It was an afternoon in July of 1981. I was getting on a bus heading towards downtown Chicago. As I walked towards my seat in the back of the bus, I recognized Chicago Cubs shortstop Ivan DeJesus. It was the first time I had ever seen a professional athlete riding public transportation. I had no idea where he was going; I only know where he should have been. That was Wrigley Field. The Cubs had a game scheduled for that day, but it was canceled due to work stoppage.

Major League Baseball lost seven hundred-thirteen games that year. When the season resumed in August, the solution was to split the schedule into two halves for the first time in major league baseball history. The first round of the playoffs featured the first-half winner of each division against the winner of the second half. This led to the two teams that had the best records in the National League, The Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals, both not making the playoffs because neither won a half. What a mess!

As far as the monetary losses, the players lost a total of $4 million a week in salary. The teams lost a total of $72 million.

You would have thought the owners would have learned something from this, but……

Fast forward to August 12, 1994. Thirteen years after the 19981 season came another work stoppage. This one not only put an end to the regular season, but it led to the cancellation of the World Series.

One of the teams most affected by this was the Montreal Expos. They had the best record in baseball. It looked like this was their best opportunity to play in the World Series. They never got the chance to find out. Many think that the team never recovered from the loss of the 1994 season. They moved to Washington D.C. in 2005.

In the American League, the New York Yankees owned the best record. The cancellation of the season cost their leader, Don Mattingly, his best chance to play post-season baseball.

When the work stoppage ended the following April, fans did not easily forgive both the owners and the players. Attendance at games was down twenty percent. Those who did show up were vocal in their disdain for both sides. Television ratings plummeted. It took until 1998 and the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race for baseball to regain its popularity.

The monetary damages in 1994 were astronomical. The players lost $230 million in salary. The teams lost $580 million in revenue.

You’d think that after this the owners would have again learned their lesson, but…..

That brings us to yesterday. Actually, it began on December 2, 2021. That’s the day ownership locked out the players. Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement had come to an end. Instead of negotiating a new contract, management decided a lockout would be the best solution. MLB’s first proposal to the players was made on January 13, 2022, almost six weeks after the lockout began.

When negotiations did begin, they were contentious from the start. I never got the feeling that ownership was serious about making a deal. It looked like they were more interested in showing that they held all the power over the union.

Yesterday, when everything broke down, commissioner Rob Manfred announced the cancellation of the season’s first two series of games. Most likely there will be more games lost. None will be made up.

While we don’t know what the monetary damages will be, plenty of people who can’t afford this will take a hit. Businesses in cities that host spring training sites will lose much-needed income. Vendors will lose game opportunities to sell products and make money. It’s only a matter of time until teams start to lay off front office staff.

The pandemic years have been horrendous for baseball. The 2020 season had only sixty games played; all without fans. The 2021 season had a full schedule but for much of the year, only a limited amount of fans were allowed to attend due to the pandemic.

2022 could have been baseball’s chance to get back to normal. It was a chance for an entire schedule with the stadiums full of fans. It was a chance for teams to recoup some of the pandemic losses of the last two years. And now, for no real legitimate reason, baseball’s owners have decided to give that up while simultaneously angering their fan base. That doesn’t seem to be the smartest way to run a business.

It’s 2022 and by now you’d think that baseball’s ownership would have learned their lesson, but…..

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