1997 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice - Premier Power #PP2 Brady Anderson (Trading Card Database)
It’s July 8, 1996, and we have made it to the All-Star break. This year’s festivities are up the road in Philadelphia at Veterans Stadium (in 2026, the All-Star Game will be next week in… Philadelphia).
As is tradition, the highlight of the day before the game is the Home Run Derby, and there’s a familiar, sideburned face headlining. That’s right, your major-league leader in home runs, Brady Anderson, stepped into the box to take his cuts with the biggest sluggers in the game.
“I’m a cruiserweight in a heavyweight contest,” Brady said about going up against superstars like the A’s Mark McGwire and the Giants’ Barry Bonds, who are both very naturally strong. “Do I get spotted three homers?” (Baltimore Sun, p. 4D, July 9, 1996)
Look at our boy go! Aren’t you proud??
He hit six in the first round to advance to the second, but couldn’t keep up with Bonds and McGwire once he got there. Bonds would eventually win the event.
“Dude, I just didn’t want to get shutout,” Brady said.
As the Sun’s John Eisenberg noted, Brady was a center of attention, with reporters lobbing questions at him left and right.
At one point, the crowd around his locker was so thick that he couldn’t get through. Never was it more apparent that home runs translated into attention.
“It’s flattering, but the amount [of attention] is a little stunning, to be honest,” Anderson said.
The best part of all the attention?
“A lot of your old girlfriends call,” he said.
The worst part?
“A lot of your old girlfriends call.”
With Seattle’s Ken Griffey, Jr., injured, Brady also found out that he’d be starting the game tomorrow as his replacement. He’ll be batting eighth. “Just the fact that he put me in the starting lineup is an honor,” Brady said. “It doesn’t matter to me where I’m at.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 4D, July 9, 1996)
O’s shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., will be joining Brady in the starting lineup at a stadium that holds a special place in Cal’s memory. “I caught the last out of the World Series here,” Cal said, thinking of 1983. “We had a major celebration in the clubhouse here. I always associate this place with the ending of a very great season. The thing that you remember is the place where you won it. So I think of Philadelphia.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 4D, July 9, 1996)
Tomorrow’s Game
All-Star Game!
The Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, July 9, 1996
Front Page News
Under the headline “A dank relic lies below Howard St.” the Sun has a fascinating story about an old Baltimore and Ohio railroad tunnel that lives under one of the main roads that leads to Camden Yards.
Sun reporter Jacques Kelly has the goods:
Some 30 million bricks went into this sturdy relic of railroad engineering. Excavated more than 100 years ago, the tunnel is used now by CSX Transportation, which says it is the largest subterranean conduit of rail freight along the Atlantic Coast.
Most days, about 40 trains pound through this cavern, a 1.7-mile channel of Stygian darkness and dank, musty air infused with a dense humidity born of outside water seeping down the curving masonry walls. Drainage shoulders beside the rail tracks ooze industrial slime.
COOL!
There are other fun tidbits!
The tunnel’s construction bankrupted the B&O railroad in the 1890s.
Virtually all of the Tropicana orange juice sold in the northeastern U.S. goes through the tunnel on what railroaders call the “juice train.”
Fila clothes! Frito-Lay snacks! Chevy Astro vans! That does sound hella dank!
Anyway, for decades the tunnel was a bottleneck for shipping things from the port because it was a tight fit and very old. But as of June 22, 2026, the tunnel is back in service and able to accommodate double-stacked rail cars after the floor was lowered.
Fun in the Sun
Welcome to a recurring segment where I find fun things in today’s (in 1996) Baltimore Sun!
The Sun continues looking back at the 1896 O’s.
The Baltimore Sun, p. 1C, July 8, 1996