Member-only story
How The 1995 MLB Season Nearly Killed Baseball
And how the Steroid Era saved it
In August of 1994, Major League Baseball (MLB) players went on strike. The players rejected the collective bargaining agreement that was supposed to go into effect beginning in 1995. The result was the cancellation of the remainder of the 1994 season (900+ games), the postseason, and even the World Series. The 1994 World Series was the first to be scrapped since the 1904 World Series which didn’t go because of a lack of clarity about the agreement. (The first modern World Series was played in 1903.)
The strike damaged the MLB’s image and credibility. Many players thought that the fans would be on their side throughout the dispute, but were shocked to learn the opposite. Fans, advertisers, and media companies flinched and backed away from the strike, which was almost universally seen as poor taste.
Eventually, the owners and players came to an agreement, but the damage had been done. With no World Series and no conclusion to the 1994 season, many fans were left with a bitter taste in their mouths going into 1995.
The 1995 season was rescheduled to contain 144 games rather than the traditional 162 games.
When games did finally resume on April 25th, 1995, everyone fully expected the fans to come pouring back…
