On Aug. 12, 1994, 25 years ago to the day, Major League Baseball’s players went on strike as owners threatened them with a salary cap. The move wiped out what was shaping up to be a magical regular season, the World Series, the beginning of the 1995 season — and the trust of many fans.
Several media outlets took the time to remember the strike a quarter-century later, including Yahoo Sports, which examines the final day of games Aug. 11, and ESPN.com.
25 years ago today, #MLB turned the lights out. All games were canceled, and, a month later, the playoffs and World Series were canceled, too. @Kurkjian_ESPN spoke to Bud Selig and many others about the 1994 strike that nearly destroyed the sport. https://t.co/SwKvMqyDzJ pic.twitter.com/g4HTH66GdM
— ESPN New York (@ESPNNewYork) August 12, 2019
The reason for the strike
With salaries skyrocketing and its collective bargaining agreement set to expire, baseball tried to implement revenue sharing via a salary cap. The MLB Players Union, led by Donald Fehr, refused to accept that in any form. They set a deadline for an agreement of Aug. 12; when it passed, the strike was on.
There was no promise the season would be canceled. But the two sides were far apart and steadfast in their respective corners. Eventually, the regular season was canceled, and so too was the World Series. For the first time since 1904, there would be no Fall Classic.
The strike lasted until March 31, 1995, when the Supreme Court ruled that owners had illegally eliminated free agency. The 1995 season started on April 25 and was shortened to 144 games.
One day there was baseball.
The next their wasn’t.@KevinKaduk looks back at August 11, 1994, the day before baseball’s most devastating strike began.
➡️ https://t.co/L3nMSaGmbH pic.twitter.com/t8xhtqDCvf
— Yahoo Sports MLB (@MLByahoosports) August 9, 2019
What we lost
Tony Gwynn finished the 1994 season hitting .394. Could he have hit .400 with the remaining 50 or so games? Matt Williams had 43 home runs and Ken Griffey Jr. had 40. Jeff Bagwell had 116 RBIs. They were having some of the greatest individual seasons ever.
But we don’t know how they would have finished. Same goes for the Montreal Expos, who had the best record in baseball but never made the playoffs in 27 years in Quebec.
Perhaps most important, a legion of fans were turned off by the owners’ and players’ greed and never returned to the game. The home run race of 1998 brought some back, and enough time healed other wounds, but there’s no doubt baseball changed on that day 25 years ago.
MLB players officially went on strike on this day 25 years ago. SI filled in the blanks for every remaining day of the season, including a Red Sox-Cubs World Series https://t.co/4yD80hQwLl pic.twitter.com/9CLYbtwAfD
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 12, 2019
