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1994 BASEBALL STRIKE.
Term Paper ID:25726
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Essay Subject:
Examines major league strike, issues, union & management stands, short-term & long-term effects on players, fans, owners.... More...
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7 Pages / 1575 Words
5 sources, 13 Citations,
TURABIAN Format
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Paper Abstract:
Examines major league strike, issues, union & management stands, short-term & long-term effects on players, fans, owners.
Paper Introduction:
This study will examine the 1994 strike in major league baseball in 1994 and the long-term results of that strike. The argument of the study is that while the strike was devastating to baseball in 1994, shortening two seasons in 1994 and 1995, by 1998 the long-term damage done to the game had been almost entirely eliminated.
The basic issue of the salary cap was one which in the first place was not of great interest to fans, and whatever damage was done by the strike was undone in large part because of the excitement generated in 1998 by the home-run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, but also because. for better or worse, baseball remains the national pastime and fans of the sport eventually forget, or at least forgive, and return to the game with as much fervor as ever.
Text of the Paper:
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It has effectively taken over the running of the game, especially now that baseball's owners have eliminated the job of commissioner. .[11] Not only did the strike not still fans' passions for the game in thelong run (if the 1998 season can be considered the "long run" relative tothe 1994 strike), it did not even have much of a short-term effect. . "The Greatest Season Ever." Sports Illustrated, October5, 1998, 38-52.----------------------- [1]"Fans Resigned as Season Ends." The News and Observer Publishing,July 3 , 1994. http://www.nando.net/newsroom/baseball/strike.html [6]Ibid. What was accomplished? Metzenbaum inserted a note ofhumor, but it also served the purpose of showing the people that he was notmerely a lawmaker but was also, and perhaps more importantly, a fan of theteam from his state: "I'm not doing this just because the Cleveland Indiansare within striking distance of first place."[2] There is no doubt at the time that the fans were strongly against thestrike, perceiving the issue as one in which extremely wealthy individualsbickered over money at the expense of the fans: "We are still trying to head the strike off," [one fan] said. While the owners have been unable to get together on anything--other than their notion in 1994 that if they forced another strike, they could crush the union once and for all--the players' solidarity has become something that must make the boys at the Teamsters weep with envy. . "The players were on strike, they made an unconditional offer to come back, and we accepted that offer." However, the owners did not obtain a no-strike promise from the union, leaving open the possibility that players could walk out again late this season if owners again threaten to impose a salary cap.[5] Of course, the strike was not resumed and the sport of baseball beganits long road back into the hearts and minds of the American people, thefans, who are the ones who ultimately provide the wealth over which theplayers and owners battled: "Far more difficult than getting players backon the field may be the job baseball faces of restoring the country's faithin the game."[6] Clinton proved unable to end the strike, but he did voicethe views of most fans when he called the owners and players "just a fewhundred folks trying to figure out how to divide nearly $2 billion."[7] The strike eliminated the last 52 days and 669 games of the 1994season, canceled the World Series (the first time since 19 4) and alsoeliminated the first 252 games of the 1995 season, raising the total ofgames lost to 921. . The longest and costliest work stoppage in the history of professional sports ended Sunday night when owners accepted the union's offer to play without an agreement. . However, thestandard is measured not by talent but by the overall income of baseball,through tickets and television. As stated previously, fans were not irrevocably turned off from thegame, and in fact baseball was perhaps more popular in 1998 than it hadever been previously. April 3,1995. New York: Putnam's, 1996."Play Ball." The News & Observer and Associated Press. But they always go back. "When you hear millionaires arguing with millionaires instead of looking at the scores, they're killing the golden goose."[3] Of course, there were individuals who were not wealthy and who wouldbe deeply hurt financially by the strike: "Fans who work at games will behurt by a strike. The basic issue of the salary cap was one which in the first placewas not of great interest to fans, and whatever damage was done by thestrike was undone in large part because of the excitement generated in 1998by the home-run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, but also because.for better or worse, baseball remains the national pastime and fans of thesport eventually forget, or at least forgive, and return to the game withas much fervor as ever. At the same time,the involvement of the Senators indicates the sense in the nation that thiswas not merely another strike, but rather one which touched the nerve ofthe nation. [4]Ibid. Hallelujah![13] Bibliography"Fans Resigned as Season Ends." The News and Observer Publishing, July3 , 1994. April 3, 1995.http://www.nando.net/newsroom/baseball/strike.htmlRosentraub, Mark S. . Replacement players were sent packing. For the money Selig, the CEO of baseball, lost for himself and his fellow owners, he should have been fired, too. Mad as Hell. The 1994 strike was the fifth in the major leagues since 1972. Because they need their games, that's why.[9] One of the owners' indirect goals in forcing the salary cap issue in1994 and, in effect, creating the strike, was the weakening of the players'union. "I don't regard it as a surrender," acting commissioner Bud Selig said following a 4 1/2-hour owners meeting. Whatever kind of deal Fehr would eventually make for his members, he had presided over such a major financial calamity for so many of them he should have been fired. . 12, ended the strike Friday -- the 232nd day -- afterU.S. [5] "Play Ball." The News & Observer and Associated Press. Cardinals and Cubs games had the feel of revival meetings. New York: BasicBooks, 1997.Verducci, Tom. So did [union head Donald] Fehr's players. Whileoverall team income was down in 1995, even taking into account theshortened season, Mark Rosentraub notes that baseball hardly went broke in1995, taking in an average of $5 million per team.[12] The income of baseball, for both team owners and players, as well asthe television outlets, has increased every year since the strike, and ifthere were any doubt that the anger of the fans had subsided in subsequentyears, that doubt was smashed to smithereens by the incredible year of1998. [1 ]Ibid., 153. . Lupica argues that not only was this goal not accomplished, thestrengthening of the union was an inadvertent result of the owners'vehemence: The modern sports union, and that really means baseball's union, because it is the model for all other sports, has not just made its members rich, beefed up their pensions, given players their rightful share of television money and merchandising money, improved their medical coverage, blah blah blah. [7]Ibid. Theproduct is entertainment, and as long as consumers are paying money towatch that entertainment, and television is paying money to broadcast it,then the business is doing well. [13]Tom Verducci, "The Greatest Season ever," Sports Illustrated,October 5, 1998, 44.----------------------- 9 "The premise is the owners and players are walking out on fans. The season, which had been scheduled to start Sunday night, will begin April 26 and each team will play 144 games, 18 fewer than the usual. Major League Losers. http://www.nando.net/newsroom/baseball/strike/fans.htmlLupica, Mike. We're walking out on them." He said a baseball strike could turn his children and other young people into fans of other sports. [12]Mark S. . The owners would not pay salaries which aregoing to bankrupt them, and no owner has yet declared bankruptcy. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, tried to bring the pressure of the federal government on baseball by introducing legislation "to encourage serious negotiations to prevent a strike." The measure doesn't force any resolution and "doesn't tip the balance in favor of the owners or the players," said Metzenbaum, who tried earlier in the season to lift the antitrust exemption enjoyed by baseball as a means to averting a strike.[1] However, the actions of the Senators, and even the attemptedintervention of President Bill Clinton, were to no avail. Twenty years into free agency, these assholes couldn't figure out a way to cut up a $2 billion pie. The owners of baseball teams and the players of baseball are allrelatively wealthy individuals who are not profoundly affected by strikes.The only question from their point of view is the degree of wealth theywill enjoy as a result of the business. . Certainlyboth players and owners lost money during the strike itself, as Lupicamakes clear: The owners lost a ton. Nevertheless, when the strike took place in 1994, and when itcontinued to reverberate through the next season, there was no doubt thatthe game was being hurt in the eyes of the fans. This study will examine the 1994 strike in major league baseball in1994 and the long-term results of that strike. http://www.nando.net/newsroom/baseball/strike/fans.html [2]Ibid. Why? There is another strike, they cancel the World Series in 1994, and all across the country you hear this from fans: That's it, these people have gone too far this time, I've had enough, I'm never going back to the ballpark. [9]Mike Lupica, Mad as Hell (New York: Putnam's, 1996), 6. [8]Ibid. Tom Verducci, writing in Sports Illustrated, puts the 1998 season inperspective and relates it tellingly to the strike of 1994: The chase by McGwire and Sosa of Maris's record of 61 home runs--and then of each other--spread the religion of baseball. America has its baseball back. As Major League Baseball played what might be its final day of the season Thursday, they tried to handle the disappointment of the imminent players' strike. Vendors, security people and ushers, for example, willlose significant amounts of income during a strike."[4] Some fans blamed ballplayers' greed, while other fans believed thatteam owners had been careless with their money when they signed players topreposterous salaries, not thinking of the future and then, when the futurearrived, trying to change the game plan with the salary cap. TheNews & Observer summarizes: After 234 days, more than $8 million in losses, . Rosentraub, Major League Losers (New York: Basicbooks,1997), 389. The cap limits overallsalary output per team, but the monstrous contracts make clear that evenmediocre players are overpaid, if talent is the standard. [3]Ibid. Therefore, the question of how the1994 strike affected the game is largely a matter of how it affected thefans. Watches the worst set of caretakers in baseball's history--the current crop of owners--do everything to what was once this country's national pastime except throw gasoline and set it on fire. The bill which was introduced by Senators Metzenbaum and Hatchwas called the Baseball Fans Protection Act. . "What they are doing is ruining it for the next generation," he said. In all of baseball's work stoppages in the 197 s and '8 s and '9 s, not a single player has crossed a picket line.[1 ] To say that little changes in terms of the players' and owners'access to wealth is somewhat misleading, however. The argument of the study isthat while the strike was devastating to baseball in 1994, shortening twoseasons in 1994 and 1995, by 1998 the long-term damage done to the game hadbeen almost entirely eliminated. The only way the game or business of baseball would be changedradically from the owners and players point of view is if the fans wereirrevocably driven away from the game, turned off from the sight ofwatching rich and very rich individuals fight over their millions andmillions of dollars. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction forcing owners tocontinue the work rules of the expired agreement."[8] One might expect that the fans would carry for a long time theresentment built up in response to the strike, but in fact that is not whathas occurred. Just as the strike, either in the short-term or long-term,did not essentially change the financial situations of millionaire andmulti-millionaire owners and players, neither did it, at least in the longrun, change the loyalty of the fans toward the game. Sens. And baseball, a setup line to cruel jokes during and after the 1994-95 strike, regained its honor. [11]Ibid., 161. When one speaks ofbaseball, one is speaking of an enormous corporate business enterprise. Mike Lupica, decidedly anti-strike, writes the following in his bookMad as Hell: The fan does what he has always done: He sits back and watches it happen. In the article "Fans resigned as season 'ends'," The News & Observerwrites of the last day that baseball was played before the strike began: Fans in high places and fans in the upper sections of stadiums knew it was coming. Still, the strike ended only because of a court ruling: "Players, whowalked out last Aug. Essentially, very little, exceptthat the owners and players all realized that such a strike would never bedesirable again in the future. Hardly anyone complained about the length of games or nitpicked about Nielsen ratings.
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