Baltimore doesn't need baseball right now
/The White Sox could just leave town. It wouldn't be a bad move.
This doesn't have anything to do with any concerns with the security of the team; easily some of the most well-protected individuals in the city at the moment, or even much to do with the area around Camden Yards, largely reported to be isolated from the unrest that's gripped Baltimore. There's just no easy way to try to cram in your mid-April baseball game amid historic protests, and riots, against city police.
Baseball can and has provided a necessary and therapeutic return to normalcy after trying times, but that's not where Baltimore is at. Securing a stadium half-full of transplants from the suburbs won't quell the frustration of a part of the city that feels so detached and disenfranchised they've taken their rage out on their surroundings. Moreover, with curfews and school closings being issued from the city, bending restrictions to make sure a nine-figure independent company can do business could be seen as a shade, or worse, too much of a reinforcement of suspicion of the city's true priorities.
Speaking of telling, the ideas floating around to play the game out of town, would quietly escort this series from the fray, but would also further demonstrate how detached from their surroundings the Orioles really are. They wear Baltimore on their chest and profit off the marketability of regionalism, then flee the region when the imagery of Baltimore stops being business-friendly. Really, no major sports' franchise's relationship with their city looks perfect when scrutinized, and crisis brings scrutiny.
The proposed happy alternative: an early starting time in accordance with impromptu city curfews.
The only trouble with this being that it calls for a rapid transition from Monday, and, well...
The Orioles and White Sox have played in front of enough empty houses to know sports persist without the whole city being at leisure and ready to receive them. If the Sox held off on playing in every major city stirring in the wake of contested police killing, they might not crack 50 games played this year, but if MLB continues to be cautious here, if they put aside banal concerns of late-seasons schedule crunches and travel headaches to let a shocking crest in the building tide of unrest and scrutiny over police use of force, recede and heal...it wouldn't be wrong. It wouldn't be bad.