It was the height of what would come to be known as baseball's steroid era. Camden Yards was just four years old and one of the hottest attractions in sports. Peter Angelos was an outspoken, free-spending owner widely admired for bringing the Orioles back to competitive relevance.
When reliving seasons from Baltimore baseball history, 1996 tends to get short shrift. Twenty years have flattened fans' memories of those Orioles to a passel of home runs and an ill-timed catch by a 12-year-old boy in the stands at Yankee Stadium.
But if looking for historical antecedents to the 2016 Orioles, the 1996 team is a pretty good choice.