It’s March 8, 1996, and the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves smacked around David Wells and the O’s in a spring training game, winning 11-3. It was a fun day in camp though as Vi and Cal Ripken, Sr., the parents of Orioles superstar Cal Jr., and Orioles player Billy, came by. Cal Jr. showed affection to his mother by poking her with his bat whenever she walked by and occasionally mussing her hair. “I’ll start worrying,” she said, “when he stops doing that.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 10C, March 9, 1996)

The only real cause for concern today in camp is that Mike Mussina is battling a strained stomach muscle and may be at least a week away from game action. (Baltimore Sun, p. 10C, March 9, 1996) There is a lot riding on this season in Baltimore, and for the team to reach its ceiling and achieve its lofty goals, they will need their ace pitcher to take the ball every fifth day.

Mike Mussina was born in December 1968 in Williamsport, Pa. He showed from an early age athletic gifts that were once described as “Roy Hobbs comes-to-life” when The Baltimore Sun’s Don Markus compared the enigmatic pitcher to the fictional hero of The Natural. (Baltimore Sun, p. 19D, August 9, 1992)

A multi-sport star growing up in small-town Montoursville, Pa., Mussina was offered a football scholarship from Penn State, a basketball scholarship from Vanderbilt, and was drafted out of high school by the Orioles in the 11th round of the baseball draft. Instead, Mussina turned them all down and joined the baseball team at Stanford, where he won 9 games as a freshman as part of an NCAA championship team. He spent three seasons at Stanford, and completed a degree in economics in 3 ½ years. (Baltimore Sun, p. 21D, August 9, 1992) 

In 1990, he was again drafted by the Orioles, this time with the 20th pick of the first round. This time, the O’s got their man. He dominated the minor leagues, and within 14 months of being drafted, he was already in Baltimore, pitching to an impressive 2.87 ERA in 12 starts as a rookie. From 1992 through 1995, he has finished in the top 5 in American League Cy Young voting three times and been an All Star three times as well (most famously in 1993 when Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston refused to play Mussina in front of the home fans in the only All Star Game ever held at Camden Yards, resulting in “Cito sucks!” chants that can still be heard decades later). 

Mussina is the Orioles best pitcher, and he’s one of the game’s best as well. He is smart, if also laconic. He often lets his pitching do the talking.

He has an athletic delivery with a fastball that can run up to the mid-90s. He has a solid changeup, but the pitch that has made him dominant is a devastating knuckle-curve, with high spin and sharp downward break. He could tunnel that pitch off his fastball, which means that out of the hand they would be released on the same plane, but on the way to the plate, the curve would disappear, often dropping out of the strike zone and making some of the best hitters in the world look silly. “I’ve seen young guys with better fastballs, and better curves, but Mussina has the package,” said legendary Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson. “They’ve got a guy like Palmer.” A reference to Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, the greatest pitcher in O’s history. (Baltimore Sun, p. 21D, August 9, 1992)

Here’s a full minute of Mussina’s knuckle-curve. While this is pitching mastery in its truest form, please disregard the uniform he’s wearing through a lot of it. We don’t want to ruin our bit, here.

In 1995, Mussina led all of baseball with 19 wins and threw over 221 innings in the shortened 144-game season. He has been remarkably durable, so this muscle injury in spring training is something to keep an eye on. But for now, we can assume he will be on the mound on Opening Day. Despite being one of the game’s best pitchers, he has never played in the playoffs. He — as does the rest of the team — expects that to change this year.

In a wire story published on page 14A in today’s Sun, we learn that an opinion poll in Israel has, for the first time, put opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of sitting Prime Minister Shimon Peres, roughly two months ahead of the general election scheduled for May 29. (Baltimore Sun, p. 14A, March 8, 1996) These surprising poll results come as Israeli and Palestinian police continue to make arrests following bombings that have killed 60 people in the previous two weeks. Netanyahu’s rise also casts doubt on the ongoing Arab-Israeli peace process, which Peres wants to salvage while Netanyahu is staunchly opposed.

At the same time in Gaza, the first Palestinian Council was inaugurated, with 88 newly elected council members headed by president Yasser Arafat. Arafat also wants to protect the tenuous peace process, saying “We will not allow violence or terrorism to stop this peace process. They are trying to kill the Palestinian dreams.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 14A, March 8, 1996)

The previous day in the Sun (March 7), a front page article from a Sun foreign correspondent on the ground in Ramallah, West Bank, detailed how the Israeli military has severely cracked down on Palestinians following the recent bombings. The story, “For Palestinians, a sense of going nowhere,” begins by centering and humanizing Nasi Sayid, a Palestinian taxi driver in the West Bank. He offered the reporter his keys, saying, “here, you can take the taxi. I can go nowhere with it.” Sayid, the article says, is one of more than a million Palestinians confined by Israel during the crackdown, as soldiers keep Palestinians from entering or leaving 465 towns and villages in the West Bank. (Baltimore Sun, p. A1, March 7, 1996)

The #1 movie at the box office on the weekend of Friday, March 8, 1996, is The Birdcage, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. I think we all remember where we were the first time we saw The Birdcage.

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

You all won’t believe this, but Skytel Paging by Motorola is new at Staples! Look at these incredible devices that allow you to receive text messages anywhere. All of them have page recall for up to 99 hours. What are you waiting for?!