If A Game is Played And No One is Around…
Well, this should be… something.
Tomorrow’s game between the Orioles and the Chicago White Sox will begin at 2:05 p.m. ET and will be closed to the public.
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 28, 2015
Due to the ongoing civil unrest in Baltimore, the Orioles and White Sox games have been canceled the last two days, and now the final game of the series will be played in an empty stadium. Additionally, the Orioles will now travel to Tampa Bay for this weekend’s series with the Rays, and they will act as the home team while playing on the Rays’ home turf.
While moving games to another team’s ballpark has happened before — Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter for the Cubs against the Astros while playing in Milwaukee, in fact — playing a game without allowing fans to attend is a new one to me. I imagine it will be an odd experience for all involved, with no ambient noise or reactions to the events occurring on the field.
But the game will count in the standings all the same, and from a purely I-don’t-know-what-to-expect perspective, this might go down as one of the more interesting games of the year. Of course, the situation in Baltimore is far more important than any game or sporting event, and I hope that every resident of the city remains safe during this time of unrest.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
I believe that John Angelos’ remarks are pertinent, germane, and could, even should, have been cited in this article.
Strong Agree. One of the most intelligent takes out there
He’s seems generally on the mark, but, as an economist and as a human being, I can’t help but disagree with the whole shipping jobs over seas thing.
Please explain. Where exactly did the manufacturing jobs go?
That’s not what I was disagreeing with. America has done a really terrible job of retraining workers as technological change and convergence remake the world.
I have to respectfully disagree. John’s comments are full of stupidity with regard to jobs and he needs to take an economics class before speaking about job locations.
Had to look up his remarks. Damn…
John’s comments, though, are not universally agreed upon and are much more broadly discussing our society, politics, and economy. I believe Dave has made the right call to leave them out and instead post a piece focused on baseball, the primary subject of this website.
I don’t think citing something means you 100% agree with it, and we’re talking about the comments of an Orioles executive, so I think it makes sense to include it in a blog post on a baseball website, considering it unquestionably was a more interesting comment than what you’d expect, whether you agree with it or not.