Orioles to fans: We're afraid of you

[Jack Saunders]

Wednesday's game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox will be played in Baltimore -- but the gates will remain locked.  Fortress America. 

How shameful that it has come to this.  Who will get splattered?  The mayor?  MLB?  The chief of police?  The protest movement? 

Whoever it is, a baseball game is deemed unsafe, sure to elicit rioting and looting.  So inside chained doors in a brick bowl, the national pastime goes on, witnessed by no one.

[Brian Howell]

Questions begged:

1. Will the organ play rousing melodies?
2. Will the batters be announced over the PA system?
3. Will there be a 7th inning stretch? Will the television announcer(s) sing “Take me out to the ballgame”?
4. How will the players feel without the fans there to egg them on/boo them? Will the home team play better? Will the away team play worse?
5. Is this an overreaction/overcompensation? Or a reasonable response to a crisis situation?
6. What does this say about our society?

Meanwhile, Maryland's governor and Baltimore's mayor appear to have had a difference of opinion over calling out National Guardsmen, with Republican (law-and-order?) governor Hogan champing at the bit to call in the troops, and Democratic mayor Rawlings-Blake delaying, not wanting to appear that she was trying to curb a legitimate protest. (Many experts apparently felt she waited too long.)

None of the presidential candidates seemed to know how to fully—presidentially—respond to the crisis: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/us/politics/baltimore-forces-presidential-hopefuls-to-confront-a-jarring-crisis.html?_r=0

Play ball!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-state-city-response-20150428-story.html#page=1

[Craig Good]

MLB is an entertainment company. It’ll still work as a TV show.

I found this slick infographic about team revenues. These two teams typically get more from broadcast rights than ticket sales. But check out what they stand to lose from parking.

http://www.bloomberg.com/infographics/2013-10-23/mlb-team-values.html

At the risk of offending any baseball fans, I’m quite entertained by the faux competition between franchises of the same company. Rooting for your team is like rooting for your local McDonald’s over the one the next town over.

But I’ve been in the entertainment business a long time, and no corner of it isn’t a little weird.



--
--Craig WWSJD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com
FAA: We're not happy until you're not happy.

[Larry Rosenthal]

On 4/29/2015 8:16 AM, Brian Howell wrote:

Questions begged:

1. Will the organ play rousing melodies?
   

1. dirges don't rouse
   

1. Will the batters be announced over the PA system?
   

1. they know who they are. but yes, announcing have formal effect under the rules
   

1. Will there be a 7th inning stretch? Will the television announcer(s) sing “Take me out to the ballgame”?
   

1. yes, there will be an official stretch, followed by "God Diss America"; after that the PA system will sound the Beatles' "Nowhere Man"
   

1. How will the players feel without the fans there to egg them on/boo them? Will the home team play better? Will the away team play worse?
   

1. both teams will be assisted, or neither, or one or the other - I'm sure of this
   

1. Is this an overreaction/overcompensation? Or a reasonable response to a crisis situation?
   

1. MLB's new Minister of Information, Jeremy Kafka (the great author's great-great-grandson), thought it appropriate
   

1. What does this say about our society?
   

1. that we know how to cool off and keep things moving, simultaenously
   

[jack saunders]

Cool graphic.  Bloomberg is making a name for itself with this stuff.

 

---

From: Craig Good <clg...@me.com>
To: Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com>
Cc: Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 8:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Ipse Dixit] Re: Orioles to fans: We're afraid of you

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