If a baseball game is played, and no one is allowed inside to see it, did it actually happen?
The dozens of reporters on hand at Camden Yards for Wednesday afternoon’s game between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox could confirm it.
#Orioles received more credential requests to cover this game than there are seats in the press box.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) April 29, 2015
Courtesy of MLB.com, the game was streamed live online. Anyone who was listening on their car radio, or even those watching from behind the locked gates or hotel balconies would be able to corroborate that the O’s did in fact win 8-2 behind seven strong innings from Ubaldo Jimenez.
For just over two hours, the scene was more like that of a library than a baseball game — national anthem, PA announcer and John Denver at the seventh inning stretch aside — intermixed with sounds of sirens and helicopters passing overhead.
In a city where baseball has been synonymous with the culture and ambiance of its streets and its people, the game became secondary amid concerns of violence and unrest after yet another racially fueled protest following the death of Freddie Gray.
Orioles center fielder Adam Jones was distraught by the destruction of property and rioting in the area, and emotionally delivered praise and heeded caution to the youth of the city.
"Obviously, you can see everybody's not on the same page,” Jones told the Baltimore Sun. "The youth are hurting, as the older guys, the older community owe it to the youth to continue to educate them, continue to strengthen them, continue to be by their sides. That's what they need."
Jones condemned the methods by which protesters chose to take the streets.
"I say to the youth, your frustration is warranted,” Jones told the Baltimore Sun. “The actions, I don't think are acceptable. If you come from where they come from, you understand, but ruining the community that you have to live in is never the answer. … This is their cry. This isn't a cry that is acceptable, but this is their cry, and therefore, we have to understand it."
In regard to this sense of frustration and angst, manager Buck Showalter acknowledged that it is something he can’t possibly understand.
Showalter knows he can’t place himself in the shoes of African-American baseball players like Jones, or Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Edwin Jackson and Dexter Fowler of the Chicago Cubs, Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins and Curtis Granderson of the New York Mets.
There’s more history of conflict in Baltimore than most locals would like to admit — similar riots took place there in 1968.
But baseball’s role in times of terror has been one of galvanizing strength, of healing the wounds suffered by an imperfect union that has experienced growing pains at several points during the first 14 years and four months of the 21st century.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the first game played in New York was nothing short of a national holiday.
As eerie as Wednesday afternoon may have felt, the chance for residents of the city to quietly reflect in the aftermath of consecutive nights of looting and vandalizing businesses and setting police cars aflame might have been the opportunity to seek the peace — however brief — they so desperately needed.
Reach the columnist at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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