1994–95 Major League Baseball strike
The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike was the eighth and longest work stoppage in Major League Baseball history, as well as the fourth in-season work stoppage in 22 years. The strike began on August 12, 1994, and resulted in the remainder of that season, including the postseason and the World Series, being canceled. This was the first time in ninety years, since 1904, that a World Series was not played. The strike was suspended on April 2, 1995, after 232 days, making it the longest such stoppage in MLB history and the longest work stoppage in a major professional sports league at the time.
As a result of the strike, a total of 948 games were canceled. Both the 1994 and 1995 seasons were not played to a complete 162 games; the strike began after the teams had played at least 113 games in 1994. Each team played a total of 144 games in 1995.
This was the first time in North American professional sports that an entire postseason was canceled because of labor disputes; the second was the cancellation of the National Hockey League's 2005 Stanley Cup playoffs as a result of the entire 2004–05 season being canceled. Coincidentally, the NHL also experienced a labor dispute of their own in 1994.
Background
In response to a worsening financial situation in baseball, the owners of Major League Baseball teams collectively proposed a salary cap to their players. Ownership claimed that small-market clubs would fall by the wayside unless teams agreed to share local broadcasting revenues and enact a salary cap, a proposal that the players adamantly opposed. On January 18, 1994, the owners approved a new revenue-sharing plan keyed to a salary cap, which required the players' approval. The following day, the owners amended the Major League agreement by giving complete power to the commissioner on labor negotiations.The dispute was played out with a backdrop of years of hostility and mistrust between the two sides. What arguably stood in the way of a compromise settlement was the absence of an official commissioner ever since the owners forced Fay Vincent to resign in September 1992. In the 1980s, MLB owners were three times found to have colluded with each other by agreeing not to sign free agents from other teams in order to keep salaries down, and to not have any contracts longer than three years to limit owners’ risks in case of injuries, and owners were ordered to make payments to players in each case. This reduced trust between players and owners.
Vincent said the owners had colluded in the signing of free agents, which led to "a $280 million theft" by Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf, which "polluted labor relations in baseball" and left Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, with "no trust in Selig." On February 11, 1994, the owners greatly reduced the commissioner's power to act in "the best interests of baseball."
Owner representative Richard Ravitch officially unveiled the ownership proposal on June 14, 1994. The proposal would guarantee a record $1 billion in salary and benefits. But the ownership proposal also would have forced clubs to fit their payrolls into a more evenly based structure. Salary arbitration would have been eliminated, free agency would begin after four years rather than six, and owners would have retained the right to keep a four- or five-year player by matching his best offer. Owners claimed that their proposal would raise average salaries from $1.2 million in 1994 to $2.6 million by 2001.
Fehr rejected the offer from the owners on July 18. He believed a salary cap was simply a way for owners to clean up their own disparity problems with no benefit to the players.
On July 13, Fehr said if serious negotiations between the players and the owners did not begin soon, the players could go out on strike in September of that year, threatening the postseason. On December 31, 1993, Major League Baseball's collective bargaining agreement ran out with no new agreement yet signed.
Strike
June
As negotiations continued to heat up, the owners decided to withhold $7.8 million that they were required to pay per previous agreement into the players' pension and benefit plans. The final straw came on June 23 when the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to approve an antitrust legislation by a vote of 10–7. According to Fehr, the action left the players with little choice but to strike. "We felt in '94 we were pushed into it," he said. "I still think that's a justified conclusion."July–August
On July 28, the Players Association executive board set August 12, 1994, as a strike date. When that day came, the players went ahead with their threat to walk off the job. The last games of that baseball season were played on August 11, 1994.File:Greg Maddux pitching.jpg|thumb|right|Greg Maddux pitching for the Atlanta Braves at Mile High Stadium in what would become the final game of the 1994 season
On August 31, three-and-a-half hours of negotiations with federal mediators produced no progress in the strike, and no further talks were scheduled as the strike went into its 4th week. According to then-acting commissioner Bud Selig, September 9 was the tentative deadline for canceling the rest of the season if no agreement was reached between the owners and players. The MLBPA offered a counterproposal to ownership on September 8 calling for a two-percent tax on the 16 franchises with the highest payrolls to be divided among the other 12 clubs. Teams in both leagues would share 25% of all gate receipts under the MLBPA's plan. The owners responded by claiming that the measures wouldn't meet the cost.
The rest of the season, including the World Series, was called off by Selig on September 14. Selig acknowledged that the strike had torn an irreparable hole in the game's fabric. The move to cancel the rest of the season meant the loss of $580 million in ownership revenue and $230 million in player salaries. In 1994, the average MLB salary was an estimated $1.2 million.
Repercussions
The Montreal Expos were enjoying the best season in their history at the time of the strike. The Expos had the best record in baseball, 74–40, and were six games ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East despite having the second-lowest payroll in MLB. Most baseball writers considered the Expos to be World Series contenders. Coincidentally, the only time that the Expos had made it to the postseason was in 1981, the last time that there was a significant players' strike in Major League Baseball. That year, Montreal had qualified by winning the second half of the season.Chicago White Sox star Frank Thomas, who wound up winning the American League's Most Valuable Player Award for the second year in a row in 1994, said "I've had a career year, but I'm not going to finish it." Tony Gwynn had a chance to be the first to finish a season over.400 since Ted Williams, as he was batting.394 at the time of the strike. The strike also cost Matt Williams of the San Francisco Giants a chance to beat Roger Maris' single season home run record. When the strike forced the cancellation of the remaining 47 games of the season, Williams had already hit 43 home runs, on pace to match Maris' single season record of 61 home runs. Cleveland Indians second baseman Carlos Baerga was unable to extend his record two-year streak of 20 home runs, 200 hits, and 100 RBIs by a second baseman because of the strike. Seattle Mariners star Ken Griffey Jr., who led the American League with 40 home runs at the time of the strike, summed it up by saying, "We picked a bad season to have a good year." Kevin Mitchell of the Cincinnati Reds, Julio Franco of the Chicago White Sox, and Shane Mack of the Minnesota Twins opted during the strike to play in Japan in 1995.
By the third day of the strike, Cleveland Indians owner Richard Jacobs directed that all souvenirs being sold at the Indians' gift shop carrying the words "inaugural season at Jacobs Field" be sold at half price.
The Colorado Rockies were completing their last season at Mile High Stadium with an attendance of 3,281,511 through 57 home games for an average of 57,570 per game. At that pace, the team would have had a good chance of drawing over 4.6 million fans in their 81 home games if the season had continued. This would have eclipsed the major league season attendance record of 4,483,350 fans set by the Rockies only the season before.
The strike meant that fans would not witness what was described as "one of the worst division races in history." The Texas Rangers were leading the newly reformed AL West despite being 10 games under.500. The last-place California Angels were only games out despite having the second-worst record in the majors at 21 games under.500—on pace for 96 losses. In fact, the two last place teams in the other American League divisions had better records than the Rangers.
The National League's MVP award was given to Jeff Bagwell. His hand was broken by a pitch on August 10, just before the players' strike began; had the season continued, he would likely have missed the remainder of the year and might not have won the MVP. But because of the timing of his "lucky break", Bagwell became just the fourth player in National League history to win the award unanimously.
The strike caused a transaction to take an absurd turn. The Minnesota Twins traded Dave Winfield to the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later. Since the strike led to the season being canceled, no further transactions could be made until it was settled. The Twins would officially be listed as having sold Winfield to the Indians, but the actual transaction was conducted much differently. Instead of the Indians buying the contract outright, team management went out for a meal with Twins management and the Indians paid the tab; this essentially meant that Winfield had been traded for dinner.
Arguably, the biggest storyline of the strike was the New York Yankees. In having the best record in the American League, which was also the second-best record in baseball at 70-43, with a game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East, the largest division lead of any division leader, the strike cost their captain, Don Mattingly, a chance at making the postseason for the first time in his 13-year career. The Yankees had not been in the postseason since. Because the Yankees' prior postseason chances had also been cut short by a strike, news media reported on the parallels between the two Yankee teams, both of which had division leads taken away by strike actions.