It’s March 24, 1996, and Opening Day is just over a week away. The eyes of the sports world were on the college hardwood today, as upstarts Syracuse (4 seed) and Mississippi State (5 seed) joined Rick Pitino’s Kentucky and John Calipari’s UMass in the Final Four.

In South Florida, the O’s won an exhibition game against the Red Sox, 3-1. Starter Scott Erickson pitched 7 innings, for some reason. That number of innings would be unheard of in an exhibition game — or even a regular season game — in 2026, but in 1996 it shows that he’s stretched out and ready for the season to begin. 

With the season fast approaching, there is still some question of who will pitch after Erickson, Mike Mussina, and David Wells. Newly acquired Kent Mercker seems to be the favorite for the fourth spot. And despite giving up 6 runs in an exhibition game yesterday, rookie Jimmy Haynes seems to have the inside track at the final spot. So who is he?

Jimmy Haynes was born in September of 1972 in LaGrange, Ga. As a pitcher at Troup County High School, he used to talk constantly, often performing mock broadcasts at the far end of the dugout, complete with crowd noise and commercials. (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, March 3, 1996)

“He’s a little bit off the wall,” said Haynes’ high school coach Larry Pitts. “He’s got a weird sense of humor. He’d be cutting up a lot on the bus and in the dugout when he wasn’t pitching.”

When he was pitching, Haynes was good. Good enough to be drafted by the Orioles straight out of high school in the 7th round of the 1991 draft. And good enough to rise through the minors and make his major league debut at the end of the 1995 season. 

That debut went about as well as could be hoped for. In four games (three starts) he pitched 24 innings, giving up just 6 runs and striking out 22. It was impressive enough that even after an offseason full of new faces coming to Baltimore, Haynes is still in position to have a spot in the rotation.

“He’s pitched like a veteran,” said new manager Davey Johnson. 

So far in spring training, he’s been getting hit around. His ERA is inflated at 6.88, but it’s still better than Mussina’s, which sits at 6.92. Based on his success a year ago, Haynes’ spot is probably safe for now, but with a new manager in town, it’ll be interesting to see how long his leash will be. Young starters Rick Krivda and Rocky Coppinger have impressed this spring, both with ERAs under 2. They would be next in line should Haynes stumble.

Regardless, it’s clear that the O’s plan is to ride their top three starters — Mussina, Wells, Erickson — for as many starts as possible and hope for the best with the final two spots. With questionable depth, if anything happens to any of those three, it may not matter how powerful the lineup is, they won’t keep the other team from scoring.

On the front page of the Sun, under the headline “Palestinians in Gaza living under ‘siege,’” Sun foreign correspondent Doug Struck offers this lede:

Struck talks to Mohammed Nimnim, a fisherman who can no longer do his job because of the blockade. “For 25 years, I and my sons have worked in Israel in all kinds of work,” he said. “Never have we been arrested, never in trouble. Why do they sentence me, without trial, without any crime by me?”

The blockade has been going on for weeks as the Israelis inflict collective punishment on the Palestinians following a series of four bombings that killed 61 people in late February. Here’s how the story ends:

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

Devastating news for any of you who were misled by Sea Breeze Pools & Spas’ ad from a few days ago that erroneously showed that a diving board was included as part of the Complete Concrete Pool package. Thank goodness we have this correction published a few days later, prominently placed at the top of page 16A.