Why minor league teams played season opener in an empty stadium
While it’s awesome to have baseball back, it would be impossible to ignore the role Mother Nature has played during this first week of games. From frigid temperatures to blustery winds to scattered snow flurries, we’ve yet to have a day where it felt more like baseball season than the NFL playoffs.
As a result of the poor weather, five MLB games were postponed and another dozen or so were delayed during opening week. Even more were played in conditions that were far from ideal, but such is life when you begin the season in April. You never know what you’ll get, you just have to roll with it and adjust.
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That’s true of minor league teams as well. Their season opened this week too, and they ran into the same problems. In the case of the Syracuse Chiefs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, it really screwed things up. Due to unsafe playing conditions caused by inclement weather, Syracuse was forced to postpone its entire opening four-game series against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
Needless to say, that created a scheduling nightmare. To the credit of both teams though, they rolled with it and adjusted. Rather than allow themselves to fall behind schedule, they moved two games to Lehigh Valley’s home ballpark in Allentown, Pa. and got in a swift doubleheader on Friday.
The only stipulations: Syracuse served as the home team, and no fans were allowed in the stadium.
The reason no fans were allowed in actually had nothing to do with avoiding giving Lehigh Valley an unfair advantage.There were safety concerns involved, as Coca-Cola Park is still undergoing some construction work. Media were permitted, but no fans, which just goes to show how desperate the teams were to get the games in.
Of course, it was just under a year ago that MLB held its first and only empty stadium game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The circumstances were different. Baltimore was essentially shut down amid the unrest that followed the death of Freddie Gray. That decision was strictly about the safety of the fans, but both games created an eerie atmosphere for baseball.
Syracuse went on to sweep the doubleheader by scores of 5-1 and 2-1. The Chiefs intend to open their home schedule on Monday against the Buffalo Bisons. Lehigh Valley heads to Rochester on Monday. Their official home opener is scheduled for Thursday.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
