It’s May 3, 1996, and it was bombs away for the Birds against the visiting Brewers. B.J. Surhoff clubbed two homers against his former team, and Brady Anderson added two of his own to continue his blistering start, and the O’s cruised to an 8-2 win.

Scott Erickson pitched a complete game, giving up just the two runs on four hits and striking out four. It was a comfortable, complete win for the good guys. And, after two epic games against the Yankees, this one came in at a tidy 2 hours and 26 minutes.

Brady had three hits and drove in five runs. Though he also had a great game against the team he spent more than a decade with, Surhoff was more interested in talking about his teammate.

“There’s no fluke to what [Brady’s] doing,” he said. “He’s hitting with two strikes, hitting off lefties, righties. He’s doing it all.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8C, May 4, 1996)

The Brewers had mixed emotions seeing their old friend play so well. “I’m sorry he’s doing so well against us, but happy he’s doing well,” said Milwaukee center fielder Pat Listach. “He was one of my closest friends on the team.”

Erickson’s gem was exactly what the O’s needed after two epically long games against the Yankees.

“It was a godsend,” said pitching coach Pat Dobson. “The bullpen has been working a lot of the ballgames lately. It was nice to get them another day’s rest.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8C, May 4, 1996)

“I was just trying to throw strikes and keep my fastball down,” Erickson said.

Here’s the box score with the lovely totals.

Two for B.J. Two for Brady.

14 dingers already?! What is going on here?!?

Brewers (12-15) vs. Orioles (15-13), 1:35 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
MIL – RHP Steve Sparks (1-3, 7.88 ERA)
BAL – RHP Mike Mussina (3-2, 4.03 ERA)

As the weather starts heating up, I have a feeling the summer of 1996 is going to be a legendary one at the movies. It’s starting already. This weekend, the top movie in America is the brand new movie, “The Craft,” arguably the best film about a trio of Catholic school girls who practice witchcraft.

Let’s see there’s quite a bit going on here today. In a touching show of bipartisanship, both parties came together to celebrate bigot Billy Graham and give him the Congressional Gold Medal for a lifelong commitment to hate. Elsewhere, the economy “surged” in the first quarter, with the GDP up 2.8%. Investors are frightened, and stocks and bonds tumbled. But while those things are fun, there’s a more relevant story under the headline “Pumped-up prices.”

The cost of gasoline has increased 20 to 30 cents per gallon since February, and consumers are feeling the strain. If you can believe it, a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Baltimore is now up to $1.29, when back in January it was $1.08. In California, premium unleaded is over $2 a gallon!

“It’s gotten outrageous and I’d like to know why,” said Bonnie Cubbage, who lives in Baltimore’s Brooklyn Park.

Gas station owner Bob Clark would also like some answers. “You hear it’s because of the cold winter and they had to divert the crude oil to heating fuel or because volume is down at the refineries,” he said. “All we know is that the increase is coming in one or two cents every day and the public doesn’t understand that us dealers are the ones jacking up the prices. It’s killing me, I know that.”

Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland estimates it will cost them $600 more a month if gas prices stay high.

Anyway, the only solution is to spend 30 more years tying all of American society to car culture. We’ll see how it goes.

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

Mother’s Day is coming up. Don’t forget to get her a HealthRider.