When people go to the ballgame, part of the fun is hearing the cheers from the crowd when there is a home run, or the excitement of seeing a foul ball drop into the outstretched glove of a fan.
However, for the first time in its 145-season history, a Major League ballgame was played with no fans in attendance.
Not a single person—other than some reporters—was sitting in the 45,000-seat stands as the Baltimore Orioles played the Chicago White Sox last Wednesday. The game was played in the “Oriole Park at Camden Yards” ballpark in Baltimore.
When runs were scored, there was no applause. No sellers walked the aisles, offering their hotdogs! or cold drinks!
The ballpark was so quiet, when pop flies were in the air, the players’ cries of “I got it!” could clearly be heard.
The Baltimore Orioles barred their fans from attending the final game of their series against the Chicago White Sox.
The city of Baltimore has been in turmoil for several weeks and the team felt the safest thing to do would be to play without fans.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press news outlet that, “All of the decisions in Baltimore were driven first by the desire to insure the safety of fans, players, umpires and stadium workers.”
When the Orioles finally won the game, 8 to 2, no one cheered.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Why might a league or venue choose to close their stadiums to the public?
Reading Prompt: Responding to Texts
With an adult, discuss the following portion of today’s article:
The city of Baltimore has been in turmoil for several weeks and the team felt the safest thing to do would be to play without fans.
Primary
Express personal opinions about ideas presented in texts (OME, Reading: 1.8).
Junior
Make judgements and draw conclusions about the ideas and information in texts and cite stated or implied evidence from the text to support their views (OME, Reading: 1.8).
Intermediate
Evaluate the effectiveness of both simple and complex texts based on evidence from the texts (OME, Reading: 1.8).
Language Feature: Long Dash / Em Dash ( — )
The em dash is used by writers to include additional information in the middle or at the end of a sentence. In the following an em dash is used.
Not a single person—other than some reporters—was sitting in the 45,000-seat stands as the Baltimore Orioles played the Chicago White Sox last Wednesday.
Commas can also be used in order to show additional information. The following sentence is also grammatically correct.
Not a single person, other than some reporters, was sitting in the 45,000-seat stands as the Baltimore Orioles played the Chicago White Sox last Wednesday.
Do you read and understand these two sentences differently?
How does the punctuation change your understanding?
