Who Says You Can't Go Home? Orioles Expected To Court Teixeira, Burnett

In 1996, I became an Orioles fan and it almost makes me want to cry re-living this.

This was because that was the first year that I can consciously remember watching the entire playoffs from start to finish. In previous years, starting around 1991, I had flirted with watching a few games here and there, but this was the first year that I made an effort to watch the entire set.

One of the reasons, was it was a new team to the playoffs, having last been there in 1983. I liked their veteran-laden lineup which included:

Todd Zeile, Cal Ripken Jr., Rafael Palmiero, Roberto Alomar, B.J. Surhoff, Brady Anderson, Jeffrey Hammonds, Chris Hoiles, Mike Devereaux, Pete Incaviglia, Bobby Bonilla, and Eddie Murray—and that was just the hitters.

On the pitching side, they had Mike Mussina, Jesse Orosco, Scott Erickson, Alan Mills, Arthur Rhodes, and Randy Myers. I remember listening how a very young Armando Benitez was the heir apparent to aging Randy Myers whenever he was no longer effective.  I remember hearing similar praise about Estaban Yan, who never amounted to anything, bouncing later from team to team.

I remember this especially veteran bullpen, where it was believed that if you could get the pen to Mills and Myers the rest was automatic. The only problem is, Mills struggled and the young Benetiz blew games. During the regular season, this quality bullpen accounted for thirty of the team's 88 wins.

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