Old Town native and Baltimore Orioles television play-by-play man Gary Thorne’s voice echoed around the press box in Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Wednesday afternoon.
That’s because there were no fans allowed into the Orioles’ game with the Chicago White Sox because of the protests and unrest in Baltimore stemming from the death of a black man who suffered a severe spinal injury and died in police custody on April 19.
“I was taken aback at the beginning of the game,” said Thorne. “There was no noise when someone got a hit, and there was no applause when someone struck out.
“But after two innings, your mind got used to it. You realized there wasn’t going to be any noise. Then you settled into the game,” he said.
It was the first time a major league game was played in front of no fans.
Thorne is in his 50th year of broadcasting and his 30th doing major league baseball games.
“It was very strange not having that crowd noise to feed off,” he said, describing the atmosphere outside the ballpark as “very odd.
“There were no people outside the ballpark. The bars are usually full, and there was nobody there. The wasn’t anybody at the concession stands, either,” said Thorne, who called the game with Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer.
Palmer shares the color analyst job with former University of Maine star and major leaguer Mike Bordick.
“You could hear the players talking during batting practice,” said Thorne. “There were more members of the press than players. There was big-time coverage.”
“[During the game], there were two scouts sitting behind home plate. They were the only people in the seats in the ballpark. That was it. There was nobody else in the seats.”
Thorne said it is important to remember the reason for the unique situation.
“It was very sad. There have been a number of [useful] peaceful protests, but they got overshadowed by a few people who committed criminal acts,” said Thorne. “There are real issues that have to be dealt with. The violence and destruction undermined the real work that needs to be done.”
This is not the first time Thorne has encountered a crisis during a broadcast.
He broadcast the first New York Mets game after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he was in San Francisco and experienced the earthquake during the 1989 World Series between the Giants and Oakland Athletics.
“Those were the two events closest to the magnitude this had today,” said Thorne.
Baltimore won the game 8-2, making it 1-0 in games played in front of no fans.
“That may be a record that will never be broken,” said Thorne.