BALTIMORE — After a pair of postponements caused by rioting, the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox will play Wednesday at Camden Yards in what is believed to be the first game without fans in Major League Baseball’s 145-season history.
Because of the unsettled environment in Baltimore, where rioters burned a drug store and set police cars ablaze on Monday night, officials moved the game up five hours from its original 7:05 p.m. starting time and closed it to the public.
In addition, Baltimore’s Friday-to-Sunday series against Tampa Bay was shifted from Camden Yards to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, with Baltimore remaining the home team and batting last.
“It’s all about what’s best for the city and the safety of our people,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “The last thing you want to do is put the fans in harm’s way. You have to err on the side of safety.”
Schools were closed Tuesday and the mayor imposed a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew. The announcement of the unique closed-doors game came late Tuesday afternoon, after the Orioles postponed games against Chicago on Monday and Tuesday.
“We were just trying to respond to the wishes of the public officials and protect the integrity of the schedule,” said Dan Duquette, the Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations.
This was Chicago’s only scheduled visit to Camden Yards. The first two games will be made up as part of a doubleheader on May 28.
“It would have been very difficult to make up all three games, so we needed to play that game on Wednesday,” Duquette said. “You just try to do the best you can in this kind of situation.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame and John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s historian, said they did not think there ever had been a closed-doors big league game, although there have been instances in the minor leagues.
“It’s definitely going to be unchartered territory,” Showalter said.
Said Duquette: “It’s not ideal, but at least our fans will be able to follow the game on TV.”
Since 1987, the lowest attendance has been 746 when the White Sox hosted Toronto at Comiskey Park on April 9, 1997. The New York Yankees’ home game against the White Sox on Sept. 22, 1966, had a listed attendance of 413.
Thorn said the lowest attendance for a major-league game appears to be six, when Worcester hosted Troy in a National League matchup on Sept. 28, 1882.
At the minor league level, Iowa hosted Nashville in a June 2008 game of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League played behind closed doors because of flooding in Des Moines.
Closed-door games are more common in soccer. European soccer’s governing body last October ordered CSKA Moscow to play two Champions League matches behind closed doors after spats of fan racism and told Serbia to play a pair of European Championship qualifiers without fans because of crowd disturbances and fireworks and missiles that were set off during a game against Albania.
By moving their weekend series with the Rays to Florida, the Orioles are poised play 78 games at Camden Yards and 84 on the road.
“Nobody likes to lose home games,” Showalter noted. “But there are more important things involved here. We discussed every possible scenario, and this is what fits the best.”
Losing money by giving away the three home games was not an issue with Orioles owner Peter Angelos, according to Showalter.
“Peter said it was the right thing to do,” the manager said. “This has nothing to do with money or gate receipts.”
Monday’s game was postponed around 40 minutes before the scheduled 7:05 p.m. start. The decision came after riots broke out following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died April 19 of injuries sustained while in police custody.
Tuesday’s game, also scheduled for 7:05, was called off shortly after 11 a.m.
The uneasy situation also caused the Baltimore Ravens to cancel an NFL draft party for fans at M&T Bank Stadium on Thursday night. The team said the decision was made “out of respect to the curfew.”
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