The civil unrest last week in Baltimore certainly wasn’t anything MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred could have expected when he started on the job in January. But he said what could have been an even more unfortunate situation was eased greatly by cooperation of the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.
After two days of not playing last week because of riots in the city, the Orioles and White Sox played April 29 in an Oriole Park at Camden Yards closed to the public, MLB’s first game with an official attendance of zero. The league then shifted a scheduled series between the Orioles and Rays to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Orioles were set to play as the home team.
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From Aug. 18, 2014: Baseball writer Eric Fisher and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour discuss the challenges Rob Manfred faces as the new MLB commissioner.
“I can’t say enough about those clubs and what they did,” Manfred said. “Everybody involved understood right away this was about ensuring safety and doing what was right for the city, and that any club competitive and financial concerns were completely secondary. … We reached consensus on the schedule adjustments very quickly.”
The Orioles, which surrendered five home dates as a result of the shifts, will be compensated in some fashion by the league for the loss of revenue. But final adjustments are likely several weeks away.
“We’re going to wait and see what happens with the Tampa games and go from there,” Manfred said last week.
