April 28, 2015

This should be a really strange experience

Tomorrow the Chicago White Sox will play against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore, in an empty stadium because of the riots. I assume it will be televised, but the players don't see that. All they'll see, and hear, is nothing. The only cheering they'll hear is their teammates.

I wonder how it'll go? Has this ever happened before?

UPDATE: MLB is making this game their "free game of the day" on their website.

UPDATE: The Orioles won, 8-2.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 12:26 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 85 words, total size 1 kb.

1 It's happened with soccer, although not in the US. It's imposed as a punishment for teams whose fans are excessively violent. Naturally, there's a Wikipedia page on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_closed_doors_%28football%29

Posted by: Boviate at April 28, 2015 04:34 PM (iiTgy)

2

In a sense, that's what's happening here.

(By the way, please read this.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2015 04:49 PM (+rSRq)

3 I listen to sports-talk radio pretty much all day.  The station I listen to, WSCR-AM 670, is the home station of the White Sox.  During the afternoon show, they brought up the question if it's ever happened before.

At least in the US, the answer is no, not like this.  There was, apparently, a game between the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners in 1979 that had an actual attendance of 250 (653 paid).  It had been raining all day in Oakland, and at gametime it was windy and a chilly 43 degrees.  It was also one of the first times ever an A's home game was televised, and the team was horrific to boot.  But that's not exactly the same as what's going on here.

The only zero anybody came up with was Siena College in 1989.  An outbreak of measles on campus forced the men's basketball team to play seven games at home without spectators, and this for a team that wound up going to the NCAA tournament.

So, yeah, that's about as close as we've come to this situation.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2015 06:51 PM (jGQR+)

4 I can understand why that basketball team had to play that way. All it would take is a couple of people who were infectious and didn't realize it to spread the disease far and wide in a big crowd who were together for a couple of hours.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2015 09:34 PM (+rSRq)

5 As it was, one of the Siena players came down with it and during the course of a game probably infected a player from the University of  Hartford before he displayed symptoms.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2015 09:51 PM (jGQR+)

6 Baltimore play-by-play guy Gary Thorne had some fun with the day, calling some of it like he was at a golf tournament.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 29, 2015 02:34 PM (jGQR+)

7 Not just any golf competition, either. His reference to "green jacket" means he was thinking of The Masters, in Atlanta.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 29, 2015 06:42 PM (+rSRq)

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