With two men on, one out in the first inning, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis belted a towering three-run homer to Eutaw Street just inside of the foul pole. It was the 80th home run in the history of Camden Yards to reach the usually fan-filled avenue behind right field, the 31st by an Oriole and the sixth from Davis.
And it barely made a sound.
Because for the first time in Major League Baseball history, two teams faced each other without a single fan in attendance. The Orioles scored six in the first inning on their way to a 8-2 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox, anchored by that Davis moonshot. But the mammoth home run and the score could ultimately prove to be a footnote to how the game was played altogether. The silence in the ball park was a strange contrast to the noise three miles away, the epicenter of days of protests by Baltimore residents, demonstrating in the wake of 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s death on April 19 after spinal injuries inflicted by police here more than two weeks earlier.
“It made no noise. No sound. It was just quiet,” said Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones, who got out on a sacrifice fly the at-bat before the Davis homer.
Jones made a “pop” noise to imitate the only sound he heard at the moment, a crack of Davis’s bat. “It’s weird. It’s different. The guy at the plate has the whole entire dugout behind him. Everybody watching him, behind him. There’s nobody there. But they’re there,” Jones said.
It was so quiet in the press box that every reporter (and even viewers on the White Sox broadcast) heard Orioles’ play-by-play man Gary Thorne yell, “Good-bye!”
Jones said the weirdest part about Wednesday’s game was hearing everything he said: “During the game, you’re drowned out by all the noise, but you could hear everything, literally. I told guys you got to watch what you’re saying to the umpires because they’re going to hear everything in detail.”
O’s relief pitcher Zach Britton said the most bizarre part was hearing himself think, not just speak, perhaps a condition that plagued White Sox starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who lasted only five innings after giving up seven earned runs on 10 hits.
“You could hear a pin drop in there — it echoes in the stadium, off the warehouse and everything,” said Britton, who pitched the ninth inning in relief for the home team.
He said he thought it affected players, especially the Sox starter. “Samardzija’s a really good pitcher and that didn’t look like him at all,” Britton said.
The game lasted a mere two hours and three minutes — short by MLB standards — as walk-up music was ditched for the afternoon. Music played during batting practice and between innings, and players were announced over the public address system when they stepped up to the plate.
Pre-recorded instrumentals of the “Star Spangled Banner” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” played at their regularly appointed times — to no one.
Dozens of fans, who were outnumbered by reporters at first pitch, stuck out the game just outside the centerfield gate, where they could see most of the infield. One fan, 37-year-old public defender Brendan Hurson stood in the crowd holding a “Don’t forget Freddie Gray” sign. Both of the letter “O”s in the sign were shaped like the Orioles logo.
Some fans got free Orioles hats from the few employees who worked the stadium during the game. One fan, 29-year-old Kristina Martin, who live in Baltimore and works at a restaurant here, said that at practice Tuesday, an Orioles staffer gave her one of Davis’s BP home-run balls.
As for Wednesday’s home-run balls — Baltimore third baseman Manny Machado also hit one — no one knew who retrieved them or when, but an Orioles communications aide said that a staffer would probably have to find them where they landed in lieu of the fans who usually take care of such tasks.
For those in Orioles nation who didn’t lurk at the gate, local bars, like the Pratt Street Ale House, tried to create a home for fans looking to watch the unusual and historic game.
But players here seemed to know that there were more important things than baseball and that the team had a role to play within the community. Before Wednesday’s contest, Jones said he wanted to help the city heal and emphasized that he has been talking regularly with community leaders who are actively involved with the protests here.
Orioles Manager Buck Showalter was also reflective, especially after the game played in silence, about what he wanted his team to mean to Baltimore.
“I want to be a rallying force for our city and that doesn’t even mean just playing good baseball,” Showalter said.
Martin, the fan who watched both Tuesday’s practice and Wednesday’s game from outside the parameters of the stadium, said that she and other fans were there for a simple reason.
“I guess we just want them to know that we’re here,” she said.
When Showalter was asked if he could hear the fans from outside the stadium, he said, “They were heard. They were heard.”
Not much else was heard Wednesday at Camden Yards — just the crack of balls against bats and gloves, players yelling directions at each other, reporters, whispering as if they were covering golf.
The silence was deafening, but it was quieter still knowing that Baltimore citizens outside the park are struggling to be heard.
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