It’s May 18, 1996, and an old friend returned to town — and the major leagues — to get a little revenge on the Birds. Bob Milacki, making his first big-league appearance since 1994, gave up three runs over 5⅓ inning to help the Mariners to a 7-3 win in Baltimore.

Milacki, who won 14 games with the O’s in 1989, was cut by the team in 1992. He bounced around various bullpens and the minor leagues before getting called up by Seattle to fill in for injured ace Randy Johnson. 

M’s outfielder Jay Buhner blasted a three-run homer off Roger McDowell in the seventh to put the game out of reach.

Today was the Orioles’ 40th game of the season, and McDowell has already appeared in 19 of them. He may be showing signs of fatigue, having given up six runs in his last three appearances, raising his ERA from 1.35 to 2.87.

“He’s got to have some help,” O’s manager Davey Johnson said of McDowell. “Every time I try to protect the lead with somebody else, I wind up going to him.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8C, May 19, 1996)

Mike Devereaux had three hits and drove in all three of the O’s runs, but it was not enough as the M’s got revenge a day after falling in the most dramatic fashion possible, to Chris Hoiles’s Ultimate Grand Slam.

Here is the box score with the not-so-lovely totals. 

In other roster news, third baseman B.J. Surhoff and utilityman Jeff Huson were both put on the injured list today. Both were injured in the series opener against Seattle. Surhoff has a sprained ankle and will miss at least two weeks. Huson came in to run for the injured Surhoff and he himself got injured. His seems like it could be quite serious.

“I’m pretty sure I have torn cartilage,” Huson said. “If it’s torn cartilage, it looks like I’ll be out three weeks, but it might be something with my ACL.” Eeesh, if it’s the latter then Huson could miss the rest of the season.

Outfielder Mark Smith and reliever Esteban Yan will join the team from Triple-A Rochester to replace Surhoff and Huson.

“It’s better than sitting in Toledo,” Smith said, before hastily adding, “no offense to people in Toledo. … I think every player wants to get to the big leagues, and I’m one of those guys who believes he deserves to be here.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8C, May 19, 1996)

Well, we’ll see how long Smith can hang around in Baltimore.

Alas, no dingers today.

Mariners (22-19) vs. Orioles (22-18), 1:35 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
SEA – RHP Sterling Hitchcock (3-2, 4.64)
BAL – RHP Mike Mussina (6-2, 3.64 ERA)

Danish shipping giant Maersk Inc. decided to cut back on shipping to the Port of Baltimore, and today’s front page has the details. The company is ending service from Baltimore to the Middle East and India via the Suez Canal, a move that will greatly diminish work for the port’s longshoremen. 

“It’s a darn shame, especially after some of the things we gave them,” said Bill Schonowski, president of Local 333, International Longshoreman’s Association. “They got great productivity on those ships. … But these decisions haven’t just been made. They’ve been evolving for a long time with these alliances in the industry. There are some things that cannot be helped.”

You got it, this is a story of corporate consolidation. The mega-merger between Maersk and Sea-Land leads to corporate flaks talking about “maximizing efficiency” and fewer port calls. 

I guess we’ll see through the summer how this affects volume at the port. Spoiler alert: It isn’t good.

But don’t worry, Maersk never pulled out of the Port of Baltimore completely. The Dali, the cargo ship that knocked over the Key Bridge in 2024, was chartered by Maersk.

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

Up at Pimlico, the Preakness was today. Here’s a drawing from the morning paper. Louis Quatorze won a race that did not include the Kentucky Derby winner, Grindstone.