he’d never even hit a home run like that when playing at home with his father. “My dad used to strike me out to end the game every time.”

The vibes are so immaculate in Birdland that Armando Benitez’s arm may have magically been healed. After not pitching for a week due to a sore elbow, he pitched 1⅓ hitless innings. “I felt fine,” he said. (Baltimore Sun, p. 8D, April 14, 1996)

Nothing can go wrong now! Here is the box score with the lovely totals.

Elsewhere in sports, Greg “The Shark” Norman has a seemingly insurmountable 6-shot lead at The Masters. Sunday will likely just be a coronation for him as he heads toward his first Green Jacket.

Two more bricks in the wall today!

Brady’s walk-off homer puts some more hair on those sideburns!

Minnesota (4-6) at Baltimore (9-1), 1:35 p.m. ET

Starting Pitchers
MIN – Frank Rodriguez, 0-1, 12.91 ERA
BAL – Jimmy Haynes, 0-1, 15.75 ERA 

In a tonally wild article, the Sun’s Tom Bowman covers the story of how a series of scandals have shaken “Naval Academy pride.” 

The articles starts off fairly light, discussing how a gallows humor has infiltrated the dorm where all midshipmen live. There’s even a joke: “They shaved the Unabomber’s goatee… and discovered he’s a midshipman.” Funny times, right? So, what is going on at the Naval Academy to prompt such joking?

“In the past two weeks, a top midshipman leader was jailed awaiting charges that he sexually assaulted four women midshipmen.” Ummm… And it goes on?

“Another was charged with sexual abuse against a 2-year-old.” What the fuck?

“Two former and three current midshipment were indicted for running a car-theft ring.” Well, ok.

“And another was being court-martialed for LSD use.” It is unclear if Bowman was listing these in a way he saw as increasing severity, but it seems like he could have been.

What is his diagnosis? “It appears the academy is admitting some of the wrong people to the hallowed halls where midshipmen do not “lie, cheat or steal.” Okay…

Anyway, there’s a lot of discussion about this through the rest of the article. The money lines come from former Navy guy and novelist James Webb (also known as “Born Fightin’” Jim Webb, future one-term Democratic U.S. Senator from Virginia). He goes ahead and says flat out that the problem is the 1996 equivalent of “woke.”

“Who are they?” Webb asked. “How did they get in? What are their requirements? When you lower your standards for political reasons are you bringing in a different kind of person, a person who’s not meeting the same exacting requirements as other people?”

To his credit, Bowman’s next line in the story is “Political reasons? Women and minorities?” which in context makes it seem like he pressed Webb to elaborate.

“Among others,” Webb confirmed. “Or football players. I think we oversell the importance of football in the preparation of an officer.”

Anyway, that was on the front page today.

Welcome to a recurring segment where I find fun things in today’s (in 1996) Baltimore Sun!

We have a beautiful drawing of one of the most scenic parts of Baltimore, the, uh, Jones Falls Expressway.