There are violent protests in the city of Baltimore tonight over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died on April 19th after sustaining a spinal injury while in police custody. While schools and businesses have closed out of precaution, it seemed as though there would be baseball in Charm City.
However, with about 45 minutes to go before first pitch and with police officers stationed around Camden Yards, the game has now been officially cancelled.
After consultation with Baltimore City Police Department, tonight’s game between the Orioles & White Sox at Oriole Park has been postponed.
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 27, 2015
By the way, this is what the inside of Oriole Park looked just prior to that announcement.
6:20 at Camden Yards pic.twitter.com/4O8FRbQDn7
— Brittany Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) April 27, 2015
Clearly many fans made the decision to stay at home well ahead of the official cancellation.
As for the business of baseball and what will happen to Monday’s (and the rest of this planned three game series between the Orioles and the Chicago White Sox), baseball Commisioner Rob Manfred (who happened to be at the game) told reporters that moving things to Nationals Park in Washington was a possibility. After tonight’s cancellation and the brief lockdown on Saturday night before David Lough’s walk-off home run, this all makes a lot of sense for a city that could better apply their resources to this delicate and frightening moment.
