That sounds really unsafe and a good way to start a riot inside the ball park. Fans would be sprinting from the moment they passed the turnstiles.
Chris Davis just hit a 3-run homer. He should stepped out of the dugout for a curtain call.
I think they must have been kidding. Vendors or the maintenance crew will surely pick them up.
Or it’s part of the master plan to move the rioting inside the stadium.
Would have been awesome if they’d filled the stands with bobbleheads.
So the game was 2h rs and 3 minutes long. Do this indicate that fans are the reason the avg game is so damn long?
It was also 6-0 after the first inning. Blowout games usually go faster
I watched the first few innings. It seemed to me like everyone was hurrying things along - the batters stepped out of the box to readjust much less frequently, the pitchers got the sign and threw with little pause. I got the feeling the players didn’t really want to be there.
It was both sad and amusing to watch Chris Davis toss balls into the stands after the end of an inning as if there were fans there. The Orioles broadcast also showed a player (I forget who) pretending to sign autographs along the first base line.
Really? That’s bizarre.
The game was televised, and on MLB TV. He was doing it as a joke.
Teams practice in empty stadiums unless it’s open to the public.
Do the Orioles hold practice at Camden Yards?
This is just…wrong.
Catcher Caleb Joseph.
MLB, for the last few years, has been concerned about the length of its games as well as the average (rising) age of its fans. Certainly the former impacts the latter. All that said, today’s Orioles/White Sox game was over in two hours and two minutes. Amazing the impact of empty stands. No need for all the commercial promotions. Think revenue. And there are (revenue) advantages to having fans in the stadium for almost 4 hours, not the least of which is beer/concession sales. I guess we’ll see how concerned MLB really is about game length when it comes to what creates revenue for the owners.
Millionaires, in the employ of multi-millionaires, playing in a stadium paid for by taxpayers, that the public can’t attend.
It would be silly if it weren’t so sad.
*The Nationals and the Orioles are embroiled in a legal dispute over revenues generated by the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the regional sports network that is co-owned by the two teams and carries both their games. A Nationals spokeswoman said Monday that the club was never approached by the Orioles or MLB to serve as a host. Bader declined comment on whether the MASN issue played a role in the Orioles’ decision-making.
Shifting games to a venue not expecting to host them can create logistical challenges, such as getting security and staff in place. But the Rays’ willingness to host the Orioles over the weekend, games for which the Orioles will receive whatever revenue is generated, just as they would for a home date, shows it’s possible.*
This makes what happened yesterday even more of an inexcusable farce. The sight of 50 loyal Orioles fans (all who should be given free season tickets) being locked out of a ballpark and cheering their team anyway shows what a divide there is between Major League Baseball and its fans.
You want to sell me on logistics of moving the game to Philadelphia and Washington, fine, though, these are half of a billion dollar franchises who juggle 162 games a year, often at the last minute because of rain delays, so Im having hard time believing the game couldn’t be moved to a nearby park with fans being let in for free, something the NFL did (albeit, a further away park) this year with Buffalo. The fact they could not move it to Washington over money makes this even more of a disgrace.
Baseball more important than the riots? No. Then just reschedule the damn game. White Sox fly home, no game played. No big deal. Don’t put on this farce, and then give me “Baseball is not as important as what is going on in Baltimore” bullshit. CANCEL THE GAME.
A surreal, once in a lifetime spectacle? I thought it was a complete joke, and an embarrassment to baseball and to the city of Baltimore. Without the fans, there is no baseball. MLB proved they don’t get it.
Well put. russian heel, ditto.
Here’s CNN.com’s coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/29/us/baltimore-surreal-scenes/index.html
So it would have been better if millionaires, in the employ of multi-millionaires, would have jeopardized public safety by gathering thousands of people in one place in a riot-torn city, diverting police and security personnel who were desperately needed elsewhere?
And the alternative was…?