What if they played a baseball game, and nobody showed up?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Empty Seats: Orioles Close Baseball Game to the Public After Baltimore Riots
By M. Alex Johnson

With Baltimore under a nighttime curfew and police and National Guard troops deployed across the city after a night of riots, the Baltimore Orioles canceled a second straight game Tuesday and said their game Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox would be played behind closed doors in an empty stadium. The Orioles, whose stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, isn't far from where the worst violence occurred Monday night, are clearing town after almost 200 people were arrested and 15 buildings were set on fire Monday night as police clashed with crowds protesting the death last week of Freddie Gray in police custody. Wednesday's game against the Chicago White Sox will be closed to the public, the team said. Fans will get to watch the game only on television, devoid of cheering, booing and abuse of the umpires. The games that were called off Monday and Tuesday will be made up Thursday in a double-header. The Tampa Bay Rays were scheduled to be in Baltimore for three games Friday through Sunday, but those games will be moved to Tampa, Florida, instead. "We believe that these decisions are in the best interests of fan safety and the deployment of city resources," Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said. The odd spectacle is almost unprecedented in professional American sports, but it isn't unknown in Europe, especially in soccer, usually to avoid riots between rival groups of fans or to punish teams whose fans have misbehaved. The national soccer teams of Croatia and Italy are scheduled to play a European Championship match June 12 in Zagreb behind closed doors after Croatian fans yelled racist abuse, set off fireworks and threw rocks and bottles during a match against Norway on March 28.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/baltimore-unrest/orioles-close-baseball-games-public-after-baltimore-riots-n349856

[fimg=544]http://rlv.zcache.com/what_if_they_gave_a_war_and_nobody_came_poster-r76fed6d694f447d7a5beb186842ee110_i3579_8byvr_1024.jpg[/fimg]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Shame. We have tickets to Saturday night's game which was to take place after a charity 5k we also won;t be going to this weekend, a hotel reservation we won't be staying in, etc etc etc.

Not feeling sorry for myself but saddened, as much by the ignorant racist crap this mess has emboldened people to engage in, as the pathetic state of affairs where cops kill suspects and citizens react by setting their city on fire.

How are the Edgewards doing?

[Edgy MD]

We're fine. The office sent us all home yesterday at 2:00. We all thought it was an over-reaction. We all thought wrong. Working from home today and a little less able to effectively do my job at a time when getting my job done is a little more important.

It's an amazing, and I would guess unprecedented, decision.

There are 5-10 fine minor league parks in the area: Bowie, Aberdeen, etc. Or set up shop at Nationals Park. But I guess smarter people than I have found these solutions to be non-feasible.

[Guest cooby]

Stay safe, buddy.

[Edgy MD]

Down the right field line... into the crowd...



Sad that the ball girl has to go to work. Couldn't they just stick Delmon Young down there?

[Lefty Specialist]

Wow. Does anybody retrieve the foul balls, or do they just rest there under the seats like Easter eggs waiting for the next home game?

[A Boy Named Seo]

It's a strange and eerie game to watch. After a strikeout or a hit, there's a smattering of applause from people in the dugout and a handful of fans outside the stadium looking in. Must feel in some ways like a scrimmage for the players.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

No announcements? No 7th inning stretch?

[A Boy Named Seo]

No, I hear the PA announcing guys. Not sure on the 7th inning stretch, but I gotta doubt it.

[Edgy MD]

Seventh-inning stretch is scheduled to take place. There was a National Anthem too, though I don't know if it was performed or canned.

[Frayed Knot]

There does appear to be a PA announcement for each AB but it's barely audible even without the crowd so I'm thinking that maybe it's aimed at those beyond the gates*. Certainly no point in telling anyone in the stadium who's up.

*For those familiar with Camden, the brief glimpse of the gathered crowd (probably an optimistic word here) looked to be beyond the outer gate which is in back of LCF (where the statues are) and which blocks off the entrance end of Eutaw St. So there's no one is that pedestrian area between the OF fence and the converted warehouse and therefore no one on Eutaw Street to chase down Chris Davis's HR which he hooked just inside the RF foul pole.

O's were smacking around Samardzija in the early innings.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The announcement is kind of required, isn't it, at least for pinch hitters, because that's when they're officially in the game. A manager waits for the left-handed pinch hitter to be announced, for example, before he tells the umpire that he's bringing in a lefty reliever.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The announcement is kind of required, isn't it, at least for pinch hitters, because that's when they're officially in the game. A manager waits for the left-handed pinch hitter to be announced, for example, before he tells the umpire that he's bringing in a lefty reliever.

Technically the change is official when the home plate ump signals the official scorer in the press box that the guy walking up to the plate in the new hitter in that lineup slot. Whether it subsequently gets announced over a loudspeaker or not isn't necessary. But yeah, as a matter of consistency, it's probably best to continue the standard practice.

[Edgy MD]

It would be even more surreal if they just used a guy with a megaphone cone. Or gave such a device to the home plate ump. You'd figure that would do the trick.

No need to review fan interference while going over the ground rules.

So, can a fielder climb into the stands and keep running up the aisle and over seats to make a play?

[Frayed Knot]

So, can a fielder climb into the stands and keep running up the aisle and over seats to make a play?

Don't you need to at least start your leap on the playing field for the catch to be legal?
IOW, you can climb the fence, make the catch, and then fall into the seats, but not jump the fence first then make the catch while standing in Row C.



And while we're on the subject: Alex Gordon's catch over this past weekend, Now THAT (speaking to announcers here) was a catch diving into the stands and, no, it wasn't anything like Jeter's.
Jeter's catch, although a nice hustling play, was was caught not only on the playing field **BUT ALSO IN FAIR TERRITORY** before he subsequently went into the front rows because he couldn't stop in time.
I fear we've been sentenced to hear every current and future into-the-stands catch for the rest of time likened (and often found inferior in comparison) to the one by St Derek a decade or more ago even when the ones that are considerably better and not remotely similar.

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: So, can a fielder climb into the stands and keep running up the aisle and over seats to make a play? Don't you need to at least start your leap on the playing field for the catch to be legal? IOW, you can climb the fence, make the catch, and then fall into the seats, but not jump the fence first then make the catch while standing in Row C.

That's long been my assumption, but never have the stands been so close, the walls so low, and the damn interfering fans so absent to put the rule to the test.

I fear we've been sentenced to hear every current and future into-the-stands catch for the rest of time likened (and often found inferior in comparison) to the one by St Derek a decade or more ago even when the ones that are considerably better and not remotely similar.

Yeah, all the bullshit about him while he was playing at least had to be tempered a bit by the reality that he was a human being right there before your own eyes. But now that he's gone, that living evidence goes with him, and so the myth takes over, and distortions can go unchecked.

[Frayed Knot]

So what do we make of the fact that this game, which had 10 runs, 15 hits, 16 Ks, 2 walks and 6 pitchers (although no in-inning changes), was played in just 2:03 ?
Such an unusual time -- for any game much less a high scoring one -- may give credence to the idea that part of the problem all along has been hitters (and maybe pitchers as well) who preen a bit for the fans as they're in the box, or while waiting for their walk-up music, or around the rubber, etc.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

And/or other fan-targeted efforts that aren't necessarily player-generated.

[MFS62]

It was weird seeing,

Attendance: 0

in the box score.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: And/or other fan-targeted efforts that aren't necessarily player-generated.

I can't think of any examples of what those things might be, especially now that they're (supposedly) adhering to guidelines that govern the time between innings*.
Whatever it might be, if I'm MLB, I'm studying the game tapes to find out.



* Except for the 7th inning stretch at YSIII of course (and select Sunday games at other parks) where the Yanx put on a full dog and pony show so as to reenforce the idea that George personally invented patriotism. If they want to do that, fine, but that doesn't mean they have to televise it also (what, guards forcibly restraining paying customers from leaving their seats during those few minutes isn't enough?) and if they do want to televise it then they don't get to run a full slate of commercials right afterward. Either/or, not both.

[Ceetar]

MFS62 wrote: It was weird seeing, Attendance: 0 in the box score. Later

Which is BS isn't it? There were tickets sold to that game. Or did they give a full refund to everyone and not just a 'come to another game'?

[MFS62]

Ceetar wrote: It was weird seeing, Attendance: 0 in the box score. Later Which is BS isn't it? There were tickets sold to that game. Or did they give a full refund to everyone and not just a 'come to another game'?

I think both major leagues now have to report through the turnstiles count rather than tickets sold. As of a few years ago, each league did it differently.

Later

[Ceetar]

it's the other way around. they report tickets sold.

[MFS62]

Ceetar wrote: it's the other way around. they report tickets sold.

Then it was weirder than I thought.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

I assume that because any tickets purchased for yesterday will eventually be exchanged for tickets at a later date they'd have to report this one as Zero to prevent a double-counting later on.

[Guest themetfairy]

[batmagadanleadoff]

In the end, it's always the Mets fault.

Orioles' gesture showed respect for totality of Baltimore
Howard Bryant, Senior Writer

excerpt:

The novelty of the Orioles-White Sox game played in front of no one was out of necessity, but not because the entire city of Baltimore is aflame (it is not, despite repeated images of a local CVS pharmacy burning), but because of the high potentiality that another front in a war between two Americas risked being opened on national television, with sports at center stage. [***] If the league was committed to playing the game under normal circumstances, however, Manfred was 100 percent correct to play it without fans, for sports, ostensibly the great healer, is revealing itself as the great divider when it comes to the racial and class issues that have returned protest to America. [***] When Eric Garner's death at the hands of the New York Police Department in July -- followed by a grand jury's December decision not to indict the officers involved -- fueled the "I can't breathe" protests, the New York Mets offered no moment of silence or acknowledgement of Garner's death, but on Opening Day held a pregame ceremony honoring two slain policemen, even though no connection was ever made linking the lone assailant to the protests, as the New York policeman's union asserted. Instead of lamenting the unfortunate deaths of three people, the Mets focused only on two, sending a message that only cops' lives mattered, and siding with the police over the widow of a troubled citizen killed at the hands of police. There was no healing, no reconciliation or recognition that everybody in New York had lost. The Mets, ostensibly the entire city's team, could have chosen not to get involved, given the emotional climate that was created by an officer choking Garner to death. Instead, the Mets sided with the police. The line is clear.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12793629/baltimore-orioles-made-correct-call-not-mixing-fans-protesters

[Edgy MD]

That's a weird conjecture.

[Ceetar]

was that written by one of the protesters or something? It certainly misses ALL the points.