Four years after the Orioles hosted a regular-season game in front of an empty stadium while Baltimore was embroiled in massive civic unrest, the Orioles have somehow managed to undergo more fundamental changes than the city.
That has not boded well for Baltimore — especially after the franchise that represents it spoke with such passion about sharing the city's pain.
MORE: April 29, 2015: The Orioles' eerie game, in photos
With another anniversary of that April 29, 2015, game at Camden Yards comes another reminder of how the conditions that brought about the unprecedented decision by Major League Baseball, the Orioles and the state of Maryland can’t change overnight even with the best of intentions. (How good the intentions have been since Freddie Gray's death in police custody sparked the unrest is a topic for another story.)
Still, of all the players, officials, fans and followers of the Orioles who expressed a desire to be part of the solution as that bizarre game against the White Sox unfolded, Orioles manager Buck Showalter was among the most eloquent and poignant, because of his honesty and vulnerability.
“I want to be a rallying force for our city,’’ Showalter said after the game, when asked what advice he would give the people who were in the streets protesting, from those marching, shouting and demanding change to the ones setting fires and breaking windows.
Showalter said a lot more, including his perspective as someone decidedly unlike those affected most by the unrest. His thoughts were chronicled in Sporting News that day, and recorded below. (Attempts to reach Showalter for this story were unsuccessful.)
The reporter who asked Showalter his thoughts was interviewed by the Baltimore Sun a year later.
At the gates behind center field, fans collected to cheer the Orioles even before the first pitch. Several said they were there as much for the city in turmoil, and for Gray, as for the Orioles. Not only could they be heard on the field (and in the dugouts and the press box), but also in the streets beyond the ballpark, where the state of emergency had been declared by Gov. Larry Hogan two days earlier. The streets around Camden Yards, usually bustling with activity even for a midweek day game, were largely deserted; even the nearest city or state police car was several blocks away monitoring the Inner Harbor.
The Orioles’ next home series, scheduled to start May 1 against Tampa Bay, was moved to St. Petersburg with the Orioles as the home team. The two games postponed at the height of the unrest, before the no-fan game, were made up at the end of May.
Six officers were eventually brought up on multiple charges, including second-degree murder, but none was ever convicted. The last of the charges were dropped in 2016.
In 2017, in a case not connected to Gray's death but illustrative of how problematic the conflicts between the police and community remain, seven Baltimore officers were indicted on federal racketeering and corruption charges related to its Gun Trace Task Force. Several have since pleaded guilty or have been convicted and sentenced, including one last Friday.
The Orioles' expressions about wanting to effect change was echoed by other prominent figures with Baltimore ties. Carmelo Anthony joined the marches. Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues spoke of the city's failures to give youngsters a fair chance for success. One of the largest mega-churches in the area opened a youth development center in the city and named it for Gray, two months after the unrest. The disastrous, financially-motivated decisions to close recreation centers across the city over the preceding decade gained a new, harsher focus.
SIGN UP for a FREE 30-day trial of DAZN and watch LIVE baseball games and programming on MLB Network
Yet, two years later, the building housing the Freddie Gray center was sold and the center's doors locked; the church is still trying to find a way to re-open it elsewhere. Two winters ago, the inadequacies of the city's schools were brought national attention by several teachers who had to beg the public to donate space heaters because the heat in schools was broken — and one of the teachers was Baltimore native and former NFL player Aaron Maybin.
And as the police scandal grew and commissioners began cycling through the position, Mayor Catherine Pugh, who followed the mayor in office during the riots, is accused of influence-peddling over major businesses buying up a children's book she authored. Last week, her home and offices were raided by federal agents. Pugh is on a health-related leave of absence, but the City Council and governor, among others, have called for her resignation.
So, even to those who have forgotten the details of why a baseball game had to lock its gates to spectators, Baltimore remains synonymous with civic rot and corruption, with no obvious signs that the solutions so many hoped would evolve from the unrest ever would happen.
The Orioles won the no-spectator game 8-2. Coming off a season in which they’d reached the ALCS, they finished 2015 at 81-81.
Three seasons later, they bottomed out at a franchise-worst 47-115, and Showalter’s contract was not renewed. First baseman Chris Davis, mired in a notorious slump spanning the last two seasons, is one of just a handful of players still on the roster from that game.
For Davis and the other Orioles who played in front of empty seats four years ago today, change happened relatively fast.
After upheaval of the magnitude of April 2015, when and how Baltimore itself starts making permanent changes for the better remains to be seen.
