The 1994 MLB Strike Was Way Worse Than You Remember

Comments · 762

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  @514bro · 9 months ago · pinned

  Yeah I&apos;m pretty sure I have a better perspective than most. I was in my 3rd Minor league season in 1994. Unlike the MLB, we were non union players so we played the season out as usual. The strike carried over to spring training 1995. Along with the contracts sent out in January, minor league players were given the option to either show up to minor league camp as usual... Or to show up at big league camp as replacement (scab) players &amp; all the benefits that entailed. The downside for players to go as replacements is they would have to deal with the backlash from the current players on strike when they eventually returned. What was not well known at the time is many teams did not get the response from minor league players they expected, and had to run open tryouts to get the numbers they needed to run big league camp. Some of those guys were college players who graduated without being drafted. Some teams ended up adding 30 something dads playing softball. It got pretty comical. <br>I was caught in no man&apos;s land. I&apos;m Canadian, which excluded me or any other non Americans to be replacement players as it violated US labor laws. So minor league camp for the Cardinals was me &amp; 60 Latino players lol. <br>Behind the scenes - to make the offer a bit sweeter for scabs - was to guarantee all scab players a spot on a minor league team when the strike ended. <br>I showed up to camp in the best shape of my life &amp; finally rid of injuries that plagued me the previous 2 seasons. I led all players with . 338 avg. &amp; most RBIs. The rosters were posted on the second last day of camp. I was pumped to be headed to Little Rock our AA affiliate. I go back to the hotel, call my family &amp; friends. <br>The next morning we show up for the final workout before. As we arrived, there was an announcement telling guys not to get dressed, the farm director would be out to address the players. I noticed the rosters posted the previous day were no longer on the wall. I thought oh well, regardless of what he has to say, I played my way on to a roster somewhere. <br>He walks out, says the strike ended late last night. We are obligated to place 35 of the replacement players on minor league rosters &amp; new rosters are being posted shortly. Should your name not appear on a roster, come to the office &amp; we will have a check for your travel home. I was shocked. My name wasn&apos;t on any roster. I sat there frozen to my chair. The manager for AA team comes and takes me outside. He had tears in his eyes. He said these rosters were decided at the start of camp. It didn&apos;t matter if you hit . 700 this spring.. they made these decisions on last years numbers. He said I want you to know I fought for you &amp; so did 2 other coaches. In the end, we are all expendable. <br>I called my agent, I asked him to start calling other teams. He said I&apos;ve been taking calls from players the last hour. Every team is dumping 30-40 players, nobody even wants to talk about adding players. <br><br>That&apos;s it. A silver lining however - it was the start of independent teams &amp; I went on to have 4 outstanding seasons there including becoming a player/manager in my 4th year. That opened doors for me &amp; I went on to work as a scout &amp; high performance instructor. I started my instruction program with 10 kids playing 11u. Of those 10, 2 of them were recently taken in the MLB draft In July - 1 of them was my own kid. <br><br>Everything happens for a reason. Merry Christmas everyone!

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• GR

  @gremlinfinger5964 · 9 months ago

  Bobby Bonilla is STILL getting paychecks and he hasn&apos;t played in 20 years! 😂

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• WE

  @weasol · 1 month ago

  Don&apos;t forget, Rob Manfred was an attorney for the owners during the strike. This off-season has a high likelihood of getting very, VERY bad. Oh, and Jerry&apos;s still around doing Jerry stuff.

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• CL

  @CLuTcH_MaChiiNe · 9 months ago

  If player labor is capped so should my tickets and hot dogs.

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• VE

  @Vet1kFlannelkit · 9 months ago

  This until the 2004-05 NHL lockout wiped out the entire season and the Cup Final.

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• JG

  @jgkidd82 · 9 months ago

  Selig never should have been named MLB commissioner.

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• PA

  @PappyWoods · 4 months ago

  The Twins trading a player for dinner is the most Twins thing I’ve ever heard.

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• K.

  @k.s.nichols4060 · 9 months ago

  Another issue is that, into the eighties and nineties, owners were primarily tied up in ownership of the team as their business. &nbsp;Now, owning the team is a fraction of their portfolio.

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• CO

  @CommandoCQC · 9 months ago

  This is why I hate writers that talk about the “Integrity of Baseball.” There is none in the MLB

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• NA

  @NathanMoist · 9 months ago

  Bobby Bonilla is still making millions to this day lol.

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• BL

  @bluedevil213 · 8 months ago

  What&apos;s crazy is that Bud Selig made a statement prior to his retirement about how he was commissioner during the &quot;Golden Era&quot; of baseball. I&apos;m not a diehard baseball fan, but even I know that the 90s was not a golden era for a sport that is known for a strike and a steroid driven home run race (Sosa/ McGwire).

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• BA

  @barontaylor7139 · 9 months ago

  It basically killed the Montreal Expos

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