What will March Madness feel like with no fans? A 2015 Orioles-White Sox game has answer
The NCAA’s decision to bar fans from attending March Madness because of the coronavirus outbreak sent shock waves throughout the sports community.
It was an unprecedented move. From the Cameron Crazies to Big Blue Nation, fans are part of what makes college basketball so great. Can March Madness still be the electric sporting event with “only essential staff and limited family?” It’s impossible to know until it happens, however, a 2015 matchup between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox provides some clues.
In the days leading up to the game at Camden Yards, the city of Baltimore was burning. The death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody, on April 19 spawned city-wide protests that later spiraled into riots. Countless businesses were destroyed and hundreds of arrests were made.
Despite the civil unrest, the Orioles decided to hold the game on April 29 with no fans, making it the first and only major professional sporting event played on North American soil without fans, according to the Washington Post.
White Sox leadoff man Adam Eaton says that day will be forever enshrined in his memory.
“I underestimated,” how shocking it would be, Eaton, now with Washington Nationals, told the Baltimore Sun in 2016. “To be honest with you, when I first went into it I didn’t think it would be a big deal. There was almost this half-asleep feel because there was no energy. ... As baseball players, as teams, we feed off energy and when there’s nothing there, it’s a very surreal and weird moment. ”
As the game wore on, players appeared to take pride in their position.
“I think we [served as a distraction],” Orioles first baseman Chris Davis told the Baltimore Sun. “... One of the funniest things I remember was hitting a home run in the first inning and [hearing] all the fans standing right outside the gate. And I thought, ‘That’s really what this whole thing is about.’ It was such a unique situation to be in and I think as a group of guys, I was really proud about the way we handled it.”
The eeriness, however, was inescapable. No fans also meant no vendors patrolling the stands, no scoreboard videos, no Kiss Cam or other sources of in-game entertainment.
“It was surreal,” Jim Palmer, a Hall of Fame pitcher and television broadcaster who called the game, recently told the Washington Post. “People [later] told me they could hear my voice in the dugout. Normally we have to talk over the crowd. It’s in our headphones. But that day you could hear everything.”
Overseas, the ‘no fans’ rule has already gone into effect. Italy said last Wednesday that all sporting events will be played in empty stadiums to prevent their coronavirus outbreak from worsening. Inter Milan coach Antonio Conte had experienced something similar yet it still felt unusual.
“It’s a strange atmosphere which isn’t easy because it feels more like a training session,” Conte recently explained to the Associated Press.
“Strange” is likely to become the new normal. With many professional leagues suspending their seasons, March Madness could be sports fans’ only source of entertainment for the near future. Of course the student-athletes’ health comes first yet, paraphrasing Davis, an escape might be needed under these unique circumstances. And what better way to temporarily check out than college basketball?
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 2:20 PM with the headline "What will March Madness feel like with no fans? A 2015 Orioles-White Sox game has answer."
