It’s August 20, 1996, and Mike Mussina played the role of a true ace, dazzling over seven innings and giving up just one run on two hits as the O’s beat the Mariners 4-1 at Camden Yards. Mussina became the third pitcher in the majors with 16 wins on the season.

With the win, the Birds are now just 1.5 back (even in the loss column) of the White Sox in the wild card race. The O’s have won 15 of their last 21 games since they fell below .500 in July.

“It was a total effort,” said O’s center fielder Brady Anderson. “Offensively, we didn’t do a lot of damage, but we seemed to put together some runs without hitting a home run.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 6D, August 21, 1996)

It was Mussina’s first start since he went home to Montoursville, Pa., for the funeral of the 16 high school students and five adults from the small town who were killed in the TWA Flight 800 crash.

“There’s only 5,000 of us who live there,” Mussina said to the Sun’s John Eisenberg. “And when you come from a place that small, you’re supposed to be there for people when they need you.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, August 21, 1996)

As Eisenberg notes, Mussina went to the service on Saturday, spent Sunday with his family at home, drove back to Baltimore on Monday, and then shut down the Mariners on Tuesday.

His teammates were there for him, and they made him a winner by scoring three times in the fourth and once more in the seventh. Anderson, Bobby Bonilla, B.J. Surhoff, and Cal Ripken all had two hits to pace a balanced attack.

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

According to the Sun’s Buster Olney and Jason LaCanfora, a mystery team (likely the Yankees) blocked Bonilla and David Wells from passing through waivers. In 1996 (but not today), teams could still make trades after the trade deadline at the end of July, but only if all players involved had passed through waivers unclaimed. When the mystery team put in a claim on Bonilla and Wells, the O’s pulled them back. They aren’t going anywhere.

The O’s are certainly monitoring the waiver trade market, and may make a move before the final deadline at the end of August.

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

Mariners (64-60) at Orioles (66-58), 7:35 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
SEA – RHP Sterling Hitchcock (12-5, 5.26 ERA)
BAL – RHP Scott Erickson (7-10, 5.04 ERA)

President Fidel Ramos of the Philippines and Muslim leader Nur Misuari “met in a muddy schoolyard yesterday and announced an end to a 24-year-old war that has killed 120,000 Filipinos,” according to a wire story on the front page of the Sun.

This is a very momentous, historic occasion. … Peace is vital to all of us,” said Misuari, who is the chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front.

There was a breakthrough in negotiations in June, but the two sides are figuring out how to integrate the heavily armed militia into the nation’s armed forces.

“Officials now say they plan to integrate 5,500 of the 17,000 guerrillas into the military and an additional 1,500 into the National Police. Jobs reportedly will be provided to others.”

Some Christian groups have threatened to take up arms against the pact, but for now Ramos is having none of it. “The Ramos administration, I assure you, will not tolerate any resort to violence by [the pact’s] opponents,” he said.

As tenuous as any peace negotiations can be, look how happy everyone is for now:

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

The Sun says that “Girls just want to have fun on the internet: The Web, often thought to be the domain of nerdy young men, is attracting young females.”