Baseball Players Strike Of 1994

The Major League Baseball players’ strike of 1994 was something which was unprecedented for baseball in the United States. For the first time in nearly 100 years, there would be no World Series. Fans were left wondering what could have been for the Montreal Expos, Tony Gwynn’s pursuit of batting .400, and many other statistical and winning pursuits. The strike of 1994 tore the hearts of many fans in the baseball world, and was caused by many underlying issues between the owners and the players. The strike of 1994 created lasting impressions on the fans, various effects on the game, while introducing new issues between the players and owners. But who won the strike? Both sides got some of their wishes eventually, but Sonia Sotomayor set the

The owners, without specifically naming clubs, claimed that 19 of the 28 clubs were losing money. Though the details were not released to the public, and the players were contractually bound not to talk about what clubs were in the red, some of the names came through. One team that was supposedly losing money was the Dodgers. This caught the intrigue of some notable baseball writers at the time, “Noting that the Dodgers are averaging 41,500 fans a game and have a payroll under $40 million, the executive said that unless the members of the O’Malley family, the owners, ‘are drawing huge salaries, I would think they should make money on those numbers.” The lack of transparency by the owners, along with the need to continue generating revenue while having such high attendance is likely something that caused pain from most fans. Most probably believe as long as they support their team the team will always be there for

The collective bargaining agreement was due to run out in December, but the players chose to strike on August 12. This date was chosen to inflict maximum monetary damage to the owners. The players had already received a majority of their pay, while the owners were only near the beginning of their revenues, which mostly came from postseason television contracts. The players, unlike the owners, were also insured in case of any such strike. The players thought the owners would fold, but they never did. Some owners, notably Chicago White Sox owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, who had prepared a concept of sitting out the rest of the ’94 offseason and the entire 95 season, were in for the long haul. On September 14th, Bud Selig, commissioner at the time, announced there would be no World Series for the first time in 90 years. This undoubtedly marked the point at which things were seen to be very serious, for both the players and