Orioles Game On Wednesday Closed To Public.
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. We are on the second night of a mandatory curfew in Baltimore, Maryland and we are on the scene. Our reporters and our correspondent and our producers are stationed throughout the city. It's been basically a night of calm with people out in the community, community leaders and also, of course, police officers keeping the calm here in Baltimore. We're keeping it -- an eye on it for you. Sports news now, the Chicago White Sox played baseball in an empty stadium at Baltimore's Camden Yards on Wednesday. Officials decided to shut out fans because of the rioting earlier this week in the city. That is something that's never been done before in Major League Baseball. Nearly 46,000 seats were vacant except for the few big league scouts and journalists who attended the game. The Orioles beat the White Sox, 8-2. And before the game, Adam Jones, a Baltimore Orioles center fielder shared his thoughts on the city's issues. He says he feels Baltimore's pain. Take a listen.</s>ADAM JONES, BALTIMORE ORIOLES CENTERFIELDER: 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.</s>LEMON: So let's turn in and out to a man who knows everything about it, a newspaper writer, Eduardo Encino. He covers the Orioles for the "Baltimore Sun" and you join us. This is basically baseball without fans. This is what it looks like if you don't have many fans.</s>EDUARDO ENCINO, ORIOLES BEAT WRITER, "THE BALTIMORE SUN": Yes. There's really nothing that's like it. I've been asked a lot about what's the closest thing. It's probably one of these B games that they have, sometimes in spring training where they close the gates. Guys who aren't starters like playing the game and there are no fans there. But being in a downtown 46,000 seat stadium and no one there in the seating bowl, it was pretty bizarre. It's one of the strangest things I've ever taken part in.</s>LEMON: How are the fans reacting? I'm sure there are people who said we should move, continue on and have our community and have the -- our sports teams and our games and our fans, they should not be affected by this.</s>ENCINO: Yes, there was probably about a group of about 50 to 100 fans outside one of the gates where you can actually see into the par. And they gathered like two hours before the game to try to watch the game. These are fans who thought that the game shouldn't have been closed to the public. You know, it's such a part of the healing process here, that the fans should -- you know, you should be able to go in there and enjoy the game. Some people thought maybe the Orioles should give tickets away to, you know, some of the kids in the city who have never been to a game. They do stuff like that in the community. But, you know, there's a lot of mixed reactions because there are some people who say that this was the right thing to do. And given some of the tension within the city, it probably was.</s>LEMON: It probably was the right thing to do. But watching today, I obviously didn't watch the game. We had a helicopter shot over the stadium and the reporters who were out there, it was just really -- it was really sad. It was sad to see nobody in the stadium. But the game goes on. The game continues to go on.</s>ENCINO: The Orioles, they kind of need the game to go on. They had missed two games. They have to make them a double header against the White Sox later on the year. This game was in play. Obviously, this weekend, they're moving an entire series to St. Petersburg in Tampa Bay. They're getting the gate from that series, but, you know, they're really losing five home dates over the course of this week.</s>LEMON: And not to mention the money, the financial loss for a lot of people involved, a lot of entities.</s>ENCINO: Absolutely a lot. For the community, the ballpark, the downtown areas, fans come in and go to restaurants, pregame, bars afterwards, so much stuff that's affected downtown.</s>LEMON: Can we talk about team spirit? You know, players will -- they get their energy from the fans, right, and the roar of the crowd and the stadium. How are the players dealing with this? How is it affecting them?</s>ENCINO: This is weird for the players because they've never been through anything like this. Some of the guys tried to have a little bit of fun with it. Some of players tried to fake sign autographs before the game and stuff like that. But there was just no feel to the game. Usually you would get that cue from the fans. You hear that roar of the crowd. Chris Davis hit a home run. And there was a look like did it really go out? Did we just see that? You know, you depend on the fans so much for that cue.</s>LEMON: It's like if a tri-tree falls in the woods, right? If you play a baseball game and nobody is there, does that home one really count? Did you really play? Thank you very much, Eduardo. I appreciate that. Thanks for joining us, everyone. I am Don Lemon live in Baltimore. I really appreciate you joining this evenong. "CNN NEWSROOM" is going to pick up our coverage right after this very quick break with my colleagues, John Vause and Zain Asher at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.