Orioles, White Sox prepare for bizarre fan-less game in Baltimore

BALTIMORE — “Does anyone know if the mascot works today?” Orioles manager Buck Showalter asked a room full of reporters in a pre-game press conference unlike any other ever held in the history of Major League Baseball.

For when Showalter’s Orioles take on the Chicago White Sox at 2:05 p.m. ET at Camden Yards, they’ll do something no two teams have ever done: play in front of precisely zero fans.

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The ambiance at one of the most picturesque ballparks in baseball was decidedly bizarre — approximately 45,000 seats remained empty around noon as the White Sox took batting practice and Rare Earth’s “I Just Want To Celebrate” blasted over the stadium’s public address system.

Patricia Haskins, a 59-year-old Baltimore native and box office employee manning one of the two open ticket windows on Eutaw Street, said Camden Yards felt like “a ghost town.”

Meanwhile, outside the park and touristier Inner Harbor neighborhood, the city of Baltimore remained ravaged by protests that have engulfed the city since the weekend. Monday, when this three-game homestand against Chicago was set to commence, a CVS drugstore approximately two miles from the ballpark was burned to the ground as once-peaceful protests took a turn toward the violent.

“I’ve been in contact with some of the people on the front line, people who are marching,” said Orioles’ outfielder Adam Jones, who’s been with the team since 2008 and is active in the Baltimore community. “It’s not easy. This situation is not easy…. I understand the situation that these kids face. It’s not that long ago I was catching public transportation to the mall (like them). Baseball pushed me in a different direction.

“I wish we had fans to help with the healing,” Jones said. “Sports bring people together.”

Players in both clubhouses remarked that the protests happening in Baltimore, sparked by the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died as a result of spinal injuries inflicted by city police, were bigger than the game, especially the logistics of a game so unique as Wednesday’s.

“I’ve watched the news more in the past couple of days than I probably have my entire life,” Baltimore first baseman Chris Davis said in the clubhouse hours before the game.

Davis said playing in front of no fans would be “a challenge” and joked he would sing for reporters, the few attendees of the game, if the team did not play walk-up music (they plan to) and that he was disappointed the scoreboard crab shuffle was canceled.

Even if the first fan-less game felt strange to to the outside world, Davis said Wednesday was much more normal than Tuesday, when both teams practiced at Camden Yards but the area surrounding the park felt more like a battlefield than a ballpark.

“Yesterday was crazier to me because I drove in and you see the National Guard, the state troopers, the sheriff,” Davis said. “It was more like a war zone than I expected.”

In the opposing clubhouse, the White Sox prepared for their first game all week, after spending much of their time pent up in a local hotel per the advice of authorities. Chicago outfielder Adam Eaton said that in addition to sleeping in, players rented movies, ordered room service and played video games — intensely.

“A lot of competition there because you’ve got to get your competition somewhere,” Eaton said. “Baseball players are really good at wasting time.”

On the historic nature of a fan-less game, Eaton said he was “not happy” anyone had to play the game this way but that “it’s kind Field of Dreams-ish, where they’re just playing a game and there’s nobody there.”

Multiple players — and Showalter himself — noted that the umpires would hear more of an earful than usual. Eaton discussed how the crack of the bat would replace the crowd and that cues from the third base coach on a gap hit would be heard when otherwise they would be drowned out.

Showalter told reporters there was “no blueprint” for a game like this, but that the organization was asked to keep notes for future reference in the event another team might have to hold such a game in the future.

This might never happen again, so it’s singular nature made it hard for teams to prepare. Schowalter said in spring training the team pipes in noise, to simulate real game situations.

“We didn’t practice for quiet,” he said.

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