Baseball’s last prolonged work stoppage, which halted play on Aug. 12, 1994 and led to the Sept. 14 cancellation of the World Series, offers warnings as the current collective bargaining agreement approaches its Dec. 1 expiration, according to the article. Commissioner Bud Selig described that cancellation as “terrible … horrible … terrible,” even as minor-league games continued — a Triple-A International League championship between the Richmond Braves and the Charlotte Knights was under way the day the Fall Classic was called off.
The article recounts a memorable spring of 1995 when clubs used replacement players while the majors were still on strike. Those fill-in rosters were populated largely by minor leaguers, former big leaguers and anyone available, a period described in the piece as a circus. Then-Tigers manager Sparky Anderson boycotted the exercise, and then-Yankees manager Buck Showalter called it “the worst time of my career,” criticizing the level of play and the disarray in basic fundamentals.
One clear lesson offered is blunt: do not employ replacement players and risk insulting fans by presenting substandard baseball as major-league quality, according to the article. Showalter recalled teams even sending scouts to the Mexican League to sign players amid plans to start the season with replacements.
The article also stresses the wider stakes of a lost season. It notes the 1994 Montreal Expos were 74-40 when play stopped and quotes Braves pitcher Tom Glavine and then-Expos manager Felipe Alou on what the strike cost Montreal, including the potential for a new stadium and the franchise’s long-term future. “If we had finished that season, and they kept that team together, Montreal would have a new stadium right now,” Alou said, adding that the strike “really was the end of baseball in Montreal,” according to the article.
Drawing a parallel to the present, the piece points out that the Tampa Bay Rays lead the American League but still lack a new ballpark agreement and face a lease that runs through 2027. The article notes that owners are seeking a salary cap and warns that if the players’ association does not agree, “there is a chance that some games in 2027 will be canceled, maybe the season,” according to the article.
