It’s March 6, 1996, and it was a rough day for the Birds on the field as they lost 12-0 to the Red Sox in a spring training game. When you’re winning in spring training, it feels great and is definitely a sign of things to come. When you’re losing, it’s a reminder that these games don’t matter anyway. 

The biggest news out of Birdland today is that the agent for Orioles ace Mike Mussina met again with general manager Pat Gillick about a possible contract extension for the pitcher. Gillick shut it down, saying he prefers to discuss an extension after the season. (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, March 7, 1996) Mussina will be eligible for salary arbitration after the season and is slated to be a free agent following the 1997 season, meaning he’d be able to sign with any team.

Gillick is in his first season with the Orioles, but he’s quite familiar with the general manager’s role — and he is no stranger to incredible success in it. When he was hired in late November 1995, The Baltimore Sun’s Ken Rosenthal made it clear what the hiring meant: “The last time something this good happened to the Orioles, they won the 1983 World Series.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, November 28, 1995)

Gillick was born in Chico, Ca., in August of 1937. He got a taste of championship baseball early in life, winning a collegiate national championship at the University of Southern California in 1958. He then entered professional baseball, and while he never made the major leagues, his minor league career led him to encounter some faces that have already become quite familiar to us.

As The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck notes in a profile of Gillick upon his hiring, Gillick once played in the Orioles’ minor-league system alongside new Orioles manager Davey Johnson. He was also a teammate of Cal Ripken, Sr., the season that Cal’s son, Cal, was born. And Gillick played under Earl Weaver. “Now he is the guy charged with putting the organization back in touch with its storied past.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, November 28, 1995)

So why is Gillick such a big deal? The Orioles know all too well. From 1978 through 1994, Gillick built an American League East divisional rival, the Toronto Blue Jays, into a dominant force, winning back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993. As Dave Kindred said in The Sporting News upon Gillick’s retirement during the 1994 strike, “For 18 years he built, nurtured, sustained and repaired the Blue Jays. From nothing to something, from expansion babies to world-champion heroes, from a football ballpark to a 21st-century sports cathedral, the Blue Jays moved with a patience and confidence that suggested every step was, if not inevitable, the product of well-reasoned logic.” (The Sporting News syndicated column appearing in Boca Raton News, p. 1D, September 28, 1994)

And now Gillick is back from his short retirement, bringing what Blue Jays’ president Peter Bavasi called a “sixth sense” for building a team to Baltimore. (Canada Press story appearing in The Windsor Star, p. B3, September 29, 1994) Gillick has gotten right to work constructing a roster with input from his old minor league teammate, Johnson, and with full financial support from owner Peter Angelos.

His biggest move by far was reuniting with Blue Jays star second baseman Roberto Alomar, who he signed to a 3-year, $18 million contract just before Christmas. The day prior, he signed veteran B.J. Surhoff, fresh off a season where he hit .320 with the Brewers. And before that, he addressed the bullpen by adding two key cogs of the Orioles’ “Mt. Jokemore,” Randy Myers and Roger McDowell. He also re-signed veteran outfielder Mike Devereaux. 

To address the starting rotation, he traded for Kent Mercker, sending Chaad (with two A’s) Stewart and future Cleveland bullpen legend Joe Borowski to the Atlanta Braves. And he wasn’t done, the day after Christmas 1995, he sent minor leaguer Trovin Valdez and outfielder Curtis Goodwin to the Cincinnati Reds for David Wells, reuniting the doughy starter with Johnson, who managed him the previous season.

By 1996, Gillick has already done enough to earn a plaque in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (he would be inducted in 2011), and now he is here in Baltimore. As Rosenthal noted upon his hiring, perhaps forgetting to knock on wood: “Hello, minor-league upgrade. Hello, AL East title. If Gillick thought Angelos was going to meddle, he wouldn’t have taken the job.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, November 28, 1995)

Welp.

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

Before big tech companies zeroed out ad revenue and private equity swallowed most of our print publications, there were all sorts of ways papers would raise money to fund their reporting. For instance, with St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, you could send a check to the Sun in order to “Send greetings to a friend from the Emerald Island.” Sláinte