1994 turned out to be a trying year for the game of baseball, leaving behind wounds that have yet to heal. While the Minor Leagues remained unaffected, the Major League season ended in August, resulting in no post-season, including no World Series. Don Angel chronicles the event of that devastating season in this piece published in the Baseball Almanac.
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The day was August twelfth
Owners wanted to share the wealth
The players walked
Both sides talked
Labor talks would cease
Season was now decease
World Series was not played
Players were not being paid
Spring training came
And it was not the same
Replacements and Minors there
Familiarity is very rare
The weak become independent
The strong remain dependent
They cross the line
The rest decline
A few fans attend
While most rescind
There’s still peanuts, drinks, hot dogs and buns
But when all is said and done
If the best in baseball refuse to play
Others are willing to make Opening Day
Worst thing to happen to baseball since the Black Sox Scandal of 1919.
v
Agreed. I vote that we never do that again.
I can barely remember yesterday so I can’t say with any degree of honesty that I was bothered by the strike in 1994. As a matter of fact, I think baseball and I had a falling out a few years earlier. I always feel like a hypocrite complaining about strikes because of my own disappearing acts with the sport, getting interested in Spain or some obscure musician and neglecting the sport that raised me. Anyway, I do remember being bummed out for Tony Gwynn.
I can identify in not being able to honestly say that I was really affected by the strike. I was still in my early stages of getting to know/love baseball, so at that point, yeah, it was hard for me to really know better. As a Padres fan, I’m sure my brother was probably more affected by it. I might have to ask him about that sometime.