It’s August 7, 1996, and for the last few days, the O’s have seemed…good? Scott Erickson pitched a complete game, scattering 10 hits and two runs as the lineup gave him plenty of run support in a dominant 12-2 win in Milwaukee. 

The red-hot Jeffrey Hammonds homered and drove in four runs, Roberto Alomar also homered and drove in three, and Rafael Palmeiro added a dinger of his own as the O’s hung 10 runs on Brewers starter Scott Karl.

The past two weeks, the O’s have been true road warriors. As the Sun’s Buster Olney notes, “The Orioles limped out of Camden Yards on July 28, with club executives weighing the possibility of breaking up the team by trading Bobby Bonilla and David Wells. But they’ve been revitalized on this two-week, four-city road trip through the Midwest, sweeping three games from Minnesota, splitting four games in Cleveland and taking the first two games … with Milwaukee.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, August 8, 1996)

That’s seven wins in nine games, are we back???

The offense sure seems to think so. In the last five games, the Birds have cranked out 75 hits and 12 homers (the Bronx Wall of Dingers below is filling up fast).

With run support like that and solid pitching, the O’s suddenly look like a contender again. Man, it’s a long season, huh?

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals. 

In other news, after it looked like he could be out for the season, reliever Arthur Rhodes may end up coming back after all, according to a report from Olney. The lefty has a ligament sprain in his shoulder, which is preventing him from throwing properly, but there’s no tear there.

“It’s nothing career-threatening,” Orioles trainer Richie Bancells said, which is the only quote in the story. It takes a lot of wish casting to go from “not career-threatening” to “maybe back in a month” but the vibes are suddenly good again so let’s do it!

As a sign of the vibes, Bonilla has been red hot. He has 10 hits in his past 23 at bats, including three homers. “I think I’ve been able to settle down, now that I’ve got the DH thing behind me and trade deadline,” he said. “I know I’m going to be here the rest of the year.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, August 8, 1996)

Hammonds, Alomar, and Palmeiro all chip in during this slugfest.

Orioles (58-54) at Brewers (55-59) 2:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
BAL – RHP Rocky Coppinger (6-3, 5.04 ERA)
MIL – RHP Jeff D’Amico (3-4, 5.11 ERA)

The number one song in America this week in 1996 is once again Los Del Rio’s iconic masterpiece, “Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix).” So let’s take a look at another chart and see what’s up. The top song on the Alternative chart this week is Primitive Radio Gods with “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand.” I been downhearted baby…

Scientists discovered evidence that life once existed on Mars. They’ve been looking at a meteorite that fell to Earth from the red planet and found that just 3 billion years ago, primitive, single-cell organisms may have existed on our neighbor orb out there.

“I want everyone to understand we are not talking about little green men,” said NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin in a front-page New York Times wire article. “These are extremely small, single-cell structures that somewhat resemble bacteria on Earth.”

Haters are hating, though, including Dr. Jack Farmer, a geologist and paleobiologist at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

“We didn’t know this about Mars until now,” Farmer said of the revelation that liquid water and organic molecules existed on the planet. “It gives us a lot of compelling reasons to go back to Mars. But it doesn’t tell us anything definite about life. It’s interesting, but not convincing.”

Daaaaamn, what a burn.

Anyway, anyone who has seen Total Recall knows that there’s life on Mars.

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

Lettuce was turning heads for different reasons 30 years ago.