It’s June 16, 1996, and Brady Anderson wasted no time setting the tone. He led off the game with his first of two home runs and the O’s later blew open a close game with eight runs in the 8th to win 13-5 and salvage a series split in Kansas City.

“Brady had a heck of a game,” Orioles manager Davey Johnson said. “He always tries to swing hard. I just hope he doesn’t swing harder.” (Baltimore Sun, p. C1, June 17, 1996)

It was the eighth time already that Brady has led off the game with a homer. The AL record is held by Rickey Henderson with nine, and the major league record is Bobby Bonds at 11. Brady has truly been a revelation. 

Brady finished the night with three hits and five RBI. Luis Polonia, Cal Ripken, Bobby Bonilla, and Gregg Zaun all also chipped in three hits as the team pounded out 18 on the night.

Rookie Rocky Coppinger gave up four runs in six innings to earn his second career win in his second career start. It helps when you get 12.5 runs per game supporting you.

“Rocky was better than he was in Detroit,” Johnson said. “And this team is a peskier offensive team. … I thought he threw a lot of good pitches.”

The win helped the O’s go 4-3 on a seven-game trip to Detroit and Kansas City, the two worst teams in the AL. A tougher test is on its way, as the mighty Texas Rangers, who have dominated the O’s so far this year, once again return to Camden Yards. Until then! 

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

Two more bricks for Brady.

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

Rangers (41-27) vs. Orioles (36-29), 7:35 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
TEX – RHP Roger Pavlik (9-1, 5.01 ERA)
BAL – RHP Scott Erickson (3-5, 5.79 ERA)

The lead story on the front page in the Sun today has the headline "Hopkins revamping hospital.” In a true sign of the times, the subheads explain what our national priorities have become.

“Venerable institution focuses on service to win market share”

“Disney trains security guards”

“Profits have grown from $1 million in ’92 to $20 million in ’95”

Oh man, the lede from Sun reporter Diana K. Sugg even starts “Under intense pressure from market forces…” We are talking about a hospital, remember.

Most of this article reads like a press release from a management consulting firm, which it probably was. The second paragraph: “The strategies are expected to save $25 million in the next fiscal year alone. The sweeping changes will affect every worker, nurse and physician, and many of them are being asked to help redesign their own workplace. Patients have shorter stays. Their records are being computerized. A robot will help count pills in the pharmacy.”

The article then talks about how “extra functions” make Hopkins 10 to 15% “more costly.” Those extra functions? “Train new physicians, do research, and care for the poor.”

Anyway, this is all because of a managed care “revolution” focused on cutting costs at the expense of literally everything else.

“Almost every facet of the institution has to change in response to managed care,” said Dr. James Block, the hospital’s president and CEO. “We see this as a fundamental shift of what we’re all about. … How can we do what we do better, and in an affordable way?” Affordable to whom?

This is a massive article and nowhere does it really talk about improving care or outcomes as the impetus for doing anything, it’s only about costs. I guess at the very end they say they want to reduce ER wait times, but hard to see how cutting $25 million — as profits are soaring — will help that (it hasn’t).

Anyway, there are multiple countries that show it doesn’t have to be this way. What a cool health care “revolution.”

Elsewhere, Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song,” died at 78.

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

Cartoonist Mike Ricigliano shows how the O’s woeful pitching has morphed into resembling the league’s worst team.