It’s May 28, 1996, and Cal Ripken, Jr., reminded everyone what greatness looks like (well, at least those who stayed up late to watch). He hit three home runs and drove in eight as the O’s topped the Mariners 12-8. They’ve won 12 of 16 and are once again tied with the Yankees atop the AL East.

The game started after 10 p.m. in Baltimore, but fortunately highlights still exist! Look at these glorious dingers.

Oh ya, and if you were wondering, Cal is still playing shortstop despite rumors of his imminent move to third base. As we have covered in this space over the past couple weeks, Cal has been somewhat nonplussed about manager Davey Johnson’s idea to move him to third while B.J. Surhoff is injured. Cal made a statement tonight that he’d like to stay where he is.

“It’d be a nice story,” Cal admitted. “A weight was lifted off my shoulders and I went out and played pretty well. But I don’t know if honestly I can say that’s the case.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, May 29, 1996)

While Cal demured, Johnson said basically “Hell ya that’s great managing by me!”

“If I’ve got to hack him off to have him hit three homers every night, I’ll try to do it,” Johnson told the Sun’s Ken Rosenthal. “Maybe I’ll ask him to DH tomorrow.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, May 29, 1996) That last part is a nod to how he has pissed off Bobby Bonilla this year, too.

It’s somewhat of a moot point, because before the game, Johnson had already decided that Cal would stay at short indefinitely because the team has been playing so well.

“Davey told me today everything’s going to remain the same,” Cal said. “We’re winning, and he’s going to keep things the way they are. Whether it becomes an issue down the road. I don’t know, but for now, I’m at short.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 5D, May 29, 1996)

Cal doubled his season home run output in one night, and his performance was the first three-homer game by an Oriole since the great Randy Milligan did it in June of 1990. He wasn’t the only one in on the West Coast power surge. Brady Anderson hit yet another leadoff home run and Rafael Palmeiro added his 11th home run of the season. Inspired by his older brother, Billy Ripken even hit his first homer of the season.

It was a raucously fun night for everyone on the O’s except starter Scott Erickson, whose return from a sprained ankle did not go well. He gave up six runs in just 4⅔ innings. He’ll look to rebound next time out. 

Ken Griffey, Jr., homered for Seattle. Twenty-year-old phenom shortstop Alex Rodriguez had three hits and enjoyed seeing that one of his idols across the field was still at shortstop.

“He’s a tremendous leader at the position, a second coach out there,” Rodriguez said. “He positions everyone in the field, but it would be difficult to do that at third.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8D, May 29, 1996)

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

Six (!) bricks added to the wall! Three for Cal and one each for Brady, Raffy, and Billy!

Brady’s back to blasting leadoff homers!

Mariners (26-23) vs. Orioles (28-20), 10:35 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
BAL – RHP Mike Mussina (7-2, 4.34 ERA)
SEA – RHP Sterling Hitchcock (4-2, 4.88 ERA)

A new weight loss drug is worrying doctors because a potential side effect is a deadly lung disease. Seems like a reasonable worry.

The drug, called dexfenfluramine and sold as Redux, is, as the Sun describes, hoping to “attract millions of frustrated dieters” with a promise of weight loss, but there is a pretty serious caveat. That caveat is primary pulmonary hypertension.

“The risk is small but the magnitude of the disease once someone develops it is overwhelming,” said Dr. Lewis J. Rubin, the head of pulmonary care at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The drug is being pushed by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, which says that obesity has become such a national problem that the benefits outweigh the deadly side effects. 

“The last thing I’d want to do is deprive people of a drug that has a much greater chance of doing good than harm,” said Dr. Gerald Faich, who, get this, is a former FDA official who is now a pharma spokesperson.

Anyway, the article is long, but the upshot is that the drug was ultimately voluntarily removed from the market not just because of this lung disease, but also because it was associated with valvular heart disease.

Guess Dr. Faich backed the wrong horse here.

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

Meet the spam king of Philadelphia.