Baltimore Orioles Game Played in Empty Stadium
In light of the riots that are ongoing in Baltimore, the baseball game between the Orioles and Chicago White Sox was played in front of zero fans yesterday. Fan attendance was not allowed, but the game was reported to continue as usual, including the national anthem, the 7th inning stretch, and player introduction music. The scoreboard also operated as usual, though I am guessing there were fewer in-game mini-games to keep the audience’s attention in between innings.
The rationale given for not allowing fan attendance was that the MLB did not want to make the stadium a target for further violence in the city. Why the game was not played in the nearby Washington Nationals stadium is beyond me, but apparently the Nationals brass was never questioned about a possible change of venue.
The riots that started after 25 year old Freddie Gray passed away while in police custody continue to headline news channels across the country. Though the vast majority of protests in Baltimore have been peaceful, those are not the headlines that grab viewers. No matter what Gray’s history with the law looks like, no man or woman is ever guilty until proven innocent in the United States of America.
Inside the stadium, the game was played as if everything was normal. Chris Davis threw a baseball to his adoring, albeit invisible, fans. One intriguing difference is how quickly the game was played: it took just over two hours. Two hours is a markedly faster pace than the 3.13 hour long average that the MLB posted in 2014. Is it because there was less showboating for fans? Does the Kiss Cam delay the game a few minutes so that we can see the cute couple in section 102, or the couple that is clearly not a couple, which makes it hilarious to much of the audience, in section 324 kiss? I would love to see a breakdown of what took so little time that it led to an hour difference in game time.
Diehard fans still lined the balconies of nearby hotels to get a decent view of the game, and their chants could be heard at times throughout the broadcast of the game, which continued without an issue.
The previous low for fan attendance of a MLB game was six fans, which was set in 1882 in a game between the Troy Trojans and the Worcester Ruby Legs, though the official attendance for yesterday’s game will be listed as N/A. On that note, why is the attendance not available? It was zero, we know it was zero, we have video proving it was zero, so why is it not available or applicable? My guess is that the MLB simply does not want this game to be remembered years from now.
Just like the protests that are in line with the years of frustration leading up to this point, the game should not be forgotten. The protests are ongoing because America is voicing their opinion about the ongoing issue of police brutality in this proud country. The protests will not be forgotten, and because of that neither will this baseball game.