It’s March 22, 1996, and the O’s dropped a spring training game, 4-2, to the Minnesota Twins. With all the rainouts lately, it’s been hard for manager Davey Johnson to get work for his starters, so today he had ace Mike Mussina start and another starter, Kent Mercker, come in to relieve him. This has created a predicament because the team’s relievers haven’t gotten all that much work. 

One of those relievers, Roger McDowell, is new to the Orioles, but he and Johnson go way back. A notorious prankster who keeps his locker stuffed with comedy props and costumes, McDowell is a prominent member of the new characters in the O’s clubhouse known as “Mt. Jokemore.” 

Over his more than 10 years in the majors, he also has had some crossover into popular culture — much more than you’d think for a middle reliever. He is a regular fixture at the MTV Rock n’ Jock softball game, usually as a pitcher in some wacky costume. And he was also the mysterious “second spitter” in a famous episode of Seinfeld:

But comedy and celebrity aside, McDowell is all business on the mound. And he was brought in to be a reliable cog in the O’s bullpen. 

Roger McDowell was born in December of 1960 in Cincinnati, Ohio. After high school, he received a scholarship to pitch at Bowling Green State University, where he performed well enough that the Mets took him in the third round of the 1982 draft.

He struggled in the minor leagues, getting roughed up to the tune of a 4.86 ERA in Double-A Jackson in 1983. And then an elbow injury in 1984 cost him nearly that entire season.

But in 1985, Johnson joined the Mets and liked what he saw of McDowell enough in Spring Training to put him on the Opening Day roster. This was despite the fact that McDowell had never pitched above Double-A and had thrown all of 7 ⅓ innings the season prior. Johnson wasn’t alone, his teammates also were impressed with McDowell.

“He seems to be a gutty guy,” said Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez. “Doesn’t seem to be nervous. Goes after the hitters and has a real good sinker. He just looks like an athlete the way he handles himself.” (New York Daily News, p. 49, March 18, 1985)

Adding McDowell to the roster was a gamble that paid off, and he was immediately one of the better relievers in the National League. He was sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting after throwing to a 2.83 ERA across 127 innings — mostly out of the pen, though he did have the only two starts of his career that year. He had 17 saves that year, too.

The next year he was just as good, racking up 14 wins and 22 saves out of the bullpen, helping the Mets win the World Series. He even got some MVP votes that year.

In the years since, he has been a somewhat volatile but generally reliable reliever. Now 35, he comes to the O’s with a career ERA of 3.24 over 682 games with the Mets, Phillies, Dodgers and Rangers. He has 155 career saves.

McDowell’s effectiveness belies a somewhat unorthodox pitching repertoire — one that is certainly odd when compared to the hard throwing strikeout artists that populate every Major League bullpen in 2026. The thing is, McDowell hardly ever strikes anyone out. In over 990 career innings, he only has 504 strikeouts. That rate (4.6 per 9 innings) is significantly below the league average. But it works because his turbo sinker gets batters to hit the ball on the ground an astonishing 60% of the time. Hitters may not miss it much, but they sure can’t square it up.

In Baltimore, McDowell is reuniting with Johnson, the manager that gave him his shot in the big leagues.

“From Davey’s experience,” McDowell said when he signed, “even though it’s been almost 10 years, he knows he can give me the ball. One of the biggest things that’s a positive for me is that I can take the ball four or five times a week and be effective.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, December 19, 1995)

McDowell also knows that his pranks and antics would get old pretty fast if he wasn’t effective on the field.

“If you prepare yourself to get ready to do your job,” he said, “then you perform well and win, the guidelines for what you can get away with aren’t going to be as strict.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, December 20, 1995)

The Mets reunion stretches beyond Johnson, as McDowell is also teaming up again with lefty reliever Jesse Orosco and fellow “Mt. Jokemore” member, closer Randy Myers. That was a bullpen recipe for a World Series win a decade ago, and the O’s are banking on it working again.

The #1 movie in America the weekend of March 22, 1996, was once again The Birdcage, for the third week in a row. Executive Decision came in second, and we featured that last week. So the top new movie of the weekend, coming in third, was Diabolique. Honestly, I don’t remember this film at all, and The Baltimore Sun said this thriller “merely simmers.” But if you want to see a steamy love scene with Sharon Stone and Chazz Palminteri, this appears to be where you can go for that:

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

Remember when the paper used to publish syndicated fanfiction about bridge hands? To be the best, you gotta learn from the best.