Retrospect: The Infamous Baltimore Orioles' “No Fans Game” Five Years Later
April 29th, 2015 will forever be apart of Baltimore’s history.
My history.
It was a day when civil unrest in the city of Baltimore, home of the O’s, led to MLB officials deciding to close the gates to Camden Yards; but the Orioles and Chicago White Sox, still, played ball.
The attendance for that game: zero.
It was the first time in MLB history where zero fans when in attendance for a game. This is a rarity when it comes to the major American sports league. International soccer leagues often close its door to have crowd-less games. The current COVID-19 pandemic has forced many other sporting events and leagues to perform behind closed doors. MLB’s 2020 season is currently postponed and could feature some games without any fans this season. The NBA is also discussing playing in empty stadiums.
The WWE recently held their flagship pay-per-view, Wrestlemania, without any fans (which was very underwhelming), but no other major sports league scheduled crowd-less games.
Only the media were allowed to watch the Orioles 8–2 victory over the White Sox, more than 200 of the best sportswriters from the most powerful media outlets in the world.
Baseball Hall of Fame writers, Associated Press, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, they were all there.
And so was I.
I was qualified enough to rub shoulders with media professionals like Tim Kurkjian in my first assignment covering a professional game. I didn’t get that assignment through one of the aforementioned companies, it was through my small communications empire, Fan-I Sports. I’ve only been in sports media for three years at that point. My education never came from a university, it was me finding the right resources to legitimize my new skill. To be in there with the big players in sports journalism boosted my confidence to a new level.
As much as this game impacted history on so many fronts, it influenced my own career.
One question.
That’s all it took for me to stamp myself into history.
“What advice would you give to the young black males in the city?”
That’s what I asked Orioles’ manager at the time, Buck Showalter. After sneaking into the press conference, I shared a moment with Buck. Even as I asked the question, he gave the same respect as he did the other seasoned writers. The other writers were in awe by my confidence as one of the youngest, if not the youngest, persons in the room. Then to ask a white manager from the south a question about young black males, really floored them.
Buck’s answer will go down as one of the greatest soundbytes in Orioles’ history. To this day, it was the best answer he could have given. Most managers or players, would have skipped the question because of the shock value. Tim Kurkjian even said it himself, it wasn’t an easy question to answer.
I’m glad he answered.
Five years later, I’m still doing interviews with the local Baltimore Sun about my small, but impactful role in one of the oddest games in MLB history.
This game changed me. It changed me in a way I realized what meant most to me as a journalist. Every day a new blog, YouTube channel, Twitter page, or Facebook post uploaded into the rapidly changing world of sports media.
The majority of those individuals or brands want to find themselves in the same room I found myself on April 29, 2015.
They all wish to create impactful content with big-name sports figures like I did with Buck.
They want that notoriety, which I didn’t receive.
The one thing I didn’t do when I asked Buck that question was address myself and company, a rookie mistake. I was nervous and I knew my time was limited. I wanted to get the question out there. I felt the question and his response was more important than knowing my name. Only at that moment though. I wanted the microwavable fame that could have catapulted myself and Fan-I Sports into the big leagues.
I reached out to every writer the next day who wrote about my moment with Buck. No one knew who I was, they only described me as a “local black kid”. It wasn’t until a writer from the Wall Street Journal told me via Twitter, the person who asks the question isn’t important, only the answer.
How could I not be important? I was the local black kid who asked an important question during a time where race relations were a huge topic.
But he was right, I didn’t matter at that time. The only thing that matter was Buck’s answer, which was my primary goal. His answer created a conversation. It generated awareness of a problem that’s been going on in Baltimore City for generations. Baltimore remains one of the toughest cuties for a young black male to grow up in. The unrest brought attention to the problems, but those problems have amplified since the crowd-less game.
I didn’t think my question would change the climate in Baltimore, I wanted to help bridge the gap between the privilege and unprivileged. I represented those that didn’t have the opportunity to be inside of Camden Yards, but I could communicate with those who were in the position to create and hand out those same opportunities. My ability to speak to both sides, subconsciously, formulated that pivotal question.
At 25, I didn’t understand my role didn’t matter. I didn’t want to understand it. I wanted that feeling again, so I chased down the biggest names in sports over the next few years, which left me exhausted and battered from growing pains of the tumultuous world of sports [social] media.
Officially eight years into my craft, I’ve grown to understand who I am as a journalist and what I want my career to represent. I know the type of content I want to create and the stories I want to tell. I was lucky enough to have that experience at such an early point in my career. It wasn’t just another game I had the opportunity to cover, it was scribing my name into the history books.
Today, I’m more appreciative of that moment than ever before, and the notoriety is beginning to grow.
