It’s August 27, 1996, and Bobby Bonilla’s two-run double broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth and, thanks to a strong start from David Wells, that would be enough. With the 3-1 win over the A’s, the O’s are now 1.5 games up in the wild card race.

“Bobby is really picking up the slack,” said O’s manager Davey Johnson per the Sun’s Buster Olney. “The whole ballclub is picking up.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, August 28, 1996)

Before the game, the O’s brought back an old friend. Catcher Mark Parent, who played with the Birds in 1992 and 1993, signed with the team and started as Wells’ battery mate. Parent had been released by the Tigers earlier. He will now serve as the primary backup to Chris Hoiles, who had started nine straight games, and 14 of 15.

“He caught a heck of a game,” Johnson praised the newcomer . “He really worked well with David, and David isn’t always the easiest human being in the world to deal with — I know, from firsthand experience.”

On August 18, if you’ll recall, Wells faced Oakland and gave up seven runs. This time, he gave up just one run through 7⅓ innings. Maybe Parent was the difference.

Ariel Prieto took a hard-luck loss for Oakland, pitching a complete game and giving up three runs on six hits, but he also walked six.

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

The O’s are still monitoring the trade market for players who have already passed through waivers. They are interested in Pirates lefty — and local Maryland native — Denny Neagle. According to Olney and Jason LaCanfora, the O’s have offered Jeffrey Hammonds and $1 million for the starter. But the O’s package seems to be less than what other teams are offering, and the Pirates want hard-throwing righty Armando Benitez. So it seems unlikely that Neagle will be coming home.

We will stay tuned to the trade market as the O’s look to stock up for what should be an intense wild card race over the final month of the season.

No dingers today but the O’s keep rolling.

Athletics (63-72) at Orioles (70-61), 3:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
OAK – RHP Don Wengert (6-9, 5.18 ERA)
BAL – RHP Mike Mussina (17-8, 4.81 ERA)

It’s 1996, so that means there’s always another massive telecom merger around the corner. This time, WorldCom Inc., a long-distance telephone provider, is buying local telephone company MFS Communications Co., “In an all-stock deal valued at more than $12 billion.”

The Sun calls it “one of the 10 biggest corporate mergers ever” and that it is part of “a wave of consolidation triggered by the new federal telecommunications law.”

WorldCom controls 4.5% of the long-distance market, and MFS just took over internet provider Uunet Technologies two weeks ago. 

“Everyone is trying to position themselves to offer the whole thing to customers,” said John W. Sidgmore, reeking of snake oil. He is the Uunet chief executive who will now be vice chairman of MFS WorldCom. “This is the first one to do the whole thing.”

Because every time the Sun covers one of these things it reads like a press release by the merging companies, the story also has this lovely passage:

“Experts said they expect the mergers to result in dramatically lower costs and a burst of innovation that will hasten the advent of new technologies such as internet-based phone service.”

WorldCom filed for bankruptcy in 2002 as part of a massive scandal during which the company confessed to illegally inflating its earnings by $3.8 billion.

That is definitely a burst of innovation.

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

The Mets made a managerial change. Bobby Valentine would eventually lead them to the 2000 National League pennant.