It’s show time! Get ready for the exhibition game between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets
The date is March 24 at 2:05 p.m. ET, the venue is the campus of the Naval Academy, more precisely the Terwilliger Brothers Field. The Baltimore Orioles have announced they are going to play against the New York Mets in a Major League Baseball exhibition game. But, alas, tickets for the game will not be available to the public. Getting in will be a bit more difficult than getting a promo code for hollywood casino, yet it might be still possible. Learn how.
The easy way is to be a member of the Brigade of Midshipmen, or a select U.S. Navy personnel: they will get complimentary tickets. Short of that, you can get lucky if you are a Birdland Member: a limited number of remaining tickets will be made available for selected members of the fan club. The details are not known yet, so if you are a Birdland Member – stay tuned.
For all the less lucky, the game will air on 105.7 The Fan and the Orioles Radio Network. There is some ceremony involved, namely a tour of the academy facilities by players and staff from both teams, accompanied by representatives from the Naval Academy. All this is going to take place before the game.
The Orioles have had a multi-dimensional partnership with the United States Naval Academy since early 2018. An Army vs. Navy baseball doubleheader was hosted by the Baltimoreans at Oriole Park in March 2018. Then they payed a courtesy return visit to the Naval Academy facilities in Annapolis in March 2019. There is an earlier background to this partnership.
As long as 35 years went by since the Orioles played an exhibition game at Navy, though they were among the most frequent participants. Major league teams played at Bishop Stadium 13 times, and the Orioles where the protagonists in seven of those games, in 1973, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1984 and 1985. In 2017, they torpedoed a three-year agreement, known as the Naval Academy Baseball Classic, between the Washington Nationals and Navy, by complaining to Major League Baseball headquarters on the grounds they had territorial rights to Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. The Nationals had played just one of three slated games, against the Bostron Red Sox, but had to cancel the remaining two.
After the announcement of the multi-year partnership with the Naval Academy, an exhibition game was planned at Bishop Stadium in March 2019. But the Orioles could not find an opponent and had to postpone the game a whole year. A visit by the Navy baseball team to Sarasota, Florida, to meet the Orioles on their ground during spring training could not take place either. Apparently, the busy schedules of both teams could not find a suitable common date.
They did manage, though, to have an Army vs. Navy baseball doubleheader at Oriole Park in March 2018. The Orioles visited the Naval Academy facilities in Annapolis in March 2019.
