Orioles To Host White Sox In Empty-Stadium Game

The Baltimore riots have created a rather bizarre slice of history: an empty-stadium game.

Because of the riots, the Orioles series against the Tampa Bay Rays will be moved to Tampa Bay, with the Orioles acting as the home team, according to the Dallas Morning News. The next step is to decide how to get the next series against the Chicago White Sox played while the riots continue to roar outside. The solution, for at least the first game of the series, is for the Orioles and White Sox to play an empty-stadium game at Camden Yards.

The games, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, have been postponed, and will be played as a doubleheader on May 28. The game Wednesday has been moved ahead 5 hours, starting at 2:05 p.m., and is believed to be the first Major League Baseball city to host an empty-stadium game.

“It’s all about what’s best for the city and the safety of our people,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said in a telephone interview when asked about the empty-stadium game. “The last thing you want to do is put the fans in harm’s way. You have to err on the side of safety.”

The city of Baltimore has been under attack from rioters since the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died on April 19 of spinal cord and other injuries suffered while in police custody.

The Washington Post is reporting the Orioles staff is working with Baltimore police and the city government to make sure that they do not impede on the 10 p.m. curfew set by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake starting April 28 and working through the beginning of next week.

Orioles officials were painfully aware that trying to use Baltimore’s public services for traffic and crowd control during this uneasy time would be foolish, since there is no way to predict what will happen to the city through the weekend, so an empty-stadium game made sense.

“We strongly believe that at this point Baltimore needs to focus its resources on restoring calm,” Orioles spokesman Greg Bader said. “That’s everybody’s priority right now, including ours.”

The empty-stadium game was chosen over another obvious solution: having the Orioles playing games at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., while the Nationals complete a road trip through the weekend. Nationals Park is less than 40 miles from Camden Yards, but there are extenuating circumstances. Both the Nationals and Orioles are in a legal battle over revenue generated by the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, a cable company that broadcasts both Nationals and Orioles games. The Orioles never approached the Nationals for help, nor did the Nationals extend a hand to help the Orioles.

So, the Orioles will host an empty-stadium game against the Chicago White Sox Wednesday, April 29, starting at 2:05 p.m. at Camden Yards.

[Image courtesy of Time]