Baseball: History, Players, & Coaching: 1994 Strike

Looking back at the 1994 major league baseball players' strike: Who was right, who was wrong and why it is still helping baseball today.

It was the summer of 1994, and, on the field, baseball was thriving. Pennant races were developing. The Yankees were in a revival. The Expos looked like they might make history -- and, in hindsight, possibly save baseball in Montreal. Players were having spectacular seasons, none better than future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who at .394 was chasing the first season with a .400 batting average since Ted Williams in 1941. Minor leaguers awaited a September call-up, in some cases to make their major league debuts. And kids everywhere, including a 9-year-old from Visalia, California, were living life through baseball.

Article on the baseball strike from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

From player salaries to performance-enhancing drugs, baseball’s latter days have seen more than their share of controversy and confusion. This program covers the period from the 1994 player strike through the 2009 Major League season. Ample attention is given to the steroid problem, with a focus on Barry Bonds—both his stellar career and the scandal in which he became embroiled. But the film also discusses other major issues, such as how the sport rebounded from its 1994 debacle, the return to prominence of the Yankees, the influence of international players (specifically Dominican and Japanese athletes), and the drama of the 2003 and 2004 American League Championship Series. Distributed by PBS Distribution.

This is video footage of President Clinton's remarks to the press after meeting with Major League Baseball representatives regarding the 1994-1995 Major League Baseball strike. This footage is official public record produced by the White House Television (WHTV) crew, provided by the Clinton Presidential Library.

219 articles about the 1994 baseball strike.

The delay to the start of the 2020 Major League Baseball season isn't the first time a chunk has been carved out of a season in the sport's history. The league lost games eight other times. One of the best stories for historical background is posted at NBC Sports. Writer Craig Calcaterra did a good job summarizing the shortened seasons, including the World War Iaffected 1918 season, which, because rosters were depleted as a result of players enlisting or getting drafted, was hacked off at 126 games played (more or less) on Sept. 2. It also resulted in the first and only World Series played in September, won by the soon-to-be-cursed Boston Red Sox. (The Red Sox would not win a World Series again until 2004.) The 1919 season, despite the fact that the war ended in November 1918, was also shortened as teams awaited players who were coming back from military service.

In summer 1993, major league baseball fans set an attendance record, thanks in part to the arrival of the expansion Rockies and Marlins. Without a players strike in 1994, that momentum could have led to untold gains at the turnstile as the nation rolled into the economic boom of the late '90s. One thing is for certain--Cal Ripken's pursuit of Lou Gehrig and Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's pursuit of Roger Maris wouldn't have been needed to "save" baseball. On-field milestones still would have been a boost to the sport, but the boost would have been from an already sky-high level. What if the players hadn't walked out?