It’s April 2, 1996, and it may be a day late, but Opening Day is finally here! And it couldn’t have gone much better for the O’s. The formula played out perfectly: star-powered lineup gets out to an early lead, ace pitcher hurls 7 solid innings, new arrivals deliver clutch hits, and the brand new closer shuts the door with no drama. Final score: Orioles 4, Royals 2. 

Shortly after President Bill Clinton threw the first pitch, Cal Ripken, Jr., in his 15th straight home opener, staked the O’s to a first inning lead with a blooper that turned into a 2-run single. The Royals managed to tie the game, as Bip Roberts and Bob “The Hammer” Hamelin got RBIs off Mike Mussina, but the ace righty kept them at 2 for 7 innings. Cal gave the O’s the lead for good in the bottom of the 3rd with another blooper RBI single. BJ Surhoff added a run-scoring double in the 8th, and Randy Myers pitched a perfect 9th for the save. Nice and tidy.

It was an all hands on deck situation for The Baltimore Sun, as the hometown paper had no fewer than 11 stories on the festivities at Camden Yards.

Cal is pumped: “It’s always great to get off to a good start. And it’s always exciting opening up here in Baltimore.”

We got some trademark matter-of-factness from Mussina: “I don’t find pitching a season opener any more taxing than any other game.” Cool.

We got some early-season grumbling from Bobby Bonilla about being designated hitter: “Let me put it this way. I hope it doesn’t last. That’s all I can tell you.” We should keep an eye on this.

Outfielder Mike Devereaux is happy to back: “I’ve always liked Baltimore, and it was unfortunate, but also fortunate, that I left. But to come back and get that kind of warm reception was just tremendous. Hopefully, I can do for the fans what they did for me.”

We learned that Robbie Alomar, who got the team’s first hit of the season, strives for peak ’90s by wearing a sleeveless “No Fear” t-shirt in the locker room. “For me, it was real exciting because it was my first time playing in front of the fans. It was a great Opening Day.”

We got a story about how Bubba walked into the clubhouse and put a charm offensive on new O’s manager Davey Johnson. When the president raved about Johnson’s golf game, the skipper beamed and said “Mr. President, I’m a die-hard Republican, but you might be the only Democrat I vote for.” Hmmm, ok.

So, one game in and the vibes are pretty immaculate in Birdland. Is this the start of a 162-0 season??? I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.

Here’s the box score for today’s game.

Kansas City at Baltimore, 3:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
KC — RHP Mark Gubicza, 0-0
BAL — LHP David Wells, 0-0

Today in “what could go wrong?” we have some major corporate merger news — the true legacy of the ’90s. SBC Communications, Inc., and Pacific Telesis Group (PacTel) are merging. They were two of the seven Baby Bell companies created in the breakup of the AT&T Corp. monopoly in the early 1980s. SBC (more commonly known at this time by its former name Southwestern Bell) operates out of Texas, while PacTel is in California. As the Sun states: “The merger agreement sends the message that the floodgates are open for the torrent of deals expected to flow from the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in February.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1A, April 2, 1996) It’s interesting that in real time it was clear that deregulating local, long-distance, and cable markets would lead to massive corporate consolidation. Again, what could go wrong? 

One thing that is funny about the Sun at this time is that their news reporting refers to people with a title “Mr. Clinton” etc., while the sports section doesn’t. In an article like this one about the merger, where they don’t interview any consumer advocates and instead just talk to a slew of telecoms consultants and executives, that structure really makes it seem like they are fawning over these corporations. The whole framing ignores the impact this will have on everyday people and instead quotes Mr. Analyst in Bethesda offering cool takes like “Southwestern Bell might be considered more of a tortoise. PacTel might be more of a hare.” Anyway, of course this merger went through and SBC grew into what we now know as AT&T.

And if that wasn’t enough, also on the front page we have an announced merger in health care, where Aetna is buying U.S. Healthcare in an $8.9 billion deal, making it the largest managed-care company in the United States. This is another fawning article from the Sun, but they do offer a nice definition here: “Managed-care plans exercise more control over use of health services by setting guidelines and having ‘gatekeeper’ physicians control referrals.” I wonder if trying to cut health care costs by having the health insurance that people pay premiums for use a complicated system to restrict access to care will lead to a consumer backlash of some kind? 

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

Roxy/Roxie (Sun is confused) is just the coolest. She’s the nation’s foremost bird lady.