1994 World Series
The 1994 World Series was canceled on September 14 of that year due to an ongoing strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association, which had begun on August 12. It was only the second time in the event's history (the first was 1904) that the Fall Classic was not played.
Several teams were poised to break long-standing postseason droughts in 1994, as they were in leading positions for playoff slots when play was interrupted, but did not get the chance due to the cancellation of the postseason. Most of these teams continued their success and made postseason breakthroughs in 1995 or 1996. However, the Montreal Expos, who had the best record in baseball in 1994, never regained that level of success and many, including the team's owner, blamed the strike as playing a key role in the demise of baseball in Montreal and the 2004 move of the Expos to Washington, D.C.
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[edit] Overview
[edit] Montreal Expos
The Montreal Expos, at 74–40, held the best record in baseball at season's end. The Expos were poised to enter the postseason for only the second time in their 26-year history. A championship would have been the first in their history, and the third consecutive (and third total) World Series for a Canadian team after the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993. An All-Canadian World Series featuring the Expos and the Blue Jays would have been very unlikely, with the defending champion Blue Jays slumping to a third place finish and a 55–60 record at the cancellation of the season, 16 games behind the Yankees.
Some, such as the then-majority owner of the Expos, Claude Brochu, in his book My Turn at Bat, blamed the strike for the ultimate demise and relocation of the Montreal Expos.[1] Several sports publications have speculated Montreal would have won the Series had it been played.[2][3] The team was forced to trade many of its players to deal with the loss of revenue following the strike, and never again reached the same level of success it had in 1994.
That season was Felipe Alou's chance to finally manage a team in the World Series. The Expos averaged 72 victories over the next six seasons (their best seasons after 1994 were an 88 win season in 1996 and an 83 win season in 2002) and Alou was fired in 2001.[1] After the 2004 season, the team moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals.
[edit] New York Yankees
The New York Yankees, at 70–43, had the best record in the American League and the team's captain, Don Mattingly, could have been in the postseason for the first time during his 13-year career.[4][5] The Yankees had not been to the postseason since 1981,[4][6][7] and had not won a World Series since 1978,[8] their longest drought of either kind since 1920.[6] Mattingly had led active players in both games played and at bats without playing in the postseason.[9][10]
Because the Yankees were last in a postseason in a season interrupted by strike, they had to endure constant media reminders of the parallels between the two Yankee teams, (1981 and 1994) which included both Yankee teams having division leads taken away by strike.[6] (The 1981 season was broken into two halves due to the 1981 strike and all 1st half champions made it to the postseason.) When reacting to the strike, many fans said that the strike and the lost Yankees season was another to the blow to baseball backers in New York City, following the move of the Dodgers and the Giants to California for the 1958 season, the demise of the Yankees during the 1960s and early 1970s and 1980s and early 1990s, and the bad baseball at Shea Stadium during the late 1970s and early 1990s. They also said it was the latest to the demise and downfall of the 1980s and early 1990s.[8]
Throughout October, the news media talked about what might have been for the Yankees if there had not been a strike, making references to the days games in the post-season would have been played.[11][12]
The 1994 strike contributed to both Mattingly's retirement and the conclusion of Buck Showalter's time as manager of the Yankees.[1][7][13] Mattingly suffered from various injuries and, coupled with the strike, his career ended after the 1995 season[13] which saw the Yankees make the playoffs only to lose to the Seattle Mariners in the 1995 playoffs. The Yankees would go on to be the most successful team post strike by winning world titles in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. However, the Yankees were still reeling from the 1994 strike when they won in 1996, because many members of the 1994 team were not there in 1996 and were gone as a result of the strike.[13]
[edit] Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians
With a narrow lead in the AL West after the season's last game, the Texas Rangers were poised to possibly make the postseason for the first time in the franchise's 34-year history (23 of those years in Texas). Two years later, the Rangers finally did have their first postseason experience.
As the leader for the Wild Card position after the season's last game, the Cleveland Indians were poised to break an even longer postseason drought, possibly appearing in the postseason for the first time since the 1954 World Series. As it happened, the Indians broke that drought the following year, appearing in the 1995 World Series.
[edit] Hypothetical playoff teams
This was to have been the first year of a regularly scheduled three-tier playoff system, as the NL and AL were divided into three divisions (East, Central, and West) at the start of the 1994 season. (An unscheduled three-tier system was used in 1981 due to the season being shortened by a mid-season labor dispute.) The new playoff system (involving a wild card team in each league) did not go into effect until the 1995 postseason. Had the postseason taken place coinciding with team records on August 11, the division series would have been laid out as follows:
| Division Series ABC |
League Championship Series NBC |
World Series ABC |
|||||||||||
| East | New York Yankees | 0 | |||||||||||
| WC | Cleveland Indians | 0 | |||||||||||
| East/WC | NYY/CLE | 0 | |||||||||||
| American League | |||||||||||||
| Central/West | CHW/TEX | 0 | |||||||||||
| Central | Chicago White Sox | 0 | |||||||||||
| West | Texas Rangers | 0 | |||||||||||
| AL | AL Champion | 0 | |||||||||||
| NL | NL Champion | 0 | |||||||||||
| East | Montreal Expos | 0 | |||||||||||
| West | Los Angeles Dodgers | 0 | |||||||||||
| East/West | MON/LAD | 0 | |||||||||||
| National League | |||||||||||||
| Central/WC | CIN/ATL | 0 | |||||||||||
| Central | Cincinnati Reds | 0 | |||||||||||
| WC | Atlanta Braves | 0 | |||||||||||
[edit] Atlanta Braves' run of division titles
Because division champions from 1994 are unofficial, the Atlanta Braves are officially credited with winning 14 consecutive division titles from 1991 to 2005, winning the NL West in the final three years of the two-division system and then winning 11 consecutive NL East titles from 1995-2005. However, at the time of the season's cancellation, the Braves were in second place in the NL East at 68-46, six games behind the Montreal Expos. The 11 titles from 1995-2005 would nonetheless be an MLB record, and the Braves had a 2½-game lead over the Houston Astros for the NL wild card at the time of the season's cancellation. However, had the unplayed remainder of the 1994 season seen the Braves miss the playoffs, the Major League record for consecutive playoff appearances would now belong to the New York Yankees, who had 13 straight postseason appearances from 1995 to 2007 (and possibly 1994 would have made it 14, with the streak starting a year earlier).
[edit] "Unofficial" champions
The Associated Press writers, at the end of the aborted season, chose to name "unofficial" champions when naming their Managers of the Year as Felipe Alou and Buck Showalter, who were leading when the season abruptly ended. Traditionally, the next season's All-Star Game managers are the league champions. Because of the strike, the leagues chose to name their unofficial champion managers to the traditional honor.
[edit] Television coverage
Had the 1994 World Series been played out, it would have aired on ABC. Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, Tim McCarver and Lesley Visser would have, in all likelihood, served as the commentators. The 1994 season marked the first year of what would have been a six-year-long joint venture with Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC called "The Baseball Network." In even-numbered years, ABC would cover the Division Series and World Series, while NBC would cover the All-Star Game and League Championship Series. Likewise, in odd-numbered years, NBC would cover the Division Series and World Series, while ABC would cover the All-Star Game and LCS.
[edit] Home field advantage
The 1994 World Series was supposed to have the AL champion open at home for the second year in a row because the playoffs were expanded, including the new wild-card round.[11][14] Up to 1994, the NL champion opened the World Series at home in even-numbered years, with the AL champion doing so in odd-numbered years, with this then being reversed starting 1995 because of the missed 1994 World Series. From 1995-2002, the NL champion had home field advantage in odd-numbered years, and AL in even-numbered years. Beginning in 2003, the league that won the All-Star Game had its champion open the World Series at home.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Curry, Jack (August 26, 2002). "Lost Games, Lost Dreams". The New York Times: p. D1. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/26/sports/baseball-lost-games-lost-dreams.html?pagewanted=print.
- ^ "Revisionist Baseball - 1994 World Series Results". Revisionist Baseball. http://www.revisionistbaseball.com/1994/World_Series.htm.
- ^ "What If 1994 Was Played Out?". What if Sports?. http://www.whatifsports.com/mlb94.
- ^ a b Curry, Jack (September 15, 1994). "All the Magic Is Gone From the Yankees' Numbers". The New York Times: p. B11. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/15/sports/baseball-the-teams-all-the-magic-is-gone-from-the-yankees-numbers.html?pagewanted=print.
- ^ Eckstein, Bob (September 16, 1997). "New York's top ten worst moments in sports". The Village Voice 42 (37): 142.
- ^ a b c Curry, Jack (August 7, 1994). "BASEBALL; Flashback to '81: Another Lead, Another Strike". The New York Times: p. A1. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/07/sports/baseball-flashback-to-81-another-lead-another-strike.html?pagewanted=1&pagewanted=print.
- ^ a b Costello, Brian (August 8, 2004). "'94 Yanks Cut Short". New York Post: p. 58.
- ^ a b McShane, Larry (September 16, 1994). "Yankees Fans Left with Broken Hearts". Associated Press.
- ^ Johnson, Richard A.; Stout, Glenn; Johnson, Dick (2002). Yankees Century: 100 Years of New York Yankees Baseball. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 386. ISBN 0-618-08527-0.
- ^ "Mattingly Blames Both Sides". The New York Times: p. B11. September 16, 1994. "Mattingly...logged more career at-bats (6,545) without a playoff appearance than any other active player."
- ^ a b Lupica, Mike (October 22, 1994). "Empty Feeling". Newsday: p. A42. "The World Series was supposed to start tonight. It was supposed to start in the American League city for the second year in a row."
- ^ O'Connell, Jack (April 25, 1995). "Finishing What They Started". The Hartford Courant: p. G2. "In the lengthy and uncertain off-season, an unfair annointing was bestowed on the Yankees. To emphasize the sense of loss with no World Series, many columnists kept referring to the dates in October when the Yankees might have played a Series game. This kind of reference occurred so often, fans may have gotten the idea the Yankees were a lock for the Series. An unforeseen stumble on the way to the playoffs or in one of the newly expanded rounds of postseason play was out of the question."
- ^ a b c Amore, Dom (May 15, 2005). "Imagine: Buck's Yankees, but Not Jeter's". The Hartford Courant: p. E8.
- ^ Walker, Ben (October 23, 1994). "Game 1 of World Series passes by". Associated Press. "Because of the expanded playoffs, including the new wild-card round, the World Series schedule had been flipped this season to open again at the home of the AL champion."
[edit] External links
- Baseball players strike against proposed salary cap
- Frequently Asked Questions About the 1994 Strike
