Empyreal Environs

As much as I love baseball the events in Baltimore around the death of Freddie Gray are all I can think about.

Most of what I know about the city is from “The Wire” and “Ace of Cakes.” So for an inside look into the city and the intersection of sports and politics please read David Zirin’s article “Camden Yards and the Baltimore Protests for Freddie Gray.”

Here are a few excerpts:

But before we go to the baseball field, let’s make one thing clear: Most everything the media reported about the Baltimore protests has skirted the line between the highly sensationalistic and the libelous. Every headline and photo has focused on property damage, allegedly done by those protesting for Freddie Gray. Played down or ignored is the Baltimore I saw: a place where more than 2,000 people—including families and children—marched resolutely while helicopters and visible surveillance drones flew overhead.

That story, the one where a portion of the city—the black, economically ignored portion—lives in dread of police violence and were marching not just for Freddie Gray but against the history of the Baltimore PD, was not the story the media chose to tell.

Camden Yards morphed from a field into a fortress. It became a stadium dividing a city between haves and have-nots: a barrier erected on the foundations of racial and economic inequality dressed in the trappings of spectacle and sports. That it was built with the tax dollars of those on both sides of the divide just makes the situation all the more dismal.

I hope the investigation into Gray’s death is thorough and that anyone who is at fault faces justice. Don’t allow another city to be added to the litany of places where police brutality goes unchecked.

This announcement on the Camden Yards scoreboard just now. #Orioles #RedSox #FreddieGray protest pic.twitter.com/iEFGCZDvD3

— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 26, 2015

Game 19: April 26, 2015
Boston Red Sox 10-9	7	L: Wade Miley (1-2)
		2B: Dustin Pedroia (4) HR: Pablo Sandoval (1), Hanley Ramirez – 2 (8)
Baltimore Orioles 9-10	18	W: Bud Norris (1-2)
		2B: Chris Davis (5), Rey Navarro (2), Delmon Young (2), Jimmy Paredes (4) 3B: Paredes (1) HR: Davis (4)