I miss baseball, like really badly. I have filled my days with baseball podcasts, baseball books, and lots of MLB The Show. However, these simulations can only hold their own for so long without the real game happening. As of right now, opening day will not happen until at least the middle of May. That means we will get an abbreviated season, if we’re lucky. This isn’t the first time there has been an abbreviated season. Let’s take a short walk through previous shortened seasons in Major League Baseball.
1994-1995 Work Stoppage
The players officially went on strike on August 12, 1994. The result was the cancellation of the rest of the regular season and the entire playoffs. It was the first time since 1904 that the World Series was cancelled. The strike began when the owners wanted to implement a salary cap and revenue sharing from local broadcasts in order to improve equity within the league. The owners approved this amendment on July 18, 1994, but it still required the player’s approval. They could not come to an agreement by the imposed strike date of August 12, so the players walked away. The strike ultimately lasted until April 2, 1995.
The strike hurt the Montreal Expos the most out of any team. They had the league’s best record at 74-40 and had a lineup including Moises Alou, Cliff Floyd, and now Hall of Famer, Larry Walker. Their pitching staff also included Ken Hill and 22 year old Pedro Martinez. It cost Matt Williams a chance to break Roger Maris’s single season home run record, and cost Tony Gwynn the chance at hitting .400 (he was hitting .394 at the time of the strike).
1981 Work Stoppage
There was also a work stoppage in 1981, with the players going on strike against the owners. The strike began on May 29, 1981 when the MLBPA voted unanimously to go on strike because of unfair free agency compensation. Unlike like 1994, this strike did not result in the entire regular season being cancelled. They reached an agreement on July 31 and play was able to resume. As a result, they split the season into two halves, where the team that was in first at the end of each half would play each other in the League Division series (this was a one off event, the LDS was not fully implemented until 1994). There were a lot of issues with this format and would require a whole other blog post to explain in detail. Ironically, the only time the Expos (not the Nationals) would make the playoffs during their 36 years in Montreal was during this season.
1973, 1976, and 1980
There were work stoppages as well during these three seasons. The main difference between these and 1981 and 1994, was that there were no regular season games cancelled.
2020
Obviously, I do not need to explain why we may get an abbreviated season this year. A virus is far different than a work stoppage due to a strike, but we will still miss out on great baseball. There will be many questions that will go unanswered because of the potentially abbreviated season. Is this it for Albert Pujols? Miguel Cabrera? Was King Felix going to bounce back in Atlanta? What about Mike Trout? How many Hall of Famers was he going to pass this year in career WAR (currently at 72.8, which is already above Derek Jeter’s career WAR).
And of course, how would the Astros be treated when games resume? Will people forget about the “banging scheme” because they’re just happy baseball is back? Or will they get the same treatment?
Lots of questions and ones that can only be answered if and when games return in 2020.
-Pete Chatterton (@Pchat12)
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