No cheers for Baltimore Orioles as they win first fan-free MLB game

It was a perfect April afternoon to take in a ball game, but the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox played before a sea of 45,971 empty seats on Wednesday afternoon, setting an unenviable record of sorts in a sport driven by statistics.

After a night on turmoil in the streets of Baltimore on Monday, officials decided it was simply too difficult to assure the safety of fans coming to Camden Yards, the city’s venerable downtown stadium.
Wednesday’s game was the first time in Major League Baseball history that two teams squared off with not a single fan allowed in the stadium.

The eerie silence appeared to suit the Orioles, who drubbed the visiting Chicago White Sox, 8-2, in one of the strangest big-league games ever played.

“For record-keeping purposes, today’s official paid attendance is zero,” the Orioles pressbox announcer told a clutch of reporters, and hardly anyone else, watching the game from the vast emptiness of Camden Yards.