It’s July 2, 1996, and on the day he found out that he was once again passed over as an All-Star, Rafael Palmeiro launched his 21st home run and drove in four runs to power the O’s to an 8-2 rout of Toronto.

As the Sun’s Buster Olney says, “If you make the All-Star team, like Brady Anderson, your manager shakes your hands and you receive an official, written invitation from the league. If you are left off, like Rafael Palmeiro, a few embarrassed reporters stand around your locker and recite the names of those more fortunate than you.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D)

In a league with superstars like Frank Thomas, Mark McGwire, and Mo Vaughn, the path to an All-Star game as a first baseman is tough. Raffy knows all too well.

“I’m going to play second base next year,” he joked.

But the joke didn’t completely cover the disappointment. “It happens every year, man,” he continued. “I know Frank Thomas and Mo Vaughn deserve to be there. But if you look at my production as far as runs are concerned, I’m up there with all of them … Producing is the name of the game, and I feel I was up there with those guys. They’re MVPs, and people want to see MVPs.”

As Olney notes, since the All-Star break in 1995, Palmeiro has hit .321 with 45 homers and 133 RBI. Palmeiro has been an All-Star twice before, once in the NL with the Cubs in 1988, and again in the AL in 1991 with the Rangers. But for five years he has been a remarkably consistent middle-of-the-order slugger and has had to stay home during that week in July.

To celebrate his All-Star selection, Anderson hit his league-leading 29th homer in the ninth to cap off the easy win. Bobby Bonilla and B.J. Surhoff chipped in three hits apiece as the Birds racked up 14 of them on the night. With ample run support, starter Scott Erickson breezed through seven innings, giving up just two runs and picking up his fifth win of the season.

Orioles ace Mike Mussina also was snubbed from the All-Star team, but with an ERA over 5, he didn’t feel slighted. “I don’t feel I deserved to make the team, because my first half of the season wasn’t as good as I expected. … I feel for guys like [Montreal’s] Henry Rodriguez and Rafael. They deserve to be there.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, July 3, 1996)

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

In other news, Olney reported that the O’s rejected a trade offer from Cleveland that would have reunited them with team legend Eddie Murray. Cleveland offered Murray and outfielder Jeromy Burnitz for O’s outfielders Bobby Bonilla and Jeffrey Hammonds. Murray, 40, is 10 homers away from 500 and last played with the O’s in 1988. While they couldn’t work out a deal this time, this may be something to keep an eye on.

Triples is best. Three more bricks, one each for Raffy, Bobby, and Brady.

That’s three straight days with dingers for Brady.

Orioles (44-36) at Blue Jays (36-46) 7:35 p.m.
BAL – LHP Rick Krivda (2-3, 4.31 ERA)
TOR – RHP Juan Guzman (6-6, 3.38 ERA)

Federal agents arrested 12 members of an Arizona militia who were plotting to blow up federal office buildings, similar to the Oklahoma City bombing carried out a year ago by right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh. A New York Times wire story on the front page of the Sun says these folks were members of the “Viper Militia,” who have mainly just been carrying out their campaign of white terror in Arizona.

While it was undoubtedly a tough day for the Viper Militia, they might have had reason to celebrate when they heard that their ideological allies on the Supreme Court decided to let stand a lower court’s ruling that the University of Texas couldn’t give preference to Black and Mexican-American applicants.

We discussed Hopwood v. Texas a week ago, when university administrators everywhere assumed that the high court would take up the case. 

But apparently, the justices decided not to hear it, without dissent. Cool. 

“I am deeply disappointed and, frankly, worried,” said Donald Langenberg, the chancellor of the University of Maryland. “It is a blow to affirmative action.”

Per the Sun, the court gave no reasoning for its action, but Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter said the Texas appeal involved a procedure that the school already conceded was based on an unconstitutional use of race and national origin and had stopped using it. Ginsburg said the court needs to wait for “a program genuinely in controversy” to decide affirmative action at scale.

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

Time is a flat circle. This is 30 years ago today.