Baltimore

In case you’ve been away from a TV set this past week, there was a major riot in Baltimore, Maryland that has stunned the nation in ways that people are still trying to get a handle on.

As it is often happening these days, there was a suspect who died in police custody. An African-American man. On the day of his funeral, a whole bunch of rioters either, a) were really upset about the person dying and rioted out of sympathy for the person who was killed, or b) they rioted to get free stuff, to cause major damage and to lash out at any and everything they could get their hands on.

Police cars were overturned, windows were smashed, buildings were set on fire. All of it created such a citywide emergency that the entire city was brought to its knees. A lot of the rioting was taking place near the Baltimore Orioles’ baseball stadium, known as Camden Yards. And THAT is why this story is hitting a sports column.

For you see, some things happen in the real world that spill over into the sports world, because, in this case, the rioting around the stadium was so severe, the game Monday night between the Orioles and the Chicago White Sox had to be cancelled, due to unsafe conditions for both the fans and the players.

You see baseball games cancelled due to rain, or sometimes snow or other bad weather, but how often do you see a game cancelled on the account of a RIOT? In our ESPN-dominated world, it was a rare sight indeed to see the riots on the television, and then see the logical connection to the Oriole game at Camden being right there in the middle of “all of the action,” and thus having to be cancelled for safety reasons.

And then, the next day, today, Tuesday, the league decided to cancel the next game too. Two games in a row cancelled due to civil unrest. Two games in a row cancelled due to circumstances that had nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with the problems that are happening out there in the real world.

And it gets more telling than that. The game tomorrow, Wednesday, scheduled for Baltimore, is going to be played in front of NOBODY. Yes, you heard that right. Because the city’s riot, and the fact that the area around the baseball stadium is so uncertain and unpredictable, the Baltimore organization is arranging to have the game played with NO spectators in the stands in one of the rarest situations in recent baseball history.

Not only that, the Orioles are having to give away three more home games of a weekend series with the Tampa Bay Rays. To avoid having the possibility of rioters near Camden Yards, the Orioles are playing three more games away from their home field and at Tampa’s Tropicana Field (with the Orioles getting to bat last as the “home team.” What is happening to the Orioles is unprecedented. The Baltimore Orioles season is being affected, probably adversely, for no other reason than the fact that they happen to be from the city of Baltimore.

The lifeblood of any major league baseball team is their home games in their home stadiums. It is their fan base watching THEIR teams. It is THEIR revenue being taken away from them. Teams usually do better at home and win more games at home than they do on the road. Because of the course of events in Baltimore, and the actions of some citizens of Baltimore (and there might be some instigators from other cities causing trouble there also), the Baltimore Orioles, the team, are getting screwed over by citizens of Baltimore (presumably they are Oriole fans). It doesn’t seem fair.

But sometimes, the real world intrudes on that magical world of sports we all like to watch and see played out on the field. Sometimes, we take it for granted that those games will be played at the exact time and place that it says they will be played on the schedule. Sometimes, stuff happens, and the whole world gets turned on its ear.

The Baltimore Orioles are going to be playing a home game in front of nobody. We are living in strange times.