Happy Strike Day!

Oh boy, did Major League Baseball have a heckuva good thing going on this date in 1994: Tony Gwynn chasing .400, Matt Williams approaching 61 home runs, Frank Thomas aiming for the Triple Crown, the Expos holding the best record while drawing over 30,000 fans for mid-week games, the American League West setting a new standard for ineptitude (the Rangers held first place at 10 games UNDER .500).

We all know how that turned out.

Twenty-one years later, it still stands as a one-of-a-kind fiasco/disaster/clusterfuck. Only those unique, titanic egos -- Selig, Fehr, Reindorf and the rest -- could have possibly allowed this to happen. Talk about a moment in time never to to be repeated.

The owners share the huge brunt of the blame, per this story from last year. Their demands to the MLBPA included, in addition to a salary cap: abolishing salary arbitration, reducing players' share of revenues from 56 to 50 percent and splitting players' licensing revenues with owners. What self-respecting player -- indoctrinated into the Union in the wake of Curt Flood, free agency and colusion -- would have even considered that? No wonder Gwynn, to his dying day, didn't regret walking off the field for seven months.

Major League Baseball: We only succeed in spite of ourselves

 

I hope the game survives.

 

The leader in the AL West was 10 games under? Wow.

The NBA Eastern Conference bows in their general direction. As does the NFC South.

 

Not even the Rangers will claim that 1994 championship.

 

And my first place Yankees will have the same result as they did then- no playoffs.