It’s May 7, 1996, and the O’s got some good pitching, but the bats didn’t show up in Chicago as the White Sox came away with a 3-2 win.

Orioles lefty David Wells pitched a complete game (eight innings) but was outdueled by Alex Fernandez. Danny Tartabull’s two-run homer in the seventh proved to be the difference, and the Birds dropped 3.5 games back of the suddenly red hot Yankees.

Tartabull had made a crucial error earlier in the game that led to the O’s getting out to a 2-0 lead.

“I was upset with that,” he said. “I wanted to get a chance to make up for it.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 6D, May 8, 1996)

He did, and the O’s are now back to only one game over .500. Wells scattered seven hits and struck out two over his eight innings. Rafael Palmeiro and B.J. Surhoff had two hits apiece for Baltimore, but there wasn’t much offense other than that.

Brady Anderson batted leadoff as usual, but he was designated hitter after leaving the previous game with a strained quad. He went 0-for-5. Bobby Bonilla got the start in right field and went 1-for-3.

“I don’t like sitting,” said Anderson. “There comes a time when you injure yourself and have to take a day off. This is something I feel I can play through.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 6D, May 8, 1996) We’ll see if that’s true.

Here’s the box score with the not-so-lovely totals.

Elsewhere in Birdland, recently signed outfielder Luis Polonia is anxious to be called up to the big club. “I expected to be up by now,” he said. “I won’t be here long. It’s a matter of days for me. If I don’t get called up, I’m going to go home to the Dominican Republic and work out. I can name 100 guys in the big leagues who don’t do the job I’ll do.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 6D, May 8, 1996) Strong words, and we’ll see if he is up soon or if he is indeed going home.

No homers today.

Orioles (16-15) vs. White Sox (17-14), 8:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
BAL – RHP Scott Erickson (2-2, 3.15 ERA)
CHW – RHP James Baldwin (2-0, 2.12 ERA)

The Federal Communications Commission raked in “$10.2 billion” in bids for licenses to provide wireless telephone services. (You’ll see why I used scare quotes later.) FCC chair Reed Hundt hailed the “steadfast entrepreneurial winners” of the auction, while experts said not so fast.

“It’s a typical case of fiscal fantasy,” said Herschel Shosteck, a market economist who follows the wireless industry. “It’s in the same category as the savings and loan fiasco of the 1980s.”

Since the bids far surpassed expectations, many are wondering whether the winners will be able to keep up with their payments. The FCC is allowing them to structure payments over 10 years.

The big “winner” of the bids was NextWave Wireless, which spun out of QUALCOMM the year prior and got 56 licenses for a whopping $4.2 billion. Shosteck says they are basing their plans on a new technology called CDMA, which hasn’t even been implemented in the U.S. He says this is a problem.

“Every new technology has more bugs than a mongrel stray has fleas,” he said, “and there’s no way that CDMA will be any different.”

Anyway, let’s see who was right, Reed Hundt or the economic experts. You are not going to believe this, but it wasn’t our boy Reed! 

NextWave didn’t even make it two years after this bid before filing for bankruptcy in 1998. They refused to make any more payments after their initial $500 million down payment. In 2004, the FCC reached a settlement with NextWave, and in 2012, the company was acquired by AT&T. How’s that for a “steadfast entrepreneurial winner”?!?!

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

Heard any good pick-up lines lately?