It’s June 20, 1996, and the O’s finally saw some sunshine, and they finally beat the Rangers 3-2 in a makeup game seen by roughly 5,000 hearty souls.

Third-inning homers by Brady Anderson and Rafael Palmeiro gave the Birds what would prove to be an insurmountable lead as starter David Wells pitched 7⅓ strong innings to earn his fourth win of the season.

As the Sun’s Peter Schmuck notes, the 5,000 people in the crowd for the makeup game was the smallest crowd in Camden Yards’ history.

Brady’s home run was his 25th of the season, tying Cleveland’s Albert Belle for the major-league lead. “After he pulled away from me, I figured he was probably gone for good,” Brady said of Belle. “It’s nice to catch him even for one day. There are some amazing home run hitters in this league and I’m not one of them, but to be among them for even one day is great.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, June 21, 1996) 

Brady also threw a seed to home plate in the eighth inning to cut down what would have been the tying run. So it was a good day for our guy, Brady.

O’s manager Davey Johnson was happy they were able to salvage a game against Texas, and that Wells was able to step up.

“The good news is we have started to get good pitching again,” Johnson said. “If it stays, we should be able to put something together the rest of the way. They [Rangers] are the best hitting team in the league and we put together three good starts.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, June 21, 1996) 

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

Outfielder Luis Polonia pulled his groin before the game and was a last-minute scratch from the lineup. With Tony Tarasco injured in Triple-A and Jeffrey Hammonds also sent to the minors, the O’s are suddenly lacking depth in the outfield. Mark Smith filled in for Polonia and went 1-for-4. The former first-round pick is still hitting only .214 in limited at bats this year.

Per Jason LaCanfora in the Sun, all four days of the Rangers series (three official games and the tie that had to be replayed) had some kind of rain delay. In fact, the teams experienced 7 hours and 26 minutes of delays during the week. “I can’t remember anything like this,” said Orioles bullpen coach Elrod Hendricks. “The closest we came was in the early ’70s. We came home from the airport in the middle of a hurricane. The driver had to find some pretty interesting routes to get us to the stadium. It took over an hour to get back. This was much worse than that was.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, June 21, 1996) 

Brady and Raffy get their bricks.

Those ’burns are a-growin’ again!

Royals (31-41) vs. Orioles (37-31), 7:35 p.m.
KCR – LHP Chris Haney (4-5, 4.23 ERA)
BAL – RHP Rocky Coppinger (2-0, 6.55 ERA)

The rain that has been wreaking havoc on the O’s schedule has been far more devastating than simply ruining a baseball game. Strong storms, lightning, and flash floods have led to at least four deaths across Maryland.

According to the Sun, more than a dozen inches of rain were reported in parts of Western Maryland, with Baltimore seeing about 5.5 inches. Some storms were dropping rain at a rate of an inch an hour.

Brian G. Smith of the National Weather Service says things could clear soon, but not before more rain. “Figure on another 24 hours of at least a threat of heavy storms before it dries out,” he said.

Here’s hoping the rain stops soon so people can stay safe and the O’s can play ball.

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

Hmmm….