It’s August 1, 1996, and a week after the Twins came into their house and swept them, the O’s went to Minneapolis and did the same to them. David Wells cruised into the eighth and Brady Anderson drove in a pair of runs as Baltimore won 4-2.

It was the fifth straight quality start for a starting rotation that now finally seems to be rounding into form. Though there was cause for concern early, according to the Sun’s Buster Olney. After the first inning, Wells’ arm felt dead and trainers had to rub it down with an “atomic balm.” Whatever it was, it worked as the lefty pitched 7⅓ and only gave up two runs (one earned) to earn his eighth win of the season.

“[The sweep] is very important,” said Wells. “We’ve got a lot of ground to make up. It sounds far-fetched for us to win the division, but we’ve got to take it game by game.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, August 2, 1996)

A day after the trade deadline passed and the O’s stood pat, everyone is still talking about how owner Peter Angelos overruled his baseball braintrust to keep the team together.

“Regardless of what happens the rest of the season, this is the team,” said O’s outfielder Bobby Bonilla. “Anyone can see the owner is showing a lot of confidence in this group. He likes this group, he believes in this group. … This team has what it takes to win. (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, August 2, 1996)

In a column that was heavily critical of Angelos, the Sun’s John Eisenberg argued that the team sacrificed the future in a season where they are going nowhere. He expressed frustration that O’s GM Pat Gillick, a respected baseball mind, was not allowed to trade Wells or Bonilla for Seattle catching prospect Chris Widger, among others.

“How would we have done today without Wells?” a defiant Angelos asked.

“But how might the club have looked in ’97 with a fine catching prospect such as Widger? A lot better,” answered Eisenberg in his column. 

Who knows, if they had — checks notes — Chris Widger, they might have been able to go wire-to-wire in first place in 1997. But I guess now we’ll never know.

All jokes a side, hindsight is 20/20, but at this time the O’s are 12-29 against teams with winning records and do not seem to be close to contention. So this is a bold bet by Papa Angelos. Fingers crossed!

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

No homers today, but we’ll take the win!

Orioles (54-52) at Cleveland (65-43), 7:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
BAL – RHP Scott Erickson (5-9, 5.12 ERA)
CLE – RHP Orel Hershiser (10-7, 4.25 ERA)

President Bill Clinton consigned millions of children to poverty by saying he will sign the right-wing bill to end welfare. For 60 years it had been a core feature of his party’s platform, but as we now know, Bubba is a feckless coward at best. So he feigned concern, acknowledging that the bill was flawed better than “the cycle of dependency.”

He then went on to read what essentially amounts to a press release from a right-wing think tank. “A long time ago, I concluded that the current welfare system undermines the basic values of work, responsibility and family,” said Clinton, the ultimate family man. “When I ran for president four years ago, I pledged to end welfare as we know it. Today, the Congress will vote on legislation that gives us a chance to live up to that promise.”

From 1995 to 2005, the number of children in deep poverty rose from 1.5 million to 2.2 million. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said on the 20th anniversary of the bill in 2016, “If government income support programs kept the same share of otherwise deeply poor children out of deep poverty in 2005 as they did in 1995, the children’s deep poverty rate would have fallen, not risen.”

That is the legacy of this law, Clinton sold out and vilified the poorest of the poor to kowtow to some of the worst elements of our society.

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

Future WWE legend Kurt Angle won a gold medal. I wonder if his professional wrestling persona will ever mention this?