[Willie Bee]

Little walk down Memory Lane, for anyone interested. On occasion, I like to pull up the Retrosheet.org website and look at scores from 5, 10, 20 years ago on a certain date. And so that was my little exercise this morning when I was perusing boxscores from May 17, 1996.

With last night's 14-13 win for the Yankees over the Rangers, this one easily caught my eye...

Camden Yards, Baltimore
17 May 1996
Orioles-14, Mariners-13

Thanks to an early homer from Luis Polonia and three hits by Rafael Palmeiro in his first three at bats, Baltimore built an early 7-2 lead for starter Jimmy Haynes in front of more than 47,000 O's fans. But Haynes would last just five innings, and his first two replacements, Arthur Rhodes and Roger McDowell, got knocked around by Seattle.

Palmeiro collected his fifth hit of the night in the bottom of the 7th, a 2-run homer, to give Baltimore a 9-6 lead. But that was wiped out in the top of the 8th when Seattle put a 5-spot on the board thanks in large part to Alex Rodriguez' grand slam off the fifth Orioles pitcher, Alan Mills. Jay Buhner would also take Mills deep in the top of the ninth with Edgar Martinez aboard, and Seattle was suddenly ahead 13-10.

Norm Charlton came on to try and nail it down for the Mariners in the bottom of the inning. Roberto Alomar walked to lead things off before Palmeiro struck out in his attempt to get a sixth hit in the game. Bobby Bonilla doubled Alomar to third and Billy Ripken fouled out. Needing just one more out, Charlton then walked Cal Ripken to load the bases and bring Baltimore catcher Chris Hoiles to the plate.

Hoiles drilled a Charlton pitch into the left field bleachers for a walkoff slam to give the Orioles the final 14-13 advantage.

[Razz]

And eight years ago today, Boomer Wells pitched a perfect game in a 4-0 victory over Latroy Hawkins (I had forgotten he was a starter in Minnesota) and the Twins.