The Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles will make history on Wednesday, as they will play the first modern baseball game with no fans in attendance, as the first two games of the series were postponed due to the riots and unrest following the killing of Freddie Gray by Baltimore police and now the teams will finish the series, which starts at 2:05 pm ET and will be on the MLB.com website.
The first two games of the series were postponed and that came after some issues during the Red Sox game before that, with fans having to stay in the stadium to let police deal with protestors. The White Sox and the Orioles will play to an empty stadium and it will be a very odd experience, as that has not happened in many years and many not at all in the same way that it will be on Wednesday.
The Orioles are 9-10 on the season and last in the AL East, but they now have some games they need to make up. The team has the White Sox games to make up and this weekend the team will be playing their series against the Rays in Tampa, instead of staying in Baltimore. The Orioles last won over the Red Sox and the team based 18 runs in that game after winning late against the team in the previous matchup.
The game is early and that is good anyway, as a late game would not work with the curfew being enforced in the city and authorities snatching up people off of the street. The baseball players can now concentrate on the game and this comes as the team will get out of Baltimore for the weekend series with the Rays. Gray died after being arrested by the police and they may have severed his spine in the process, which has kicked off the protests. The Orioles are trying to get their jobs done while all of those is going on and this is not the first time games have been postponed for riots.
According to Fox Sports, the Dodgers had four games postponed after the Rodney King riots and now the Orioles have joined that group as well. Amazingly, as Fox points out, the last time a team played a game with attendance in the single digits was back in 1882 and that is just based on records that teams and historians have. The Orioles game will have the feel of an intra squad spring training game, as those are often played in front of no fans as well.
Check here for the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles live coverage.
