Let me recap what's happened in the past few months. After a long winter, spring training started on its usual schedule. Then, disaster struck, as the COVID-19 pandemic left its mark on athletes and fans alike. This has had an enormous detrimental effect on the economic structure of the league.
Taking the current economic situation into account, MLB owners have come up with a detailed plan for the resumption of play. As is usually the case, the sticking point is over one not-so-simple area of concern; money.
You see, the deal that would get us back to baseball includes what is known as a "revenue split". Put in basic terms, half of the money made this season would go to the players, and the other half to team ownerships. The MLBPA ("Major League Baseball Players Association", the players' labor union) has balked at this proposal, calling it a "non-starter". (1) This raises a very ugly prospect, which is the possibility of a player strike.
For the past twenty-six years or so, there has bee a period of relative labor peace between MLB owners and players. (2) This is largely because of the events of 1994, the last time that the players held a major strike. As it is now, the question then was over money; specifically, how much the players should be paid, and if there should be a salary cap.
Let's quickly review what happened as a result of that season's strike.
- In a shocking development, Acting Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig canceled the post-season, including the World Series.
- Genuine distrust developed between the players' union and team ownerships.
- The Montreal Expos, who had MLB's best record that season, failed to bring a championship to Montreal.
- Also in Montreal, the Expos slid into futility, making their relocation (to Washington) inevitable.
- "Replacement players" took the field for the first week or so of the 1995 season.
- MLB's fan base, angered by what they saw as greed on both sides, stayed away from stadiums for the first few months of 1995.
That's not to say everything that resulted from this strike was bad.
The Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins were approved as expansion teams, MLB moved to its current divisional format, and interleague play was instituted (whether you think that's a good thing or not). However, the detrimental effects of the 1994 strike vastly outweighed the good results; some of those consequences are still felt today. It is my belief that the only thing that saved baseball as we know it was the 1996 home run race (where Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased down the single-season record, then held by Roger Maris).
Now, a final point. If I might give a few words of advice to today's MLBPA, they would be in the words of "Worf" from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"; "consider what you do here".
Nobody wants a strike to happen, as it will not only hurt players and owners, but the game at large. Any strike will likely be a prolonged one, and legitimately put the future of the league in jeopardy. With everything else going on around baseball right now, are you willing to risk the end of your careers, just for the sake of getting paid a little more? And are you willing to bet that things will improve because of this strike?
Personally, that's not a bet that I'm inclined to take.
Sources:
1. Passan, J. (2020, May 12). Passan's 20 questions: Why financial battle over 2020 MLB season is about to get really, really ugly. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29161983/passan-20-questions-why-financial-battle-2020-mlb-season-get-really-really-ugly
2. Personal knowledge.
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