Rudy Giuliani says Orioles should’ve brought city together, not closed stadium
Rudy Giuliani thinks the Orioles, and the city of Baltimore, missed a major opportunity today. They never should have held a game in an empty stadium, as they did this afternoon.
“If this was New York, that game would be played,” the city’s former mayor told Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade and Friends.”
Giuliani is often credited with turning New York around in his time in office. He started the interview by comparing the situation in Baltimore, where riots have engulfed the downtown sector since Saturday, with New York.
“It’s not unlike situations that I had. I took over the city after it had two major riots under my predecessor, and I vowed that there would be no riots under me… You had a right to make your First Amendment expression, but you didn’t have a right to trample on the rights of other people.”
Another element of his approach was that if something did happen, he made every effort to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible.
“Look, we had to deal with the possibility of terrorist airplanes being driven into Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium in the wake of September 11th and we were able to get it back. Are you going to tell me a bunch of little punks who did this are going to stop a baseball game? I’ll tell you, that says something is not right. Resiliency is a defense to terrorism and to this type of mob violence. Meaning, getting your city back to where it should be right away and saying to these people ‘You can’t disrupt us, you can’t frighten us – we’ve got the resources to take care of ourselves. Basically, try me again and see what happens.’”
The New York Yankees and New York Mets hosted their first home games less than 10 days after the 9/11 attacks, as the city continued reeling. The riots erupting in Baltimore are not the same as 9/11, not by a long shot. But giving in to the rioters’ efforts, Giuliani says, only strengthens them. If you need more police, call in more police, he said. Don’t give in to the violence.
Regardless, the Orioles will not be back in Baltimore until May 11. This weekend’s three-game homestand will instead be played in Florida.
Should the Orioles and White Sox have played in an empty stadium today? Should the game have been postponed, as happened with Monday and Tuesday’s games? Those questions will be debated for years to come.
As far as Giuliani is concerned, though, there’s no question: The fans should’ve been there today, and the team should’ve been home all weekend.
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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at [email protected] or find her onTwitter and Facebook.
