World Champions 1983, 1970, 1966 American League Champions 1983, 1979, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1966 American League East Division Champions 2014, 1997, 1983, 1979, 1974, 1973, 1971, 1970, 1969 American League Wild Card 2012, 1996 Wednesday, April 29, 2015 Columns: No fans, but plenty of media at Camden Yards The Sun 4/29 Taking a look back at baseball'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 strikeout-heavy rotation in Triple-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 Boston 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 Baltimore Orioles 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 opener. 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 Major League Baseball history, there will be no fans permitted today at the Chicago White Sox 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-baseballs-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 National League 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 pitcher, left-hander Lee Richmond, 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 Roger Connor, Dan Brouthers, Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch Connor, then a 24-year-old first baseman, 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 Babe Ruth passed him, held the title of being baseball’s all-time home run 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 Providence Grays 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 Philadelphia 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 Tropicana Field. 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.