With baseball on the verge of canceling games due to a labor dispute, now is as good of a time as any to revisit the league’s most famous work stoppage. The strike-shortened 1994 MLB season was interesting for a number of reasons. Of course, everything being called off in August would put an end to those storylines.
This was the first season of six divisions in MLB with the Montreal Expos most notably on top of the rejigged NL East and likely to secure a playoff spot. Elsewhere, Alex Rodriguez made his big league debut for the Seattle Mariners, Tony Gwynn was flirting with .400 and Julio Franco was a spry 35-years old. Oh, and there was Matt Williams chasing Roger Maris and the single-season home run record.
The strike-shortened 1994 MLB season is arguably baseball’s biggest what if. And with so much happening back then, there are probably a few things you don’t remember.
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Things you may not remember about the strike-shortened 1994 MLB season
Darryl Strawberry swaps LA for SF
This was not a great time for Darryl Strawberry. Before the 1994 season started, he told the Los Angeles Dodgers about his drug problem and was sent to the Betty Ford Center to sort things out. The club released him in May after those overseeing his rehab recommended he play elsewhere. This meant The Simpsons star was free to sign anywhere.
The San Francisco Giants found themselves under .500 and squandering an epic season from Matt Williams. With few options on the market, they signed Strawberry in July. He played 29 games in total for the team and didn’t really do much. It’s also incredibly weird seeing him in a Giants uniform.
A sub .500 division champ
A division champion finishing the season with a losing record happens in football but isn’t something seen in baseball. It would have happened in 1994 had the strike never occurred. The Texas Rangers were leading the AL West with a record of 52-62. The A’s were one game back.
While not impossible, the most likely outcome would have been a sub .500 division champ. This would have been a terrible look for baseball which was trying to justify adding more teams to the playoffs. As for the team with the worst record to reach the postseason in the sport’s history, the 2005 NL West champion San Diego Padres finished 82-80.
Stolen bases are still a thing
In 2021, there were five players who topped 30 stolen bases. And they needed 162 games to do it. In 1994, ten guys accomplished the feat in 50-ish less game. Deion Sanders, Kenny Lofton, Otis Nixon and Craig Biggio were among the pros to have swiped 30 bags before the season was called off.
Mile High bids farewell to baseball
When Mile High Stadium was built, its sole purpose was for baseball. With Denver getting a professional football team in 1960, the venue was adjusted to be able to accommodate its new tenant in addition to the Triple-A side.
Eventually, the Mile High City would land an MLB franchise and the Colorado Rockies spent their first two seasons playing at Mile High Stadium. They weren’t very good, but the people of Denver didn’t seem to mind. Colorado set the single season baseball attendance record in 1993 and was on track to break it in 1994 until…well…you know what happened.
Kevin Mitchell’s renaissance
The man who once proclaimed he was too large to wear a cup found himself in the midst of a career renaissance in 1994. Kevin Mitchell was one of those baseball players who made the game great in the late 1980s/early 1990s because he was both good and wildly unprofessional. That did catch up with him after his second consecutive all-star appearance in 1990 as he seemed to be drinking and partying his way out of the league.
And then 1994 came along and Mitchell appeared reborn. He swatted 30 dingers, drove in 77 runs and hit .326 for the Cincinnati Reds. It looked like the 1989 MVP was back even if the strike ended his season. That wasn’t the case. The former Giant headed over to Japan in 1995, got hurt and returned to the majors in 1996, doing next nothing before retiring in 1998.
