The 1994 World Series

I mentioned yesterday that I found a group of All Star Game and World Series baseballs for sale at Citi Field. One of them caught my attention to the point where I felt I HAD to take it home (don't worry, I did pay for it):

To explain why I felt so compelled to buy this, lets start by talk about unions.

Y'see kids, many workers are part of things called unions. These unions are in place to protect workers for various reasons (injury, healthcare, etc.), and are in many, MANY industries - including the sports world.

Pretty much all major sports leagues in the world have things called player's unions. These unions are in place to help the players in their dealings with team owners - especially for fringe guys as they're more at the mercy of the executives who are trying to build winning organizations. Typically, a league and its player's union have what's known as a Collective Bargaining Agreement (henceforth known as a CBA), which dictates various rules that the two sides have to follow in their dealings with one another¹.

In 1993, the CBA between Major League Baseball and its players union (the aptly named MLB Players Union) expired. Therefore, the two sides entered 1994 without a CBA, but games continued to be played (which is actually fairly unusual). However, midway through the MLB season, negotiations broke down between MLB and the players union, and on August 12, 1994, the players went on strike. Thus, the 1994 season came to a grinding halt and never resumed, so the 1994 World Series - i.e. the World Series THIS baseball was made for - never happened. However, I assume this ball exists because the baseballs for said series had to be made months in advance so that they'd be ready for the 1994 World Series.

The strike dragged on into 1995, where some games were played using replacement players. I don't know fully how this worked, but the thing I think is important is that these replacement players were barred from joining the MLB Players Association. One of the more notable replacement players was current MLB Network analyst Kevin Millar, who was famously one of the "faces" of the 2004 Red Sox; I remember going to Baltimore in 2008 (he was an Oriole at the time) and trying to find a shirt with his name and number on it only to learn later that the Orioles couldn't sell things with his likeness due to him not being in the MLBPA.

Coincidentally, the Washington Nationals - the team I saw beat the Mets a few days ago - would likely not exist had the strike not happened; they were the Montreal Expos at the time and had the best record in baseball when the season stopped. Had they not stopped playing, it's likely the attention they would have received in a championship chase would have spurred the city to get them a new stadium, as their stadium was widely regarded as HIGHLY subpar². Instead, the Montreal Expos were never able to repeat that 1994 success, and thus never received that stadium. Then, after a series of mismanagement issues including the team almost being folded, they eventually moved to DC in 2005 (but as a Bostonian...thanks for Pedro!).

As for why THIS post exists, it's not just to reminisce about 1994, because the thing is...we could very easily be headed in the same direction.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLB and its players union is set to expire after this season, and MAJOR issues between the two could cause a lockout (the technical term for this type of work stoppage) that many believe could be EXTREMELY lengthy. Probably the biggest issue lies with player salaries: MLB is the only major league in North America without a limit on how high salaries can go, which means that teams that have/make a lot of money can dominate the league simply by buying the best players as the smaller teams can't afford them (though it doesn't always work - case in point: the two New York teams being at opposite ends of MLB's current standings). This was also at issue in 1994, but the valuation of players and teams has EXPLODED in the 30+ years since then, and the gaps between big and small markets is at the point where you can basically pencil in annual standings predictions based on payroll (though again...Mets). Owners are hoping to institute a salary cap to (hopefully) even things out, while the players don't want to see their potential paydays getting cut. Therefore, there's a growing fear that a work stoppage is looming next year - and with divisions high even WITHIN the two groups (MLB and the Players Association), no one knows how many games will be lost.

While work stoppages are not exactly "uncommon" in the North American sports world, I've mentioned in the past that there are massive issues currently surrounding baseball in the United States. The fear is that a lockout would kill most people's interest in a sport that already has perception issues - especially as speculation indicates the impending one could take A WHILE to resolve.

The NHL infamously lost a whole season 20 or so years ago (right around the time I started following sports more closely), and it still hasn't recovered from it. Yes, the sport is growing in places once thought to be incompatible with hockey (not including Phoenix³), but media coverage continues to be lukewarm at best, and it is still FAR behind the other sports in terms of popularity.

The last thing MLB wants is to be treated like the NHL: a sport the media views as largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. However, with the NFL being the NFL, the NBA still having LeBron James (for now), and the rise of soccer in the US (though MLS is a different story altogether), who knows what damage could end up being done if MLB loses a season due to labor unrest...

As an aside, you can expect a LOT of content on this blog this month, because I'm going to be BUSY. I started a BlueSky account for this blog, and while it's largely going to be announcements of new posts, I may do other things there in the future (as well as use other social media).