Perhaps no sports strike affected the American psyche quite like this one. The 1994 baseball strike saw the World Series canceled for the first time since 1904, and spurred allegations of greed on both the players’ and owners’ parts.
Lasting 232 days, the strike was sparked by club owners’ demands for a salary cap. In the end, the owners lost this one, with players going back to work under their old contracts.
Boland says the strike hurt baseball beyond the missed games, as revenues and attendance dropped in the subsequent seasons.
“It took the home-run era, the steroid era, and its aftermath to really return its fans,” he says.
