This week's unrest in Baltimore forced the Orioles to postpone a pair of games against the Chicago White Sox, and play the third Wednesday afternoon before an open stadium. Orioles manager Buck Showalter and center fielder Adam Jones spoke extensively on the adjustments and the demonstrations that caused them before the game.
Here's a selection of Jones and Showalter's thoughts on the Freddie Gray demonstrations, the schedule changes, and the team's role in helping Baltimore recover.
Jones on the last few days
"It's a city that's hurting, a city that needs its heads of the city to stand up, step up and help the ones that are hurting. It's not an easy time right now for anybody. It doesn't matter what race you are. My prayers have been out for all the families, all the kids out there. They're hurting. The big message is: stay strong Baltimore, stay safe. Continue to be the great city that I've known to love over the last eight years I've been here. Continue to be who you are. I know there's been a lot of damage in the city. There's also been a lot of good protesting, a lot of people standing up for the rights that they have in the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, and I'm just trying to make sure we're on the same page. Obviously, you can see everybody's not on the same page. The youth are hurting, as the older guys, the older community owe it to the youth to continue to educate them, continue to strengthen them, continue to be by their sides. That's what they need. I don't think they need more antagonizing. They need a shoulder to cry on. I think the city leaders can be that for these kids and for the community."
Jones on playing before an empty stadium
"Listen, I wish that we had fans to help with the healing process. The other part of deciding to play the game, that's up to the commissioners and owners. That's way out of my hands, but sports bring people together, black white or indifferent. They bring us together, and for those three hours, they can have beers, can have hot dogs, nachos, some Boogs [barbeque] and forget about our daily lives. But today, we just have to play a major league baseball game without any fans. I think it's the first time in history. Hopefully some people in the warehouse are looking so we can have some onlookers, because I don't think Eutaw Street will be open also."
Jones on relating to the city youth who are acting out
"It's not the easiest. But I understand. I understand the situation that these kids are in. Not to long ago, I was one of those teenagers, using city transportation, meeting up at the mall with my friends after school. Doing all of the same things. Baseball was an outlet, something that pushed me in different directions. But I'm not far from these kids so I understand all the things they are going through. It's important to me to reach out to them. That's why my biggest thing is I like to reach out to 12-17 [year olds]. Those are the ones that need the most help, the ones you are trying to affect their minds, get in their heads. Get them ready for the real world, as opposed to the false realities we see on TV."
Showalter on whether they considered cancelling today as well
"Our problem is the doubleheader in May, the 28th, was there, but after that making up the other game... And we thought it was in some ways important to get some things going. You don't want to have the first time you play here be a week or two [from now]. You don't know what tomorrow's going to bring, a week from now is going to bring. It makes you realize how unimportant really in a lot of ways this is compared to some things that are going on, so you try to keep that in mind and look at things realistically about where this fits in the scheme of things. I'm talking about the baseball game. There are so many things and you prioritize what's most important. We tried to do that."
Showalter on how the team prepares for a game in these circumstances
"There's no blueprint. I wish I was that reader of the tea leaves. We were talking about whether we're going to have a workout tomorrow before we left and I decided I want to see what level of rustiness there is. We've got an advance meeting today. We've never had an advance meeting in the daytime. There's a lot of new things. We're going to hit in the home team's slot in Tampa. We're going to wear white pants on the road. There's a lot of different things, but it's what these guys do a lot. They make a lot of adjustments on the fly. You play with a team and you get traded and three days later you're across in the other locker room. I don't think a lot of us can identify with what a challenge that is. And every night I'm (amazed) by the concentration level they're able to have. In the spring we piped in a lot of loud sound to try to simulate stadium noise. We didn't practice the quiet one. You've also got to be careful about the sweet nothings you throw out of the dugout with umpires. They're going to be able to hear everything."
Showalter on the most difficult challenge in preparing
"To say something that we are going to go through on a baseball field playing in the big leagues is difficult is really insensitive to everything else that's going on. It's a small thing for us comparatively speaking. One of the things that we all, not just me, tried to do when I came here was eliminate excuses. I don't want to hear about payroll, I don't want to hear about things like that. This is different. Some are self-inflicted and, quite frankly, I feel like, the way I look at it, it is self-inflicted. Even though someone in our locker room didn't (cause problems), but we are citizens of this community and if something is going on here that creates this type of situation it's a reflection on all of us and we should look at it that way."