Wednesday, April 29, 2015

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Orioles Play in Eerily Empty Stadium, Sirens in Distance - New York Times

With the exception of two scouts, the seats at Camden Yards were empty for the game between the White Sox and Orioles. Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

BALTIMORE — On what might have been a perfect spring afternoon to sit with a beer and a hot dog and watch baseball, an eerie emptiness greeted the Orioles and the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon in what was believed to be the first major league game played without spectators.

Except for two scouts sitting behind home plate and a press box full of reporters, the 45,971 seats and three decks at Camden Yards were an empty expanse of green as the first pitch was thrown at 2:06 p.m.

“This isn’t the way you want to make history,” said Chris Davis, the Orioles’ first baseman.

The police presence is light around the stadium. Three dozen or so fans peeked through a wrought-iron fence beyond left-center field, shouting, “Ohhh,” at the familiar moment of “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave” in the national anthem, a Camden Yards tradition. Still, the anthem was recorded instead of sung, for the first time in recent memory.

The fans clapped and yelled when Chicago’s first batter, Adam Eaton, struck out. A “Go Orioles” banner hung from the balcony of a nearby hotel, where other fans gathered. But there was a barren feel to the afternoon. The Eutaw Street walkway beyond right field, normally full of foot traffic for a restaurant, barbecue stand and souvenir shops, was closed. Orange umbrellas at picnic tables were drawn.

When the Orioles’ leadoff hitter, left fielder Alejandro De Aza, fouled three balls in the bottom of the first before drawing a walk, one of the fouls bounced back onto the field. The other two remained among the empty seats and were not immediately retrieved.

Nor apparently was the three-run home run that Davis soon hit to right field. Only a television camera operator was in the vicinity. It was so quiet that Gary Thorne, a television announcer for the Orioles, could be heard exclaiming, “Goodbye,” as the ball cleared the fence.

The stadium lights were turned on. The scoreboard was in operation. Batting practice took place as usual, and the sound echoed in the empty stadium. The ball sounded sharp hitting the catcher’s mitt. But it only added to the sense of desolation at Camden Yards amid the unrest in this troubled city after the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, an African-American man who died after suffering a severe spinal injury while in police custody.

The Orioles led, 6-0, after one inning, but the intermittent sounds of sirens outside the stadium brought a more somber reality to the afternoon.

After games were postponed Monday and Tuesday, it was decided the teams would play on Wednesday. The game was shifted from 7:05 p.m. because of a nightly curfew. And the public was locked out for reasons of safety and the need for security to be deployed elsewhere in the city.

Adam Jones, the Orioles’ center fielder and perhaps the most popular black athlete in Baltimore, said Wednesday’s game could be valuable in providing a small distraction from the city’s troubles for a few hours, noting that sports “unite communities in dark times.”

But given the rawness of feeling in Baltimore and the urgent need for a police presence elsewhere in the city, Jones said, “It makes sense not to have any people here today.”

Because a major league game without fans had apparently never happened before, no one knew quite what to expect. “Does the mascot work today?” Orioles Manager Buck Showalter asked reporters.

He wondered whether his starting pitcher, Ubaldo Jimenez, might become unnerved if he heard the bullpen phone ringing in the empty stadium, knowing that he would soon be relieved. And he joked about whether the talking of reporters in the open-air press box would become a distraction.

In spring training, Showalter noted, the Orioles had practiced drills with piped-in crowd noise to simulate the regular season. “We didn’t practice the quiet one,” he said.

Shortstop J.J. Hardy, on the disabled list while recovering from a shoulder injury, was among a number of players to joke that they would have to be circumspect about what they said on the field and in the dugout.

“A lot of guys on the bench will have to shut up more so they don’t get tossed,” Hardy said beforehand. “The umpires can hear everything we say.”

Zach Britton, the Orioles closer, wondered who would retrieve home run balls given the absence of fans, and said it might be up to the bullpen.

“Maybe if our guys hit a home run, we’ll go and grab it,” Britton said.

On a more serious note, Jones, the center fielder, described the rioting in Baltimore as a cry of frustration by the city’s youth.

“Your frustration is warranted; it’s understood,” Jones said.

At the same time, he said about the destruction of property: “The actions I don’t think are acceptable. But if you come from where they come from, you understand. But I think ruining a community that you have to live in is never the answer, due to the fact you’re going to have to wake up in three or four days and go right back to those convenience stores, right back to all those stores.”

Instead of playing a weekend series here against Tampa Bay, the Orioles will now go on the road to play the Rays, but as the home team. Showalter dismissed any inconvenience that his team would encounter.

“To say that something we’re going to go through on a baseball field, playing in the big leagues, is difficult is really insensitive to everything else that’s going on,” Showalter said. “It’s a small thing for us comparatively speaking.”

Referring to the unsettled atmosphere in Baltimore, Showalter added, “It’s a great honor to be able to try to do something that might help things a little bit.”

Correction: April 29, 2015

An earlier version of this article misidentified the point in “The Star-Spangled Banner” at which Orioles fans traditionally shout, “Ohhh.” It is at the beginning of the line, “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,” not of the line, “O, say, can you see.”




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