It’s June 14, 1996, and Mike Mussina let everyone know that reports of his demise are premature as he pitched a complete game, propelling the Birds to a 6-1 win in Kansas City.

Mussina scattered seven hits and a walk — and only gave up a run on a solo homer by Mike Macfarlane — to get back on track after his recent struggles. He retired the final 13 hitters he faced.

“I can’t sit here and say my problems are solved,” Mussina cautioned in a story by the Sun’s Buster Olney. “I’ve been struggling for a while. If I can pitch very close to this for a few starts or a few months, that will be better.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1C, June 15, 1996)

“Life,” O’s manager Davey Johnson added, “is beautiful.”

“He used all his pitches,” Johnson continued. “He had a good fastball, a good curveball, a good changeup. … That was just a great-pitched ballgame, and we certainly needed it.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 7C, June 15, 1996)

Luis Polonia had three hits to pace the Birds, while Brady Anderson hit his 22nd home run of the season. That marks a new career high in homers for Brady. If you recall, he has never hit more than 21 in a season before this year.

Cal Ripken, Jr., played in his 2,216th straight game, breaking the world record held by Japanese legend Sachio Kinugasa. When the game became official, Cal got a standing ovation from the fans in Kansas City.

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

In other news, Johnson is quite unhappy about starter Kent Mercker complaining yesterday to the media after being taken out of the game in the third inning. The lefty suggested he was getting harsher treatment than other players.

“Most guys, if they have trouble, should worry less about when they’re coming out,” Johnson said. “They should worry about what they’re doing.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 7C, June 15, 1996)

Johnson pointed out, correctly, that Mercker had been extremely ineffective. “In reality, I should’ve hooked him in the second inning. I mean, if that’s a quick hook, that’s the farthest thing from my mind. That’s 11 people on base in three innings.”

There doesn’t seem to be many other options, so maybe they will keep trotting Mercker out there and hope he does better.

Brady adds the 100th brick of the season for the Birds.

Another game, another Brady bomb. Make that 22 on the year!

Orioles (35-28) at Royals (29-38), 8:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
BAL – LHP David Wells (3-6, 5.72 ERA)
KCR – LHP Chris Haney (4-5, 4.12 ERA)

It’s another summer weekend in 1996, so that means we have another classic film debuting at the top of the box office. This week, it’s the Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller joint, The Cable Guy, which grossed $30,321,573 this weekend. The greatest film ever made, The Rock, stayed strong in second place at $28,751,930, while after five weeks Mission: Impossible and after six weeks Twister still stayed strong in the top 5.

In a sign of things to come, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to strike down four voting districts drawn to help Black and Latino candidates gain office. It’s the third time in four years that the court has condemned what Lyle Denniston in the Sun refers to as “race-based districting.”

This time the court targeted three districts represented by Black people (two in Texas and one in North Carolina) and one in Texas with majority Latino voters. 

Laughlin McDonald of the ACLU criticized the ruling, saying “the inevitable consequence of the court’s action will be to produce a Congress that is increasingly white at a time that the nation is becoming increasingly diverse.”

Abigail Thernstrom of the neoconfederate Institute for Justice, was excited, saying “the inevitable consequence of the court’s action will be to produce a Congress that is increasingly white at a time that the nation is becoming increasingly diverse.” Just kidding. She actually said it was a “victory for those who favor a colorblind society,” which is essentially the same thing.

Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the opinion, and she was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Anthony Kennedy. Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also joined the majority, but disagreed with the reasoning, wanting to go much further to condemn race-based districting. The dissenters were Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer.

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

Just two Iron Men hanging out.