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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Columns:  No fans, but plenty of media at Camden Yards The Sun 4/29  Taking a look back at 's lowest attended game before today The Sun 4/29  O's make unprecedented scheduling changes following riots The Sun 4/28  It might not seem fair, but Orioles rightfully take a back seat to security concerns throughout city The Sun 4/28  O'Day on O's postponement: 'Right thing to do' The Sun 4/28  Tyler Wilson leading -heavy rotation in -A Norfolk The Sun 4/28  Lefty prospect Gonzalez off to strong start with Shorebirds The Sun 4/28  Today's White Sox-Orioles game closed to fans MLB.com 4/29  MLB game without crowd also without precedent MLB.com 4/28  White Sox, O's return to diamond in Baltimore MLB.com 4/29  Orioles-White Sox lineups MASNsports.com 4/29  A full field and empty seats MASNsports.com 4/29  Orioles set time for Wednesday game and move weekend series MASNsports.com 4/28  After two big wins to end series, O's scheduled to return to the field today MASNsports.com 4/29  Domenic Vadala: Orioles in position to help Baltimore heal MASNsports.com 4/29  Orioles-White Sox to experience the sounds of silence AP 4/29  LEADING OFF: White Sox to play Orioles in empty Camden Yards AP 4/28  Orioles to play White Sox on Wednesday in closed stadium AP 4/28  Orioles-White Sox game closed to fans will be odd, historic for MLB SI.com 4/28  White Sox-Orioles game will be played Wednesday, closed to public ESPN.com 4/29  Orioles to make history of an empty kind CSN Baltimore 4/29  Orioles to play White Sox Wednesday in front of empty stadium CSN Baltimore 4/28  Orioles Take On White Sox Without The Fans CBS Baltimore 4/29  Orioles-White Sox at Camden Yards on Wednesday closed to public CBSSports.com 4/28  Orioles Exec Delivers Powerful Statement on Baltimore Riots Rolling Stone 4/28  to play before empty stadium on Wednesday POLITICO 4/28  Orioles’ game Tuesday postponed; Ravens cancel draft party (updated) Washington Post 4/28

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-at-the-yards-with-my-media-friends- 20150429-story.html

No fans, but plenty of media at Camden Yards

By Dan Connolly / The Baltimore Sun April 29, 2015

I’ve been at Camden Yards for a few minutes. First impression: A lot more media than usual. There will be more here than there were for the home .

Second impression: This is going to be weird. There are no fans here now – never are this early before game time. But it’s going to stay the same at first pitch.

For what is believed to be the first time in history, there will be no fans permitted today at the and Orioles game today due to the concern of ongoing unrest in downtown

I drove through the city to the park and it was eerie. People were walking around the downtown streets but there was very little traffic. It seemed like a Sunday morning, until I pulled into the warehouse lot and there were three Humvees filled with soldiers driving out of the lot.

It’s going to be a very strange day. We’ll keep you posted through this blog and Twitter and other spots on baltimoresun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-taking-a-look-back-at--lowest- attended-game-before-today-20150429-story.html

Taking a look back at baseball's lowest attended game before today

By Eduardo A. Encina / The Baltimore Sun April 29, 2015

History will be made today at Camden Yards when the Orioles play the White Sox in front of an empty ballpark.

The game will be closed to the public, meaning the there will be no fans in the stands.

Major League Baseball’s official historian John Thorn said that today’s game will be the first game in major league history to be played without a paying crowd.

So what was the lowest attended game before today?

It was a game between the Troy (N.Y.) Trojans and the Worcester (Mass.) Ruby Legs on Sept.28, 1882, when six fans attended the game at the Worcester Driving Park Grounds.

So why was the attendance to that game, which was won by Troy 4-1, so small? Here’s the way Thorn explains it.

Both teams were franchises and both had been recently informed that their franchises weren’t being renewed for the 1883 season. The NL was looking to get bigger and both teams would be replaced by teams awarded to larger markets.

Neither team was very good on the field. In the eight-team NL standings, Troy (35-48) and Worcester (18-66) finished seventh and eighth, respectively. In fact, Troy finished the season 37 games back of the first-place Chicago White Stockings.

How bad was the Worcester team? According to Baseball Reference, the team went through three managers over the course of an 84-game season.

The team’s best , left-hander , actually owned a respectable 3.74 ERA. He had a record of 14-33, pitching 44 complete games in 411 innings.

Troy actually had a talented young group that included eventual Hall of Famers , , , and

Connor, then a 24-year-old , was the team’s best player in 1882. He hit .330 with 22 doubles, 18 triples, four homers and 42 RBIs, all team highs, in 81 games.

Connor had a successful 18-year career, finishing up with the St. Louis Browns, which would eventually move to Baltimore and become the Orioles in 1954. He retired in 1897 with 138 homers and before passed him, held the title of being baseball’s all-time home king for 23 years. Connor was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976, 45 years after his death.

But once the Troy and Worcester teams learned they weren’t being renewed, they both threatened to stop playing, and their forfeits would have affected a tight two-team pennant race between the White Stockings and the in September (The White Stockings won the NL by three games).

Both teams decided to play games, but with the fan bases knowing that the teams had no future, the attendance declined dramatically. So on Sept. 28, the second-to-last game of that season in both team’s existences, just six fans attended the game at the Agricultural County Fairgrounds.

Interestingly enough, the final game between the teams drew more than four times more fans an had an attendance of 25, watching the final game in Worcester’s three-year history in the NL as the team lost finished the season with eight losses in their last nine games.

The next year, the Quakers and New York Gothams replaced those two teams in the National League and both franchises still play to this day as the Phillies and the Giants.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-orioles-to-resume-play-wednesday-but- game-will-not-be-open-to-the-public-os-relocate-weekend-series-20150428-story.html#page=1

O's make unprecedented scheduling changes following riots

By Eduardo A. Encina / The Baltimore Sun April 28, 2015

The Orioles will make dubious history on Wednesday afternoon by playing the Chicago White Sox behind the locked gates of an empty Camden Yards, a first in more than a century of Major League Baseball, before relocating a weekend home series to St. Petersburg, Fla.

The schedule will go on despite the ugly unrest in Baltimore and the ensuing city-mandated curfew that took effect Tuesday. Wednesday’s game will be closed to the public, marking the first time a major league game will be played without a paying crowd, according to MLB historian John Thorn. Currently, the lowest-attended game was on Sept. 28, 1882, when just six fans attended a National League game between Troy, N.Y., and Worcester, Mass.

After games against the White Sox were postponed for a second straight night Tuesday following violence that enveloped the city, the Orioles made a number of rare schedule switches for the remainder of the week, including moving this weekend’s series against the Rays to .

The Orioles will play Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the Rays’ home turf. Despite playing nearly 1,000 miles away from home, the Orioles will be the home team and bat last. The Orioles will also receive the gate revenue for the series minus the Rays’ expenses for hosting the games.

The changes, which will cost Orioles fans five home dates, were made after consulting with MLB and local authorities.

“We believe that these decisions are in the best interests of fan safety and the deployment of city resources,” new baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by violence in Baltimore, and everyone in our game hopes for peace and the safety of a great American city.”

Fans who have tickets to Wednesday's game or any of the three Tampa Bay games this weekend can exchange their tickets for another game on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

Club representatives assembled early Tuesday morning at the offices of managing partner Peter G. Angelos to map out possibilities for not just Tuesday’s game — which was postponed that morning — but the rest of the Orioles’ homestand. The Orioles were slated to play at home through Sunday, including night games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

With rioting throughout the city Monday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a week-long 10 p.m. curfew to be enacted Tuesday, preventing the Orioles from playing their three remaining 7:05 p.m. games on the homestand.

The tense situation in the city has been fluid, and the Orioles attempted to play both Monday and Tuesday before those games were postponed. While thinking about ways to get back on the field, the club had prioritized the safety of its fans while allowing time for the city to return to some normalcy. And the Orioles ultimately decided on an unprecedented shifting of the schedule.

“I’ve been in all the talks and everything’s been about the city of Baltimore and the safety of our fans,” Orioles said Tuesday. “It’s not about money. It’s not about a baseball season. That doesn’t come up. Believe me, I’ve been in all these [meetings]. It’s just about those two things and that’s what we’re trying to solve here.”

As for the Orioles’ postponed games from Monday and Tuesday against the White Sox, those will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader on May 28, which will begin at 4:05 p.m. Tickets for Monday’s game will be good for the doubleheader. Tickets for Tuesday’s game must be exchanged for the doubleheader or another game this season on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

The Orioles won’t play another home game at Camden Yards that fans can attend until May 11.

Wednesday’s game will count as a home game statistically. It will be televised locally on MASN, but it will be played in front of an empty ballpark with the exception of the media covering the game, some staff and club officials.

The smallest announced crowd in modern club history was at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 17, 1972 for another game against the White Sox, according to Elias Sports Bureau. It was an afternoon makeup game in which the official attendance was 655 fans. The lowest attendance in Camden Yards history was 9,129, set on April 12, 2010 against the Rays.

One of the problems with lowest-attendance records is that teams usually announce tickets sold and not tickets used. So there appeared to be even fewer fans at the 2010 game against the Rays than the Orioles announced.

The baseball season is all about routine. Games take place nearly every day, and players thrive on habitualness of game days. Starting grow accustomed to pitching every five days. Bullpen arms can’t go too long without work. But for the Orioles, not only have they not played for the past two days, they will play at an unusual time on Wednesday before going on the road when they were preparing to play at home.

“Speaking just in a very narrow, team-centric point of view, on our striving to win baseball games, this is tough,” Orioles reliever Darren O’Day said. “It affects your starting pitching quite a bit, and other teams are playing their games right now and it is beautiful weather, and we can’t play. But it’s all for a good reason. It’s definitely a challenge, but one that we are going to have to face either way.”

But given what has happened around the city, O’Day, one of the club’s undeniable leaders as well as the team’s union rep, said the right decisions were made to postpone games.

“Personally, I think it is the right thing to do,” O’Day said. “You watch people’s homes and businesses and personal effects be destroyed. To protect the people that will come to our games and to protect us at the stadium would cost a lot of manpower. And to me, it just makes sense to employ that manpower to protect people’s homes and businesses instead of our game.”

The Orioles did hold a workout on Tuesday at 2 p.m. – the same time they will play on Wednesday – in an empty ballpark, in front of the same number of paying fans as they will on Wednesday.

Obviously, situations like this one are rare. The 1967 Detroit riots forced the Tigers to relocate a late-July series against the Orioles to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. During the Los Angeles riots in 1992, the Dodgers were forced to postpone four games, including a three-game series against the that was made up with three straight games of doubleheaders on the Expos’ next trip to Los Angeles.

There was consideration given to relocating games to , which is 40 minutes south of Camden Yards, but the Nationals were not approached about the possibility of hosting games there, according to a Nationals spokesperson.

Sun staff writer Dan Connolly contributed to this report.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck-blog/bal-it-might-not-seem-fair-but-orioles- rightfully-take-a-back-seat-to-security-concerns-throughout-city-20150428-story.html

It might not seem fair, but Orioles rightfully take a back seat to security concerns throughout city

By Peter Schmuck / The Baltimore Sun April 28, 2015

It certainly will be a strange scene when the Orioles and Chicago White Sox play in an empty stadium on Wednesday afternoon, but it couldn't be helped. The security concerns throughout the city of Baltimore in the aftermath of Monday night's intense rioting and urban destruction made it impractical to assign a large contingent of police to Camden Yards.

Hopefully, it'll look like an overreaction when the Orioles play their three "home" games against the at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., this weekend, but baseball had to step aside for the greater good.

No, it's not really fair from a competitive standpoint and it's not fair to Orioles fans. It's just that fairness has nothing to do with it. The "demonstrators" who tore up the city on Monday night and made a sad mockery of the legitimate Freddie Gray protests succeeded in their desire to shut down normal city life, so the only logical thing for city and state officials to do is to try and deny them the opportunity to make things even worse.

Police resources have been stretched thin already, so allowing Tuesday and Wednesday's games to go on would have required a police presence that is badly needed elsewhere. The Orioles understand that they will be competitively disadvantaged by losing a home crowd Wednesday and three more this weekend. They'll deal with it with the same stoicism as all the other obstacles they've overcome during the Buck Showalter era.

Some fans will wonder why the Orioles and Rays didn't home series, but Major League Baseball apparently didn't feel that would be fair to Rays ticket holders. The Orioles and White Sox will make up Tuesday and Wednesday's postponements with a single-admission doubleheader on Thursday, May 28 at .

They're just baseball games, of course, and this is one of those times when sports get put in perspective, but that doesn't mean the loss of four home crowds is a trivial matter. The fans will get their tickets exchanged and the team isn't going to go broke because of the temporary loss of gate revenue, but there are a lot of people who work around the ballpark and a lot of businesses that depend heavily on the revenue from Orioles and Ravens game days.

Some of those workers live in those riot-ravaged neighborhoods, so they're getting victimized a second time.

And that's just the short-term impact of the riots. The fact that the Orioles will be playing on television in an entirely empty stadium sends one more signal to out-of-town folks that Baltimore is such a dangerous place that you can't even go to a baseball game without feeling threatened. That may be more perception than reality, but there probably won't be time for deep analysis while they play Wednesday's game highlights on SportsCenter.

Of course, most of that damage is already done. Baltimore has worked very hard to soften the image it got worldwide from televisions series such as "The Wire" and "Homicide: Life on the Streets." The city has gained a strong convention clientele and is known for its terrific Camden Yards dual stadium complex.

It's impossible to calculate how much the violence Saturday night and Monday night will suppress the tourist business in Baltimore, but make no mistake. That business generates jobs and tax revenues that benefit the same urban areas that are smoldering right now. We need more jobs and more business activity to help alleviate the economic issues that plague Baltimore's underclass, but now we're going to have less.

Freddie Gray's sister said it best the other day: "Violence doesn't do justice."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-oday-on-os-postponement-right-thing-to- do-20150428-story.html

O'Day on O's postponement: 'Right thing to do'

By Dan Connolly / The Baltimore Sun April 28, 2015

Veteran reliever Darren O’Day said the Orioles would love to be playing Tuesday night, but he fully understands the reasoning the club, in conjunction with Major League Baseball and city and state authorities, has postponed a second consecutive game with the Chicago White Sox due to unrest in the city.

“Personally, I think it is the right thing to do,” O’Day said. “You watch people’s homes and businesses and personal effects be destroyed. To protect the people that will come to our games and to protect us at the stadium would cost a lot of manpower. And to me it just makes sense to employ that manpower to protect people’s homes and businesses instead of our game.”

O’Day, one of the undeniable leaders on the team, is also the Orioles’ players union representative. He said, in that capacity, he was told very little about what the plans were for Tuesday until the decision was made. Given the situation, that’s understandable, he said.

“Obviously, an event like this takes precedent over normal daily lives and they’ve kind of gone through with a decision-making process that’s higher up than the player reps or the players' union,” O’Day said. “I haven’t been too in-tune to it. Basically, [we’re] hearing about things really after decisions have been made when it’s an issue of public safety and fan safety. It’s kind of out of the players' hands, and we kind of do what we are instructed.”

The Orioles' first two games against the Chicago White Sox were postponed. Wednesday's game will be played at 2:05 p.m., but will be closed to the public. The Orioles will make up Monday's and Tuesday’s postponed games against the White Sox as part of a single-admission doubleheader on May 28 to begin at 4:05 p.m.

The Orioles have a scheduled day off on Thursday, but they can’t make up one of the postponed games then because the White Sox play in Minnesota that evening. The White Sox are not scheduled to return to Baltimore this year.

This weekend's series planned for Camden Yards against the Tampa Bay Rays has been moved to St. Petersburg, Fla. It will technically be a home series for the Orioles, who will receive the gate at Tropicana Field, minus the Rays' expenses.

“Speaking just in a very narrow, team-centric point of view, on our striving to win baseball games, this is tough,” O’Day said. “It affects your starting pitching quite a bit, and other teams are playing their games right now and it is beautiful weather, and we can’t play. But it’s all for a good reason. It’s definitely a challenge, but one that we are going to have to face either way.”

The bottom line, O’Day said, is getting back to playing in a secured atmosphere as quickly as possible.

“We want to play for sure. The more games we miss, the bigger the challenge is to make them all up,” he said. “And as you’ve seen in recent years, every game ends up counting in the end. We just want to play, really.”

O’Day said he and his wife, Fox News Channel journalist Elizabeth Prann, watched several hours of TV coverage of the riots Monday before going to bed. It hit home for the couple. Prann covered several hours of Saturday’s protests downtown, before leaving before dark.

“There are a lot of people’s loved ones that are involved in this. There are people that live down there, are innocent, and aren’t involved in anything, and live right next to the violent going-ons. It made it a little bit real last night when Liz’s co-worker and friend was out there and almost got hit by a vehicle that jumped through the fire around about 11 p.m.,” O’Day said. “That very easily could have been her. So, yes, that concerns me, not just because of the situations that are happening downtown, but you just never know what could happen. If she had to be there covering it, yes, I’d be even more worried about it.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baltimore-sports-blog/bal-tyler-wilson-leading- strikeoutheavy-rotation-in-triplea-norfolk-20150428-story.html

Tyler Wilson leading strikeout-heavy rotation in Triple-A Norfolk

By Jon Meoli / The Baltimore Sun April 28, 2015

After a recent start made by Tyler Wilson in Triple-A Norfolk, Orioles manager Buck Showalter spoke of how the report from his coaching staff down there included a note about how Wilson’s stuff would have worked at the highest level.

Wilson, the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year in 2014, knows that those starts can only help his cause as he looks to break through onto the Orioles’ 25-man roster. But he won’t let himself get swept up in that. Too many players knocking on the door of the big leagues have, and it rarely serves their purpose.

“It’s great to hear some positive affirmation in that regard from time to time, but that’s not what I’m caught up on,” Wilson said Monday in a telephone interview. “There are variables that are out of your control, and any time you hear those things, you can kind of let your mind wander.”

He hasn’t pitched like he’s distracted so far. Entering his fifth start of the season Wednesday, Wilson has a 3.00 ERA in 21 innings, with 22 and just four walks. He allowed four runs in his first start of the season, and just three since. His 22 strikeouts are tied for the team lead.

But given the full rotation in Baltimore — and Kevin Gausman waiting in the bullpen — Wilson knows there’s no use gazing at a big league opportunity that he can’t control. But in facing the veteran hitters in the for a second year, he can at least try to simulate the experience.

“In general, what you can take from more advanced hitters, guys that are older, that have a lot more games under their belt is that they all have a very strict plan that they adhere to,” Wilson said. “They have their approach that they’re trying to beat me in a certain way, and it’s a lot more of a thinking-man’s game up here. It’s more of a chess match and you have to make more quality pitches, you don’t get away with mistakes up here and just like happens in the game in general, hitters are going to hit bad pitches. It’s a process of becoming more consistent and making more better pitches at a more consistent rate every start.”

Brothers in strikeouts

Wilson isn’t the only Tides pitcher striking out batters at a high clip. Right next to him with 22 strikeouts is Mike Wright. Strikeouts accounted for 10 of his 12 outs in a no-decision Sunday.

Right-hander (9.6 K/9), and relievers Steve Johnson (13.1 K/9), (16 K/9), and Cesar Cabral (9.9 K/9) have all fanned over a batter per inning through the young season.

Overall, Norfolk is one strikeout behind Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the league lead with 157 as a team, though it has played one game fewer than the Yankees’ affiliate.

Clevenger expanding horizons before injury

With Matt Wieters on the comeback trail and Ryan Lavarnway and Caleb Joseph getting the playing time ahead of him with the big league club, catcher Steve Clevenger might have to find other ways to crack the Orioles’ bench.

Clevenger played second base for the Tides on Wednesday, April 22, his first appearance at the position since 2006. He played nine innings there, and perhaps defying the baseball adage that the ball will find you, Clevenger didn’t have an opportunity in the field that day.

Two days later, he went on the disabled list with a bruised thumb.

Clevenger played three games at first base with the Orioles in 2014, and a pair of games at third base for the in 2013. He hadn’t played second base since rookie-ball with Boise in 2006, when he played 63 games at second base.

For a player whose bat is probably his carrying tool at this point, versatility like this is a way to get it into the lineup. Clevenger is showing that part of his game is strong thus far with a .317/.408/.463 line, with three doubles, a , and six RBIs in 13 games for the Tides this year.

When he returns, Clevenger will likely have to keep hitting like that to stay in the conversation for a spot with the Orioles, but the positional versatility certainly will help.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-minors-gonalez-0429-20150428- story.html

Lefty prospect Gonzalez off to strong start with Shorebirds

By Jon Meoli / The Baltimore Sun April 28, 2015

Like the Orioles' top high school picks before him, Brian Gonzalez earned aggressive placement into the full-season with the .

Unlike predecessors and , who also followed that path in their first full seasons out of high school, Gonzalez doesn't possess the kind of overpowering that lets them dominate that level.

He seems to like it that way.

"I wasn't a guy that would throw 95, 96 [mph] like all these other guys, so when you throw that hard, you can miss a couple times and get away with it," Gonzalez said. "When I'm out there, I can't miss that much. I throw low 90s — reasonable — but I'm not going to blow it by guys consistently, so I knew my main focus was commanding my fastball. … I understood that at a young age."

Gonzalez isn't a soft thrower — his fastball sits 88-92 mph — and can locate a and . But the Orioles sacrificed two of their first three draft picks in 2014 to sign pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz, and sent the third to the to acquire pitcher Bud Norris. So the high-upside type of player who typically leads a draft class wasn't available at No. 90.

What the Orioles got instead was something just as valuable — a mature pitcher with the same strike-throwing approach the organization likes in its system. Gonzalez learned that at one of the best baseball schools in Florida.

Gonzalez served as the closer at Archbishop McCarthy as a sophomore, supporting a pitching staff that had three players drafted that year, including first-round pick Nick Travieso. When he entered the rotation the next year, coach Rick Bielski said Gonzalez, who they still call "Big B," was already drilled in the art of pitching, not throwing.

"Some of our tremendous arms that have a lot of strikeouts, they throw a lot more pitches," Bielski said. "Big B, he was a combination of both. He learned to pitch before he could start really blowing people away, and really honing in on his accuracy of his pitches and his control. He really had the best of both worlds."

After games, the coaching staff would bang pitchers over the head with the peripheral numbers behind their last appearance to drive the point home.

"Our charting system is extremely detailed," Bielski said. "The next day [after starts], we're hitting these kids with all the data — how many first-pitch strikes, how many off-speed were strikes, strike percentage for curveball, changeup, fastball. A lot of times, we pitch to contact. We don't want that strikeout."

So as Gonzalez helped his team put together two more deep state playoff runs, he did so not with the pervasive "showcase" mindset for young pitchers, who aim to throw as hard and blow hitters away for strikes, but with a confidence to attack the strike zone instilled in him by assistant coach Alex Fernandez.

"My junior year, I first started starting, I got it to click because I wasn't throwing 94-95 like them," Gonzalez said. "That's when I really started thinking, 'Let me locate, that's when I'll work my way up.'"

He did just that, impressing the bevy of scouts in all of his starts with his fastball-changeup- curveball arsenal and a 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame that appears to already be that of a major leaguer.

He overmatched hitters in the Gulf Coast League after he was drafted last year, allowing just a single unearned run in 24 2/3 innings over eight starts before allowing five runs in nine innings over two starts for short-season Class-A Aberdeen.

Through four starts for Class-A Delmarva this year, Gonzalez is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA. He struck out a career-high eight batters on April 26 over five shutout innings. Earlier that week at Hagerstown, Gonzalez battled through five innings in a start he said betrayed his strike-throwing philosophy at times.

Gonzalez walked two in a two-run first inning before he began to exhibit the union of his own fastball-command approach and the Orioles' organization-wide mandate to work low in the strike zone with his fastball.

"They love my ability to locate my fastball," he said. "When it's down in the zone, you can ask any pitcher that when your fastball is down in the zone, you get ground balls and then all the other pitches work. It's not just me personally, it's pitching in general."

Shorebirds manager said working that philosophy successfully will allow for the 19- year-old left-hander to succeed in a league that features older, more mature hitters than Gonzalez.

"He's not a power pitcher, so he's going to have to make sure he's good with his secondary stuff and his changeup is working, and he's pitching off his fastball to be able to compete at higher levels," Minor said.

"He's had some innings where he's kind of lost feel for his breaking ball, but that happens to every kid at his age. He's locating his fastball, and you don't have to be as sharp with your secondary stuff. But for him to be successful, he's going to have to make sure that every night he goes out and he pitches off his fastball and uses his secondary stuff to get those hitters off his fastball.

"Again, he's not a mid-to-upper 90s guy, so he's going to have to make sure he's pitching to the part of his plate that he's looking to hit, and he's not leaving balls over the plate consistently."

http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/121011784/white-sox-orioles-to-play-in-private-weekend- games-moved-to-tampa-bay

Today's White Sox-Orioles game closed to fans Unrest in Baltimore also causes weekend series against Rays to be moved to Tampa Bay

By Brittany Ghiroli / MLB.com April 29, 2015

BALTIMORE -- Due to the ongoing riots and protests in the city of Baltimore, today's Orioles- White Sox game will begin at 2:05 p.m. ET and be closed to the public. In addition, this weekend's games against the Rays, originally scheduled to be played at Camden Yards, have been moved to Tampa Bay.

Today's game will be available on MLB.TV and will be televised locally by the teams' respective regional sports networks.

All fans with tickets to any of the games scheduled to be played Wednesday through Sunday may exchange their tickets for any remaining home game this season on a "dollar-for-dollar" basis.

Both Monday's and Tuesday's games against Chicago were postponed due to safety concerns in the downtown Baltimore area, as the city is currently in a state of emergency and is receiving assistance from the National Guard in an attempt to restore order.

The two games will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader at Oriole Park on Thursday, May 28, starting at 4:05 p.m.

The Orioles will be the home team in the games played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

Baltimore has been at the center of national attention as protests that started over the weekend over the death of Freddie Gray have grown violent in pockets of the city.

The Office of the Commissioner said in a statement that it will continue to monitor the situation and will remain in communication with the Orioles regarding their discussions with the Baltimore City Police Department and other local officials.

"After conversations with the Orioles and local officials, we believe that these decisions are in the best interests of fan safety and the deployment of city resources," Commissioner Rob Manfred said. "Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by violence in Baltimore, and everyone in our game hopes for peace and the safety of a great American city."

Tickets for Monday's postponed game will be valid for the doubleheader on May 28. Fans unable to attend the doubleheader will have an opportunity to exchange their tickets for any remaining home game this season. Fans with tickets for Tuesday's postponed game must exchange those tickets to attend the doubleheader on May 28 or exchange them for any remaining home game this season. Exchanges for both games will be completed on a "dollar-for-dollar" basis.

All tickets are subject to availability, and exchanges must be completed by June 30. Complimentary tickets are non-exchangeable.

Ticket exchanges can be made at the Oriole Park box office or submitted in writing along with the original tickets and mailed via certified mail by June 30 to:

Baltimore Orioles Attention: (Date) Postponement 333 West Camden Street Baltimore, MD 21201

Fans with questions regarding the ticket-exchange process should contact Orioles Fan Services at 1-888-848-BIRD.

http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/121075114/anthony-castrovince-mlb-game-without- crowd-also-without-precedent

MLB game without crowd also without precedent Uncharted territory for White Sox-O's, though events often lead to low attendance

By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com April 28, 2015

They'll play in front of an empty house at Camden Yards on Wednesday afternoon, an arrangement that is not only unusual but, in Major League Baseball terms, unprecedented. And afterward, the Orioles will pack up and hit the road for three "home" games at Tropicana Field, an arrangement that is not unprecedented but, yes, is still pretty unusual.

In the interest of fan safety, in the midst of the ongoing riots and protests in Baltimore, Wednesday's game between the O's and White Sox has been rescheduled for 2:05 p.m. ET and will be closed to the public. Wednesday's game will be available on MLB.TV and will be televised locally by the teams' respective regional sports networks. Additionally, the Orioles' scheduled weekend home games against the Rays have been moved to St. Petersburg.

It's not often we can say this about a sport whose "modern era" began in 1901, but what will happen on Wednesday has never happened before.

"Baseball games have drawn terrible crowds," said John Thorn, MLB's official historian. "But even the resumption of protested games, like the [George] Brett-[Goose] Gossage pine-tar incident, were not played before empty stands."

A few notable games that came pretty darned close:

• According to Thorn, a 19th-century game hosted by the rather uncreatively named on Sept. 28, 1882, currently stands as the soon-to-be-replaced, all-time recorded attendance low -- at 6.

"Both clubs had already been informed that their franchises would not be renewed for 1883 and that their cities would be replaced by Philadelphia and New York," Thorn said. "These franchises -- the Phils and Giants -- thus both date from 1883 but did not "relocate" from, respectively, Worcester and Troy."

• The modern Major League record low might belong to a Sept. 8, 1916, game between the Yankees and A's at Philadelphia's Shibe Park. The attendance for this game (in which Wally Schang became the first player to hit home runs in consecutive at-bats from different sides of the plate) has been reported as 23, which means that when each team was up to bat it had more people on the bench than fans in the seats. Alas, this total is not verified on either Retrosheet.org or Baseball Reference.

• STATS LLC's lowest recorded attendance, going back to 1987, comes from an April 9, 1997, game between the Blue Jays and White Sox at Comiskey Park. The recorded crowd was 746.

• On April 17, 1979, the A's had an announced crowd of 653 for a game against the Mariners in wind, fog and 40-degree temperatures at Oakland Coliseum. It has been reported that the actual crowd was less than half of that announced total.

• A verified box score on Retrosheet.org from Sept. 22, 1966, at reports a crowd of 413 for a game between the Yankees and White Sox.

• A fan at an Aug. 24, 2011, game between the Reds and Marlins -- the first game of a doubleheader played just before Hurricane Irene arrived -- did his own head count at Sun Life Stadium and came up with an attendance total of 347, which he then tweeted to the masses. The officially announced total was just a shade higher -- 22,505.

An empty stadium does have precedent outside of Major League Baseball.

• At the Minor League level, on July 8, 2002, the Charleston Riverdogs defeated the Columbus RedStixx, 4-2, on "Nobody Night." Fans were not let into Joe Riley Stadium until after the fifth inning, at which time the attendance -- zero -- was officially recorded.

• The Triple-A did not admit any fans into a June 14, 2008, game against Nashville because Des Moines was under evacuation order due to terrible flooding. The Des Moines Register reported that there were only two seats occupied at Principal Park, both by scouts sitting behind home plate.

• In FIFA soccer, there are many instances of matches played "Behind Closed Doors," be it because of violations to the disciplinary code or to prevent potentially dangerous clashes between fans. A KNVB Cup match between Eredivisie clubs Ajax and AZ was replayed behind closed doors on Jan. 19, 2012, at Amsterdam Arena because, in the first attempt at the match, a fan ran onto the pitch and karate-kicked AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado, who proceeded to kick the fans several times before security arrived and the match was abandoned.

• Just this month, a Russian Premier League team -- Torpedo Moscow -- was forced to play two home games in an empty stadium after fans displayed a banner with a Nazi symbol. Last May, a Brazilian team was given the same penalty after a man was fatally struck on the head by a toilet bowl thrown from the stands.

As far as Major League series or games being moved, a few recent examples come to mind:

• Because of security concerns associated with the G20 Summit taking place mere feet away from Rogers Centre, a 2010 Interleague series between the Blue Jays and Phillies was moved to Citizens Bank Park. The designated hitter was used, and the Blue Jays batted second.

• Milwaukee's Miller Park has opened its doors to "home" teams other than the Brewers twice. In April 2007, the Indians had to move three home games against the Angels indoors and out of state after their home-opening series against the Mariners was completely snowed out, rendering then-Jacobs Field unplayable. The last game of that Indians-Mariners series was also played well outside of Cleveland, with the Indians serving as the "home" team in the first game of a doubleheader in Seattle near the end of the season.

• The next year, the Astros and Cubs moved two-thirds of a scheduled series at Minute Maid Park to Miller Park because of the damage Hurricane Ike inflicted upon the Houston area.

• In April 1998, a 500-pound expansion joint fell through the upper deck at old Yankee Stadium, and the ballpark was thereby closed for city inspection. The Yanks were forced to play a "home" game against the Angels in Queens, at Shea Stadium.

http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/121188062/white-sox-os-return-to-diamond-in-baltimore

White Sox, O's return to diamond in Baltimore

MLB.com April 29, 2015

Following the postponement of games on Monday and Tuesday due to riots in Baltimore, the White Sox and Orioles will return to the field this afternoon under unfamiliar circumstances.

First pitch has been moved to 2:05 p.m. ET, and due to the city's protests, Oriole Park at Camden Yards will be closed to the public during the game, which will pit Jeff Samardzija against Ubaldo Jimenez. The game will be available on MLB.TV and will be televised locally by the teams' respective regional sports networks.

Three things to know about this game:

1. Jimenez, in the second year of a four-year, $50 million contract with Baltimore, worked 10 2/3 innings of one-hit ball over his first two starts this season before surrendering four runs on six hits over five innings in a loss at Toronto on April 22.

2. Samardzija was handed a five-game suspension for his part in last week's benches-clearing fracas with the Royals, but he'll be on the mound in Baltimore after appealing. Samardzija has allowed one run over his past 19 innings, but he labored through 113 pitches in working six scoreless frames in his last start to pick up his first win with the White Sox.

3. According to John Thorn, MLB's official historian, today's game in Baltimore will be the first in modern Major League history to be played in front of no crowd. According to Thorn, a 19th- century game hosted by the Worcester Worcesters on Sept. 28, 1882, held the all-time recorded attendance low of 6.

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2015/04/orioles-white-sox-lineups.html

Orioles-White Sox lineups

By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com April 29, 2015

On what is bound to be a strange day, the Orioles are putting out a pretty typical lineup.

Ubaldo Jimenez and White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija will take the mound this afternoon, but will do so with no fans in the stands.

Alejandro De Aza will lead off. Adam Jones will bat cleanup, with batting third and playing right field.

For the Orioles Alejandro De Aza LF DH Delmon Young RF Adam Jones CF Chris Davis 1B 3B Everth Cabrera SS Caleb Joseph C Rey Navarro 2B

Ubaldo Jimenez RHP

For the White Sox Adam Eaton CF Melky Cabrera LF Jose Abreu 1B Adam LaRoche DH Avisail Garcia RF Conor Gillaspie 3B Alexei Ramirez SS Geovany Soto C Micah Johnson 2B

Jeff Samardzija RHP

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2015/04/a-full-field-and-empty-stands.html

A full field and empty seats

By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com April 29, 2015

In ranking the most potentially bizarre scenes, I'm not sure whether to place a walk-off home run in an empty ballpark ahead of a walk-off home run in a road venue.

Nothing make sense to me anymore - on the field and in the streets.

The Orioles and White Sox will play today at 2:05 p.m. in a game that's closed to the public and, unless I'm missing something, guaranteed to set the record for lowest attendance. I've experienced it during intrasquad games in , when you may find a few scouts and family members, but not in the majors.

I totally understand why the Orioles are going this route, knowing the National Guard and police are needed in various parts of the city. Baseball rightfully takes a back seat. But I also understand why fans in desperate need of a distraction and determined to not live in fear would resent being excluded.

The day will be filled with curiosities. I've got to figure that the Orioles will need a PA announcer, since batters don't become official until they're introduced. But what about the between-innings games on the video board?

Are you telling me that we might be denied a hot dog race? I'll have to ketchup during the next homestand.

Not that I relish the disruption in my ballpark routine.

Kiss Cam could get real awkward. I'm just glad that I no longer sit next to Peter Schmuck.

The Orioles aren't happy that Major League Baseball refused to move a series at Tropicana Field to Camden Yards. They're in St. Petersburg, Fla. this weekend, of course, but also July 24-26 and Sept. 17-20.

Being the home team at Tropicana Field raises another set of questions, including whether the Orioles will leave their gray pants back in Baltimore. And are the celebratory pies included on the team charter?

It's usually a Camden Yards thing.

It's my understanding that the Orioles never made a push to move their games to Nationals Park and the White Sox and Rays weren't going to argue.

The Orioles will play 78 games at Camden Yards and the Rays get 84 at The Trop, but again, what's happening in Baltimore makes the math seem trivial. And as manager Buck Showalter always says, nobody is going to feel sorry for you. They're glad that you've got problems.

The Orioles pride themselves on being resilient. Well, here you go.

The bullpen will be rested. Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia was the only reliever used on Sunday, when he covered the last 2 1/3 innings in an 18-7 win over the Red Sox. The starters are being pushed back and may need an extra bullpen session with Thursday's open date on the schedule.

The Rays are listing their starters for this weekend as Alex Colome, Chris Archer and Nathan Karns. The first two games begin at 7:05 p.m. and Sunday's game starts at 1:35 p.m.

Jeff Samardzija, who takes the mound today for the White Sox, allowed four runs and six hits over seven innings in his only career start against the Orioles. He's never pitched at Camden Yards.

Someone needs to explain that it's usually not like this.

The current Orioles are batting .196 (10-for-51) against Samardzija, and that includes Ubaldo Jimenez being 1-for-2. Today's game will be played under unusual circumstances, but it's still going to include a designated hitter.

Manny Machado is 2-for-3 with a home run against Samardzija. Alejandro De Aza is 1-for-12 with five strikeouts and Travis Snider is 2-for-11 with four strikeouts.

Jimenez is 2-3 with a 5.01 ERA and 1.635 WHIP in 10 starts against the White Sox. Adam LaRoche is 7-for-20 with three doubles, a home run, five walks and seven strikeouts against Jimenez, and Conor Gillaspie is 5-for-11 with a . Geovany Soto is 0-for-9 with five strikeouts.

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2015/04/orioles-set-time-for-wednesday-game-and- move-weekend-series.html

Orioles set time for Wednesday game and move weekend series

By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com April 28, 2015

The Orioles intend to play the final game of their series against the White Sox at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday, and it will be closed to the public but air on MASN. Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m.

Also, the three-game series against the Rays slated to begin Friday has been moved to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Orioles will serve as the "home" team and receive the gate.

The postponed games between the Orioles and White Sox this week, impacted by the rioting in the city, will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader on Thursday, May 28 beginning at 4:05 p.m.

"After conversations with the Orioles and local officials, we believe that these decisions are in the best interests of fan safety and the deployment of City resources," commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

"Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by violence in Baltimore, and everyone in our game hopes for peace and the safety of a great American city."

All fans with tickets to games on April 29, May 1, May 2, or May 3 at Camden Yards may exchange them for any remaining home game this season on a "dollar for dollar" basis.

Tickets for Monday's postponed game will be valid for the doubleheader on May 28. Fans unable to attend the doubleheader will have an opportunity to exchange their tickets for any remaining home game this season. Fans with tickets for Tuesday's postponed game must exchange those tickets to attend the doubleheader on May 28 or exchange them for any remaining home game this season. Exchanges for both games will be completed on a "dollar for dollar" basis.

All tickets are subject to availability and exchanges must be completed by June 30, 2015. Complimentary tickets are non-exchangeable.

Ticket exchanges can be performed at the box office or submitted in writing along with the original tickets and mailed via certified mail by June 30, 2015 to:

Baltimore Orioles Attention: (Date) Postponement 333 West Camden Street Baltimore, MD 21201

Fans with questions regarding the ticket exchange process should contact Orioles Fan Services at 1-888-848-BIRD.

Ubaldo Jimenez and Jeff Samardzija remain the scheduled starters on Wednesday.

The Orioles still have two scheduled trips to St. Petersburg later this summer, but neither series will shift to Camden Yards. MLB wouldn't grant permission even though the Rays are in Philadelphia on July 22, followed by an off day and a three-game weekend series against the Orioles.

http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2015/04/after-two-big-wins-to-end-boston-series- the-os-are-scheduled-to-return-to-the-field-today.html

After two big wins to end Boston series, O's scheduled to return to the field today

By Steve Melewski / MASNsports.com April 29, 2015

As the city of Baltimore tries to regain some sense of normalcy, so will its baseball team.

The Orioles are scheduled to take the field this afternoon at 2:05 p.m. against the Chicago White Sox even though no fans will be in the ballpark. It figures to be a strange and surreal scene.

Some challenges have been thrown the Orioles' way, but they pale in comparison to the challenges for the city and its residents. But for a baseball team, they will be challenging.

What was once a nine-game homestand, set to continue through this weekend at Camden Yards, has now turned into a four-game homestand with two postponements and this weekend's three- game series moved from Baltimore to St. Petersburg, Fla.

What was to be a six-game road trip starting next Tuesday is now a nine-game trip, counting the series in Florida against Tampa Bay.

Those are technically O's home games, we know, but they'll have to get on a plane and travel from Baltimore so it's fair to call this a nine-game trip. That is what it is.

I don't see manager Buck Showalter or his players getting too upset over any of this. They always take the "no one will feel sorry for you" attitude. They know their job is to win, no matter the circumstances. They've overcome plenty of injuries the last two years and now they have to overcome this disruption to the schedule.

They've been a good road team in recent years and they just have to go and win and not worry that things may have gotten a little more challenging. So be it, I expect to hear the Orioles say.

Now, we begin to find out if the end of the Boston series provided the team a bit of a lift. They won 18-7 behind 20 hits Sunday after the amazing 5-4 walk-off win on Saturday night.

Perhaps more significant, the O's rotation had a good weekend against the Red Sox. After O's starters went six innings or more just four times in the first 16 games, they did that in all three games against Boston. The rotation ERA was 3.92 over the weekend and 3.07 in the last two games. That is trending in the right direction.

The offense has put up 34 runs the last four games and 51 runs (6.4 per game) the last eight games. And the hitters have done that without Matt Wieters, J.J. Hardy and Jonathan Schoop. That is impressive.

The O's season resumes today, and maybe baseball will provide some entertainment and/or a diversion for some who need it.

In the minors: Zach Davies, a 22-year-old right-hander who is the fifth-youngest player in the International League, had another strong game for Triple-A Norfolk (11-8) last night in a 1-0 win over Buffalo. He threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings on five hits and is now 1-0 with an ERA of 1.25 through four starts.

Rated as the O's No. 6 prospect by Baseball America, Davies has pitched 21 2/3 innings, giving up 16 hits and three runs with seven walks and 21 strikeouts. Right-handed batters are hitting just .146 against him.

The Orioles are holding their Triple-A starters to pitch counts of around 90 or less right now as they ease into the season, which also provides them with more available innings later in the year when any of them could possibly be added to the Orioles roster. Davies threw 87 pitches last night, one off his season-high.

Pedro Beato got the win to go to 2-0 with an ERA of 1.80, and Chris Parmalee drove in the game's only run with an RBI single in the ninth. He is batting .329.

Double-A Bowie (10-9) beat Erie 8-2 as and combined to go 5- for-10 with three RBIs, and Sean Halton was 3-for-3 with two RBIs. Winning pitcher allowed two runs over five innings, and struck out six in three scoreless frames. Givens has pitched to an ERA of 0.71 in seven games with 19 strikeouts over 12 2/3 innings.

Single-A Frederick (11-8) lost 4-3 at Salem after falling 4-0 in the third inning. Luis Gonzalez gave up four runs over five innings to take the loss. Jon Keller pitched three scoreless innings of relief to lower his ERA to 1.84. Johnny Ruettiger and Anthony Caronia had two hits each.

Single-A Delmarva (11-7) won 12-0 at Savannah in a game shortened to five innings by rain. Winning pitcher Matthew Grimes went the full five innings, allowing just one hit. He walked one and struck out a career-high 11 batters, improving to 1-0 with an ERA of 4.91. The 11 strikeouts are the most by a Shorebirds' pitcher since fanned 14 on Aug. 16, 2013. Catcher went 2-for-2 with a double and three RBIs, and is batting .313. Conor Bierfeldt drove in two runs for the Shorebirds.

TV coverage today: While fans will not be attending today's game, you can see it live on MASN. Our coverage begins with O's Xtra at 1:30 p.m., followed by the game live at 2:05 p.m.

http://www.masnsports.com/orioles-buzz/2015/04/domenic-vadala-orioles-in-postion-to-help- baltimore-heal.html

Domenic Vadala: Orioles in position to help Baltimore heal

By Domenic Vadala / MASNsports.com April 29, 2015

Let me preface this by saying that in no way am I comparing what's happened in Baltimore the past few days to the bombing in 2013, or any other situation. I'm just not qualified to say which situation is worse or anything along those lines. What I can say is that both were community issues at their grass roots.

In the wake of the tragedy at the Boston Marathon two years ago, we saw the city of Boston become galvanized and unified, perhaps more so than at any other time since the American Revolution, under the mantra of "." And I, for one, respected that, just as I respected how the Red Sox took the lead in taking the city back. And if you think that galvanization of the city, the team, etc. in the wake of tragedy didn't at least assist in bringing Boston a World Series title that year, you're kidding yourself.

Obviously, Baltimore now finds itself in a different situation, but there are obvious similarities. While Orioles fans love to hate the Red Sox, I would submit that both the team and its fans should look to the Red Sox as an example. Sports play a very powerful role in our society at all levels. However, at the pro level, it can have a profound effect on a community and how it views itself.

I'm not suggesting that Adam Jones or anyone else needs to grab the mic at a game and give a David Ortiz-style speech. But whether they like it or not, the Orioles are very much a part of what's gone on the past few days in the city. Obviously, Saturday's game was affected (against Boston of all teams), and Monday and Tuesday's games were canceled. There does come a point when sports have to take a back seat to public safety, and I recognize that.

However, the Orioles have an opportunity to own this in the same manner that the Red Sox owned the aftermath of the Boston bombing. Baltimore is a city in dire need of uplifting, and the Orioles are in a position to do just that.

I'll be honest in that I'm not even sure what that looks like. I suspect that the 2013 Red Sox didn't either. Much of what they did was done in an impromptu manner, including Ortiz's speech at Fenway, which we all know included some colorful language.

However, one thing that the Orioles can script is how they're going to move forward from this, and thus, how they'll attempt to move the city forward. In these types of situations, people need a point on which they can rally. The Orioles are just that point. We all know what they mean to the city and to the fans. And they need to be that and then some to this community now, and for the remainder of the season.

Winning the World Series was probably the furthest thing from the minds of the 2013 Red Sox in the immediate aftermath of the bombing at the marathon that year. However, it seemed that the Sox were in a way paid back for owning what happened in their city. That might not be the best way of putting it, but the whole set of events seemed to give them a boost.

And for all we know, the same will be true of the 2015 O's. However, their motivation should stem from the mandate to battle for their now beleaguered community. The store owners in West Baltimore whose businesses and lives have now been ruined need something around which to rally.

The downtrodden people who are now forced to see National Guardsmen patrolling their neighborhood streets, and the police officers who now might potentially question their own job - they all need an uplift.

The Orioles now have to be that uplift. If for no other reason than serving as a few hours' respite from reality, sports make that type of difference in our lives. By being the Baltimore team in season right now, the O's have the opportunity to be that shining beacon in a world suddenly gone mad.

As I said, there are more important things than baseball going on right now. But the Orioles have been special to the people of Baltimore in good seasons and bad. They need to be that now, when they're needed most. This, my friends, is the Oriole Way.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/04/29/ap-bba-game-no-fans

Orioles-White Sox to experience the sounds of silence

Associated Press / SI.com April 29, 2015

BALTIMORE (AP) No vendors will be selling peanuts or Cracker Jacks. No one will be there to root, root, root for the home team - or any team.

The old ballgame won't be anything like the song when the Baltimore Orioles host the Chicago White Sox Wednesday in what is believed to be the first held behind closed doors in the 145- year history of the major leagues.

A wave of looting and rioting around Camden Yards forced the postponement of the first two games of the series and caused the Baltimore mayor to impose a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew. So baseball officials decided the only way to play the finale was to lock the gates to the public and move the starting time up five hours to 2:05 p.m.

''All of the decisions in Baltimore were driven first by the desire to insure the safety of fans, players, umpires and stadium workers,'' MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press. ''Only after we were comfortable that those concerns had been addressed did we consider competitive issues and the integrity of the schedule.''

Playing in an empty stadium became the last option.

This was Chicago's only scheduled visit to Baltimore. The other games will be made up in a doubleheader on May 28, but there was no other viable slot for the third game.

The setting Wednesday should be surreal. It's a road not previously traveled by Major League Baseball.

The crack of the bat will never sound louder and there won't be big cheers when an Oriole hits a home run. No one will yell ''O!'' during the Star-Spangled Banner - if the song is played before the first pitch.

No autograph-seekers will be around before the game, there won't be a need for an usher - if there are ushers at the park - to wipe down a seat and, for sure, there won't be the wave.

Seventh-inning stretch? Unlikely.

Stranger still: Foul balls will drift into the seats and bounce around aimlessly without anyone giving chase.

''It's definitely going to be unchartered territory,'' Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.

Neither the Baseball Hall of Fame nor John Thorn, Major League Baseball's official historian, could find record of a major league game being played behind closed doors amid the worst outbreak of rioting in Baltimore since 1968.

Since 1987, the lowest attendance has been 746 when the White Sox hosted Toronto at Comiskey Park on April 9, 1997, according to STATS. The ' home game against the White Sox on Sept. 22, 1966, had a listed attendance of 413.

Thorn said the smallest crowd for a major league game appears to be six when Worcester hosted Troy in a National League matchup on Sept. 28, 1882.

Get ready for a new low, making this game unlike any other.

No cheers, no jeers, no one yelling ''Cold Beer!''

Just the sound of the bat hitting the ball, the ball hitting a glove and maybe the yelling ''Strike Three!''

Fans can catch the action, but not in person.

''It's not ideal, but at least our fans will be able to follow the game on TV,'' said Dan Duquette, the Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations.

The looting and rioting broke out Monday just hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year- old black man who suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody.

Since then, the Orioles have been scrambling to find a balance between playing baseball and the safety of Baltimore citizens. In addition to reworking the White Sox series on Tuesday, the Orioles moved their Friday-to-Sunday series against Tampa Bay from Camden Yards to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, with the Orioles remaining the home team and batting last.

That means Baltimore is slated to play 78 games at home and 84 on the road.

''There are more important things involved here,'' Showalter said. ''We discussed every possible scenario, and this is what fits the best.''

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/04/28/ap-bbo-leading

LEADING OFF: White Sox to play Orioles in empty Camden Yards

Associated Press / SI.com April 28, 2015

A look at what's happening all around the major leagues Wednesday:

---

EMPTY STADIUM

After a pair of postponements caused by rioting in Baltimore, the Orioles and Chicago White Sox will play at Camden Yards in what is believed to be the first game without fans in 145 seasons of major league baseball. Because of the unsettled environment in Baltimore, 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 weekend series against Tampa Bay was shifted from Camden Yards to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, with the Orioles remaining the home team and batting last.

IN STITCHES

Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Scooter Gennett expects to get the five stitches in his left hand removed. He cut his hand near the knuckle on the edge of a soap tray in the shower at PNC Park and went on the 15-day disabled list April 21.

PITCHING IN DAYLIGHT

Phil Hughes takes the mound at noon for Minnesota's series finale against Detroit. Hughes was 11-2 with a 3.26 ERA in 16 daytime starts last season. So far in 2015, he's lost all three of his afternoon starts and has a 5.30 ERA.

BRIEF BREAK

Cleveland hosts the , ending a stretch of 17 games in a row for the Indians against AL Central teams. They open a four-game series with Toronto on Thursday night before returning to division play next week.

LOOKING TO REBOUND

After allowing just two runs while winning his first three starts with the Tigers, Shane Greene was knocked around for eight runs in four innings during his last outing. The 26-year-old former Yankee will try to rebound against the Twins.

BACK ON THE MOUND

Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura, whose last outing ended in Kansas City's fight with the Chicago White Sox, will start against the Indians. Ventura is appealing a seven-game suspension for his involvement in the scuffle. He allowed two runs in seven innings during that game.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/04/28/ap-bba-white-sox-orioles-ppd

Orioles to play White Sox on Wednesday in closed stadium

Associated Press / SI.com April 28, 2015

BALTIMORE (AP) After a pair of postponements caused by rioting in Baltimore, the 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 the Orioles remaining the home team and batting last.

''All of the decisions in Baltimore were driven first by the desire to insure the safety of fans, players, umpires and stadium workers,'' Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press. ''Only after we were comfortable that those concerns had been addressed did we consider competitive issues and the integrity of the schedule.''

Although the Orioles won't be performing in front of their fans Wednesday and will lose three home games, they understood the situation and had not complaints.

''It's all about what's best for the city and the safety of our people,'' Orioles manager Buck Showalter said in a telephone interview with the AP. ''The last thing you want to do is put the fans in harm's way. You have to err on the side of safety.''

The looting and rioting broke out Monday just hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year- old black man who suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody.

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 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,'' Dan Duquette, the Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations, said in a phone interview.

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 official 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, according to STATS. The New York Yankees' home game against the White Sox on Sept. 22, 1966, had a listed attendance of 413.

And now, the White Sox are on the verge of performing in front of no one.

''Major League Baseball is doing everything they can to be safe. They're taking precautions,'' Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. ''To be safe is the best thing.''

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 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 for 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 , 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.''

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, will have the distinction of being the visitor in its own stadium.

''It's not a good situation there,'' Rays star Evan Longoria said. ''I don't know that anybody that is bringing their family or has family there would be able to feel very safe going there right night now. It's sad. I love playing in Baltimore. Camden Yards is one of my favorite places to go.''

Monday's Orioles-White Sox 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 spinal cord and other injuries sustained while in police custody.

Also Tuesday, the 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.''

One of the team's most famous players, retired linebacker Ray Lewis, intends to remain at home in rather than work the draft in Chicago for ESPN.

''I felt that it was more important for me to stay in Baltimore and try to help the city I love,'' Lewis said in a statement. ''I did not feel right leaving the city at this time.''

---

AP Baseball Writers Howie Rumberg and Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/04/28/orioles-white-sox-camden-yards-closed-fans-baseball-history

Orioles-White Sox game closed to fans will be odd, historic for MLB

By Jay Jaffe / SI.com April 28, 2015

For the first time in major league history, a game will be played in front of nobody—or at least, no paying fans. In the wake of the postponements of Monday's and Tuesday's games at Camden Yards between the Orioles and White Sox due to violent protests in Baltimore, Major League Baseball has approved the Orioles' decision to close Wednesday's 2:05 p.m. game to the public. Players, umpires, team officials and media will be the only ones in attendance for the game, which will be televised on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.

The Orioles last played on Sunday against the Red Sox. After consulting with city and local officials as well as MLB, their games on Monday and Tuesday evenings were both postponed out of public safety concerns. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency on Monday and activated the National Guard in an attempt to restore order. Those two postponed games will be made up as a single-admission doubleheader on May 28. Additionally, the team's three-game series with the Rays—originally scheduled to be played at Camden Yards from Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 3—has been moved to Tropicana Field. The Orioles will serve as the home team and bat last, and they will receive the gate for those three games, minus the expenses incurred by the Rays. The movement of that series will lengthen a Baltimore road trip that already includes series against both New York teams. After Wednesday’s game, the Orioles won’t play at Camden Yards again until May 11, when they face the Blue Jays.

As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, such a game without any fan admittance has never occurred in major league history, according to an MLB source who consulted with baseball historians on the subject. "Behind closed doors" games have taken place many times in international soccer, usually in connection to violence by fans, though other reasons, such as inclement weather and an outbreak of swine flu, have led to such situations as well. Earlier this month, in the Russian Premier League, Torpedo Moscow were ordered to play two games to an empty stadium after fans displayed a Nazi banner. In the United States, empty-house games have happened in high school and college . Memorably, a measles outbreak forced the 1989 Siena College basketball team to play nine games, including three in the ECAC North Atlantic Conference tournament, under quarantine conditions; the team won the tournament and gained an NCAA tournament berth for the first time in school history.

Via John Thorn, MLB's official historian, the official low-attendance record in the majors was six (yes, six), at a September 28, 1882 game at Worcester. That game, between the Troy Trojans and Worcester Ruby Legs, was the penultimate one in an 18–66 season for the latter franchise, which folded after the season. In modern MLB history, an April 17, 1979 game between the Athletics andMariners at Oakland Coliseum drew an official paid attendance of 653, though reports suggest the actual number of fans who showed up was around 250. In the wake of Hurricane Irene, an August 23, 2011 game between the Marlins andReds at Sun Life Stadium in Miami featured an unofficial headcount of just 347, though the official paid attendance was reported at 22,050.

Zero-attendance games aren't entirely unprecedented in baseball. On April 15, 1998, the Yankees played a 4 1/2-inning exhibition with their Double A affiliate, the Norwich Navigators, at Yankee Stadium, as city inspectors examined the ballpark in the wake of the collapse of a 500- pound steel expansion joint on the third-base side. On July 8, 2002, the South Atlantic League's Charleston Riverdogs created a "Nobody Night" promotion for their game against the Columbus Red Stixx. The Riverdogs padlocked the gates save for employees, scouts and media until the fifth inning, as fans spied the action through fences and via ladders, and once the game was official and the attendance recorded as zero, they were finally let in. On June 14, 2008, the International League's Iowa Cubs hosted the for a zero-attendance game due to flooding that had forced the evacuation of Des Moines; the city allowed the game so that the team wouldn't have to play too many makeup-doubleheaders.

Beyond the isolated instances of low-attendance games, this isn't the first time that rioting or other public safety concerns have forced the postponement of MLB games. On July 25, 1967, a game between the Orioles and Tigers was postponed due to rioting in Detroit, with the next two games moved to Baltimore. In the wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, Opening Day—which had been scheduled for April 8—was postponed until two days later, a day after King’s funeral. The 1989 World Series between the Giants and A’s was disrupted by an Oct. 17 earthquake; play didn’t resume until 10 days later. In April/May 1992, the Dodgers had four games postponed in the wake of the rioting following the Rodney King verdict. The 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. forced a week of postponed games in 2001. On April 19, 2013, the Red Sox postponed their game at in support of law enforcement efforts to apprehend Boston Marathon bomber ; they were successful later that night.

In the grand scheme of things, the procession of the baseball season is a comparatively minor matter relative to the safety of the general public. Just the same, being able to play games as scheduled is a sign of normalcy and order. Here’s hoping both return to Baltimore as soon as possible.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12781465/baltimore-orioles-chicago-white-sox-series-finale- played-wednesday-closed-public

White Sox-Orioles game will be played Wednesday, closed to public

ESPN.com news services April 29, 2015

The Orioles and White Sox will play Wednesday at Camden Yards in a game that will be closed to the public.

The revised plan was announced Tuesday after widespread public unrest in Baltimore forced a postponement of a White Sox-Orioles game for the second consecutive day. The Orioles said they made the decision after consulting with Major League Baseball as well as city and local officials.

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 spinal cord and other injuries suffered while in police custody. Tuesday's game, also scheduled for 7:05, was called off shortly after 11 a.m.

The game Wednesday will start at 2:05 p.m. ET.

"All of the decisions in Baltimore were driven first by the desire to insure the safety of fans, players, umpires and stadium workers," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Only after we were comfortable that those concerns had been addressed did we consider competitive issues and the integrity of the schedule."

An MLB spokesman told ESPN's Outside The Lines that the league is not aware of any other time that a major league game has been played, by design, without spectators allowed in to watch.

In addition, MLB spokesman Matt Bourne said the league office would not comment as to how, if at all, it would compensate the Orioles for the lost attendance.

The Orioles also announced that their upcoming weekend series against theTampa Bay Rays, which originally was scheduled to be played in Baltimore, instead will be played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Orioles will play as the home team in the three-game series, which begins Friday.

"It's all about what's best for the city and the safety of our people," Orioles manager Buck Showalter told the AP. "The last thing you want to do is put the fans in harm's way. You have to err on the side of safety."

Two sources told ESPN's Darren Rovell that it is already established that when a home team is forced to play on the road due to extenuating circumstances, it gets 100 percent of the revenues minus the costs.

The games against the White Sox from Monday and Tuesday will be made up as a single- admission doubleheader on May 28. The White Sox were in Baltimore for a three-game series that had been slated to start Monday, and it was their only planned visit on the schedule.

"The only disadvantage may be for the home team because you kind of feed off the energy," White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton said of playing in an empty stadium. "When you're on the road there's not much energy in your favor usually. If anything Baltimore may be slighted a little bit."

Since 1987, the lowest attendance has been 746 when the White Sox hosted Toronto at Comiskey Park on April 9, 1997, according to Stats LLC. The New York Yankees' home game against the White Sox on Sept. 22, 1966, had a listed attendance of 413. Now the White Sox are on the verge of performing in front of no one.

"Major League Baseball is doing everything they can to be safe. They're taking precautions," Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. "To be safe is the best thing."

The Baseball Hall of Fame and John Thorn, MLB's official 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.

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.

The Baltimore mayor's office said earlier Tuesday there were 144 vehicle fires, 15 structure fires and nearly 200 arrests in the unrest Monday. At least 20 officers were hurt, including six who were hospitalized and one in critical condition after a building fire, police said. Baltimore was under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew beginning Tuesday, and all Baltimore public schools were closed as athletes with area ties, including Ray Lewis and Carmelo Anthony, pleaded for an end to the unrest.

Also Tuesday, the Baltimore Ravens canceled their NFL draft party event, scheduled for Thursday night at M&T Bank Stadium, "out of respect to the curfew in Baltimore." Lewis intends to remain at home in Maryland rather than work the draft in Chicago for ESPN.

"I felt that it was more important for me to stay in Baltimore and try to help the city I love," Lewis said in a statement. "I did not feel right leaving the city at this time."

Major League Baseball has postponed and shifted games in the past because of unrest.

In 1992, the Dodgers had four games postponed in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict.

In 1967, the Orioles and Tigers had a game postponed because of riots in Detroit. The next two games were shifted to Baltimore.

http://www.csnbaltimore.com/blog/orioles-talk/orioles-make-history-empty-kind

Orioles to make history of an empty kind

By Rich Dubroff / CSN Baltimore April 29, 2015

Today’s Game:

Chicago White Sox (8-9) vs. Baltimore Orioles (9-10), Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, 2:05 p.m.

Starting pitchers:

Jeff Samardzija (1-1, 3.33) vs. Ubaldo Jimenez (1-1, 2.30)

Keys to the Game:

How will the ballpark feel? There’s never been a game played without a paying crowd?

Can the Orioles win three straight? It seems like weeks ago, but the Orioles scored 18 runs in their last game.

News and Notes:

Jimenez is 2-3 with a 5.01 ERA in 10 starts against the White Sox.

Adam LaRoche is 7-for-20 (.350) and Conor Gillaspie is 5-for-11 (.455) against Jimenez.

This is the first game the Orioles have played that wasn’t an AL East opponent. The two postponed games will be made up as part of a doubleheader on May 28.

Alejandro De Aza is 1-for-12 against Samardzija. Samardzija has pitched against the Orioles just once in his eight-year career.

http://www.csnbaltimore.com/blog/orioles-talk/orioles-play-white-sox-wednesday-front-empty- stadium

Orioles to play White Sox Wednesday in front of empty stadium

By Rich Dubroff / CSN Baltimore April 28, 2015

BALTIMORE – The Orioles have announced that Wednesday’s game against the Chicago White Sox will be played at 2:05 p.m. However, it will be closed to the public.

Monday and Tuesday’s postponed games will be made up as a doubleheader on Thursday May 28 at 4:05 p.m.

This weekend’s series against the Tampa Bay Rays has been moved to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Orioles will be considered the home team.

Tickets for Monday’s game can be used for the May 28 doubleheader. Fans who can’t attend the game can exchange their tickets for any remaining home game. Fans with Tuesday tickets must exchange those tickets for the doubleheader or any remaining home game.

All exchanges must be completed by June 30.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/04/29/orioles-take-on-white-sox-without-the-fans/

Orioles Take On White Sox Without The Fans

CBS Baltimore April 29, 2015

BALTIMORE (WJZAP) – The Baltimore Orioles are scheduled to face the White Sox today with an empty Camden Yards.

The Orioles postponed games on Monday and Tuesday following riots in the city, the league made the decision to finish the 3-game without the fans.

It is believed to be the first game without fans in Major League Baseball’s 145-season history. As far as the first two games of the series with Chicago, Major League Baseball has announced that those games will be made up as part of a doubleheader in Baltimore on May 28th.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter tells The Associated Press: “It’s all about what’s best for the city and the safety of our people. The last thing you want to do is put the fans in harm’s way. You have to err on the side of safety.”

MLB has also announced that this weekend’s scheduled games between the Orioles and Tampa Bay will now be played in Tropicana Field instead of Oriole Park. Despite the fact the games will be held in Florida the Orioles will serve as the home team.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25166413/orioles-white-sox-at-camden-yards- on-wednesday-closed-to-public

Orioles-White Sox at Camden Yards on Wednesday closed to public

By David Brown / CBSSports.com April 28, 2015

Violence stemming from the protests in Baltimore has compelled Major League Baseball to make some highly unusual scheduling decisions regarding the Orioles. After postponing the first two games of their series against the White Sox at Camden Yards, the Orioles announced that the series finale would start at 2:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday (instead of 7:05 p.m.), and that the ballpark would be closed to the public, presumably with the exception of media covering the team. All but empty. Unprecedented? MLB says it believes so.

White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers said he's ready to deal with an empty stadium:

MASN confirmed it will be televising the game Wednesday, so locked-out fans will be able to watch on TV.

Further, the Orioles upcoming three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays, scheduled for Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards, will move to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. It's possible a future series scheduled at Tampa Bay, a division opponent of the Orioles, would be moved to Camden Yards, but the Orioles made no such announcement Tuesday. Rays pitcher Chris Archer said this arrangement is what his team preferred.

Other than not deciding to do it all sooner by perhaps a day, this seems like the best course of action.

Here's the full announcement from the Orioles:

The Orioles re-scheduled the postponed games of the White Sox series for May 28 in a day-night doubleheader, presumably which will be open to the public.

Other possibilities for venue changes this week had been floated, such as moving the White Sox series and Rays series to nearby Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., or to another neutral site, if Camden Yards wasn't a reasonable place to play. Orioles owner Peter Angelos, although he never would say this publicly, probably wouldn't want to use the Nationals home for his own team. Angelos has been bickering with the Nationals, over things such as broadcast rights, ever since the franchise moved from Montreal in 2005.

Considering the 10 p.m. curfew in effect in Baltimore for the next several days (if not longer), playing night games at Camden Yards, certainly with fans, would not have been possible. Further, with one of the Camden Yards parking lots being used as a staging area for some 2,000 National Guard troops, the idea of having a ballgame inside of Oriole Park, even during daylight hours, would be as awkward and distasteful as it would be impractical.

At least, playing during the day and without fans, the Orioles and White Sox do their business, get a game in — no matter how eerie it will seem — and move on.

This series of decisions is unique, though MLB has made similar maneuvers this before, notably in 2004, when the Marlins and Expos played two games at Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field because of a hurricane bearing down on Florida. The Cubs played the Astros at "neutral" Miller Park in 2008 because of Hurricane Ike slamming into Texas, and Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter in front of mostly Cubs fans.

Angelos, understandably, wanted O's home games to be played in their home park — if not in front of the home fans. And, by switching with the Rays and moving that series to Florida, it buys some time to make future games happen in Baltimore.

http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/orioles-exec-delivers-powerful-statement-on- baltimore-riots-20150428

Orioles Exec Delivers Powerful Statement on Baltimore Riots

"There is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere...and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant," John Angelos tweets after riots postpone game

By Daniel Kreps / Rolling Stone April 28, 2015

The Baltimore Orioles' game at Camden Yards was postponed Monday night, as riots spread through West Baltimore following Freddie Gray's funeral and a social media-charged "purge."

"After consultation with Baltimore City Police Department, tonight’s game between the Orioles & White Sox at Oriole Park has been postponed," the team's Twitter alerted fans. Orioles' COO John Angelos, the son of owner Peter Angelos, then took to his own Twitter to deliver a powerful statement about the situation in Baltimore, USA Today reports.

"The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, one that far exceeds the importance of any kids' game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards," Angelos wrote. "We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don't have jobs and are losing economic, civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans."

Angelos comments came after Baltimore sports radio host Brett Hollander criticized the protestors, saying their measures were counterproductive. In Angelos' long exchange with Hollander, the COO shared a thorough explanation on why tensions in the city were building even before Gray's death ignited the riots.

"My greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts," Angelos wrote, "but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle-class and working-class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American's civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state."

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said after the Orioles game was postponed, "We feel like we made the decision that would provide us the greatest possible security in terms of protecting the fans, players, the umpires, everybody involved in the game." While protestors began gathering outside Camden Yards over the weekend – resulting in a brief lockdown Saturday night following the Orioles game – Monday's riots themselves never made it to the city's Inner Harbor, where the stadium is located.

With a state of emergency declared in Baltimore, a strict 10 p.m. curfew now in place citywide and the state's National Guard called in to quell the riots, Tuesday's Orioles game against the White Sox was also postponed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/orioles-play-empty-stadium-white-sox-117426.html

Baltimore Orioles to play before empty stadium on Wednesday

By Nick Gass / POLITICO April 28, 2015

Amid unrest in the city, the Baltimore Orioles’ game against the Chicago White Sox will be played in front of an empty stadium on Wednesday, team officials announced.

“After consultation with Major League Baseball and city and local officials, tomorrow’s game between the Orioles and the Chicago White Sox will begin 2:05 p.m. ET and will be closed to the public,” the team said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

The game had originally been scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

The unusual decision to play the game before an empty Oriole Park at Camden Yards follows two straight days of postponements. The team announced that both of those games will be made up in a May 28 doubleheader.

Baltimore has been upended by looting and riots in the aftermath of the funeral for Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after apparently sustaining injuries while in police custody.

The Orioles were also scheduled to host the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, but those games will instead be played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, with Baltimore still batting as the home team.

The Orioles said that fans with tickets to the games on April 29 and this weekend’s series can exchange them for the May 28 doubleheader or any remaining home game in 2015.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/04/28/orioles-game-tuesday- postponed/

Orioles’ game Tuesday postponed; Ravens cancel draft party (updated)

By Barry Svrluga, Adam Kilgore and Cindy Boren / Washington Post April 28, 2015

For the second straight day, the Baltimore Orioles postponed their scheduled game against the Chicago White Sox because of continued safety concerns following widespread rioting throughout the city.

In a statement and on its Twitter account, the club said it had consulted with Baltimore City Police in making the decision, which was announced at 11:23 a.m. The city of Baltimore has been engulfed in protests following the death of Freddie Gray, an African American man who died after suffering injuries in an incident with police. Those protests developed into full-fledged riots on Monday, and the Orioles postponed Monday’s game less than an hour before the scheduled first pitch.

Tuesday’s game was scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. The series finale is scheduled for the same time Wednesday, but Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has ordered a 10 p.m. curfew beginning Tuesday and lasting a week, putting in question not only Wednesday’s game against the White Sox but night games scheduled for Friday and Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was in Baltimore Monday for a previously scheduled meeting, and he suggested then that the league and the clubs were exploring several options. One could be to use Nationals Park in Washington because the Nationals are on a road trip that lasts through the weekend. But sources indicated that little if any progress had been made in preparing for that alternative, and one source said that playing in Washington was “not a realistic option” for the Orioles.

A Nationals spokeswoman said Tuesday: “The Nationals have not been approached about the possibility of playing games at Nationals Park.” She did not immediately respond to further inquiries, including whether the club considered the option feasible or if it had reached out to the Orioles with an offer to use the facility, which sits less than 40 miles south of Camden Yards.

Another option that was considered for Tuesday’s game was an afternoon start. But even a 4:05 p.m. first pitch would leave open the possibility that stadium workers – particularly groundskeepers and the clean-up crew – as well as media would be at Camden Yards after 10 p.m.

The White Sox do not make another trip to Baltimore this season, and while the Orioles are off on Thursday, Chicago is scheduled to continue its road trip with a game in Minnesota. It’s possible the two clubs could play a day game Wednesday – with a start as early as 1 p.m. – and then reschedule the two postponements with a doubleheader on a common off day later in the season.

Shortly after the Orioles’ announcement, the Baltimore Ravens said their NFL draft party, set from 7-11 p.m. Thursday night at M&T Bank Stadium, had been canceled. The Ravens explained their reasoning in a statement: “Out of respect to the curfew in Baltimore, the Ravens have canceled their draft party, which was scheduled for this Thursday night at M&T.”