It’s June 24, 1996, and Cal Ripken and Robbie Alomar each had three, and ace pitcher Mike Mussina battled into the seventh inning to pick up his 10th win of the year as the O’s beat the Rangers 8-3 in Texas.

Mussina had a bit of adventure, walking four of the first 11 batters he faced. But he didn’t give up any runs until the sixth inning, when it was already 7-0 in favor of the Good Guys. Moose ended up pitching 6⅔ innings, giving up three runs. It’s the third straight start where he has given up three runs or fewer.

The O’s had a balanced attack offensively, with six players driving in at least one run. Cal added his 15th home run of the year. Both Brady Anderson and Bobby Bonilla hit triples in the surprisingly easy win over a team that beat them 26-7 in the same building earlier this year.

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

The O’s are having some trouble in the outfield. Jeffrey Hammonds struggled and went to the minors. Tony Tarasco struggled and went to the minors and then got hurt. The team brought in veteran Luis Polonia as a rare mid-year free agent and now he is struggling. He was 0-for-3 tonight and is hitting .232 on the year with a woeful .270 on-base percentage. 

“I feel good,” Polonia said to the Sun’s Buster Olney. “What I need to do is get hot, because when I get hot, I usually get hot for a long time. I’ll be all right.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5C, June 25, 1996) 

Hmmm… we’ll see. But at 32 in December, it is possible he could be washed. The allegedly speedy outfielder has also hit into seven (!!) double plays already in just 95 at bats.

“Incredible,” Polonia said. “That’s not going to happen to me. I’m not used to doing that.” 

Cal adds a brick to the wall.

Orioles (40-32) at Rangers (45-30), 8:35 p.m.
BAL – LHP David Wells (4-6, 5.46 ERA)
TEX – RHP Kevin Gross (7-5, 5.26 ERA)

Here we go. Benjamin Netanyahu and his new Israeli government threw a collective fit when leaders of Arab nations called for a resumption of peace talks. Like a petulant child, Israel said the Arab summit, which ended yesterday, yielded “one-sided demands which harm security.”

As Sun foreign correspondent Doug Struck reports, the conference of 21 Arab leaders ended with a note that said if Israel failed to abide by the agreements it had made, Arab states would have to “reconsider the steps taken in the context of the peace process” which has been going on since 1991.

But even the mildly worded communique caused Israel’s new right-wing government to moan, which is obviously a bad sign for future peace negotiations.

“This [summit communique] is not belligerent,” said Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath. “It tells the Israelis, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You’ve got to have a peace based on fairness to both of us. At least, on what you have already committed yourself and signed for.”

As Struck notes, in a peace accord it signed in 1993 with the Palestinians, Israel promised to withdraw in stages from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and engage in negotiations over Palestinian sovereignty and the status of Jerusalem. Netanyahu has essentially said “fuck all that, no.” I’m sure Israel’s allies in the West will try to rein in this right-wing extremist at some point…

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

Some important labor news regarding the paper of record for this blog.