Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Game with Zero Fans



Today the Baltimore Orioles hosted the Chicago White Sox at home in front of zero fans. This is not an exaggeration. The Orioles had zero fans in attendance for the first time in baseball history.

Due to the recent riots in Baltimore the Orioles have had to postpone their previous two games against the White Sox for precautionary reasons. Today they decided they would close the park and not allow any outside people in to watch the game, just to ensure nothing bad happened.

Seeing clips of the game on television I thought it looked like one of the strangest sporting events of all time. No noise, no fans, no production, just the game. In a way it was beautiful, just the players on the diamond focusing on playing the wonderful game of baseball while a couple of blocks beyond the outfield wall protests are taking place. For the time being in that little area of Baltimore where two teams suited up to play America's Game, there were no worries, protests, riots, nothing. Just the quiet sound of a bat hitting a ball, and the chatter of teammates cheering each other on. Although the circumstances that allowed this to happen are upsetting, and I hope for the best to the city and people of Baltimore, there is a part of me that appreciated watching a game with no theatrics, just the players out on the field playing the wonderful game of baseball.

5 comments:

  1. That's... disturbingly intense. I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to be playing in that utter silence, since the athletes have to be used to all the noise and commotion of a typical game.

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  2. That is the craziest thing I have ever heard. I could never imagine something like this happening in St. Louis Sad to read about, but interesting nonetheless

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  3. I heard about this is in the news the other day. I hate to say it but I've been part of some basketball games in which there were very few spectators but never zero. I would think it would've felt more like a scrimmage than a game.

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  4. I heard about this is in the news the other day. I hate to say it but I've been part of some basketball games in which there were very few spectators but never zero. I would think it would've felt more like a scrimmage than a game.

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  5. It was very entertaining to watch the players pretend to sing autographs and toss balls into the stands for the not present fans. Priceless entertainment.

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