A look back at the strike's lasting legacy and some of the top stories making an impact on this season's playoff race.
Twenty years ago Tuesday, baseball ceased to be and didn't return for 232 days. Fortunately, there has been no such strike since to damper the drama of late-season pennant races and again change the face of baseball as we know it.
Here's a look back at the strike's lasting legacy, as well as some of the top stories making an impact on this season's playoff race:
How the 1994 strike change baseball
More than 900 games, including the entire 1994 postseason and World Series went down the drain in what became the longest work stoppage in American professional sports history. Since surpassed in length by the 2004-05 National Hockey League lockout, the 1994 strike forced lasting changes to baseball, both on and off the field.
The disagreement stemmed from team owners' perceived need for a salary cap, which would in turn limit players salaries. With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Dec. 13, 1994, the players picked Aug. 12 as the strike date, assuming the owners would give in and make a deal to keep the season going.
History suggested this plan would work out for the players, writes Sports Illustrated's Cliff Corcoran:
Seven times before, Major League Baseball had undergone a work stoppage (five of them occurring exclusively in spring training). All seven times, the owners blinked first. During the last major strike, in 1981, the owners caved in the day after their strike insurance ran out. In 1994, they couldn't get covered. The players, who saw their resistance to a salary cap as a principled stand in favor of a free market for player services consistent with their previous gains in free agency, thought they would triumph once again.
When the owners didn't back down and strike day arrived, baseball changed forever. Among the fallout, the league-best Montreal Expos missed their best chance at a World Series championship, Matt Williams' quest to top Roger Maris' single-season home run record ended, and Michael Jordan walked away from baseball and back to basketball, where he would win three more NBA championships.
But possibly worst of all was the impact the strike had on baseball's reputation, in the eyes of both fans and players: (via USAToday.com)
"I never felt the same way about baseball again after that,'' Dave Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner and then pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays, tells USA TODAY Sports. "Even today, after all of my years in baseball, the passion I have for the game has never been the same. All because of that strike.
"It was one of the most embarrassing moments that's ever happened to Major League Baseball. I wish I had never come back.''
While Maris' home run mark would be surpassed multiple times in the years that followed, one of baseball's longest-lasting and seemingly unbreakable records might have been broken in 1994 if not for the strike.
Tony Gwynn finished the season with a .394 batting average, just a handful of base hits shy of the .400 mark most recently surpassed by Ted Williams in 1941. The strike put an unceremonious end to the best run at .400 since before World War II: (via ESPN.com)
On Aug. 11, the final night of the 1994 season, with the work stoppage looming and nearly every player distracted to the point of disinterest, Gwynn went 3-for-5, hitting a single to each field, and raised his average to .394.
"From beginning to end," [then-Padres base coach Bruce] Bochy says, "it's got to be one of the most consistent seasons ever."
In an interview with San Diego magazine before his death earlier this year, Gwynn said, "To this day, I really believe I'd have hit .400."
The best thing to come out of the strike was that baseball learned from its mistakes. In the 20 years since, there have been no work stoppages and there doesn't appear to be one on the horizon.
AL Central down to the wire
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher James Shields (33) celebrates his complete game shutout against the San Francisco Giants with manager Ned Yost after a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, in Kansas City, Mo. The Royals won 5-0. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)Ed Zurga
The Royals' eight-game winning streak came to an end Tuesday, but the Tigers lost as well and the Royals remained atop the AL Central. After winning 89 games last season -- the most for the franchise since 1989 -- the Royals have won 64 games with 44 left to play and are trending in the right direction.
Monday, the Royals traded for veteran slugger Josh Willingham to plug a hole in their lineup that opened when Eric Hosmer hit the disabled list on July 31 with a broken hand. Willingham is in the middle of an extended slump at the plate that goes back to last season, but is a low risk acquisition for the Royals, writes Sports Illustrated's Jon Tayler:
All told, Willingham is a worthwhile gamble for the Royals as they try to fight their way past the Tigers in the division and hold off a trio of teams in the wild-card race. If he can shake off his summer slump, he could give Kansas City the kind of power threat it hasn't had in the recent past.
While the Royals won their way to the top of the standings, they received some help from the Tigers, who have been coming apart at the seams.
The Tigers have lost four in a row and seven of their last nine games, and it only gets worse from there. The Tigers traded for starter David Price at the trade deadline, but have since lost the services of starter Anibel Sanchez and reliever Joakim Soria, and Justin Verlander's season-long decline is looking worse by the day.
Sanchez is expected to miss three or four weeks while on the disabled list nursing a strained pectoral muscle, and Verlander is expected to miss one start while recovering from discomfort in his shoulder that arose during a one inning outing during which he surrendered five runs. (via MLive.com)
An MRI on Verlander's shoulder showed no structural damage, but the Tigers are trending downward in a bad way, writes ESPN.com's David Schoenfield:
Is it time to panic in Detroit? Absolutely. As I wrote on Sunday, the Royals have a better bullpen, better team defense and better team speed. And the rotations? The Royals have a 3.75 ERA, the Tigers 3.73 (obviously, that only includes two Price starts).
I'm not kicking the Tigers to the curb, but suddenly two-fifths of the team's biggest strength may be missing and you're looking at a Tigers team that doesn't have the depth of last year's squad, easily the best of its three division-winning teams.
Injury notes
Baltimore Orioles' Manny Machado reacts after grounding out in the third inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, in Baltimore. Machado was assisted off the field after the play. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)Patrick Semansky
• Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has a sprained ligament in his right knee, but that will be viewed as good news in Baltimore after Machado crumpled in the batter's box while trying to run out a grounder. Machado began the season on the disabled list while healing from an injury to his left knee, but hopes to avoid the disabled list this time around: (via ESPN.com)
"He was optimistic (Monday) night. I wouldn't let him be anything else," [Orioles manager Buck] Showalter said. "Unfortunately, he's had a little experience with it, so he knows the difference. He's joking around and speaking very positively."
• Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda is scheduled to start Wednesday against the Orioles in what will be his first big-league action since April 23, when he was caught using pine tar on the ball and subsequently ejected. During his 10-game suspension, Pineda injured his back throwing a simulated game and went on the disabled list. (via NJ.com)
• The Indians will be without outfielder David Murphy for four to five weeks after he strained his oblique over the weekend. First baseman Nick Swisher might be destined for the operating table to fix his sore right knee, but Swisher is seeking a second opinion. (via Cleveland.com)
• Despite injured pitcher Matt Harvey's continued assertion that he will play in a game this season, the Mets may forcibly slow Harvey's rehabilitation process and err on the side of caution. The move may be in response to a second major injury to another Mets pitcher: (via ESPN.com)
Describing a setback suffered this week by Mets pitcher Jeremy Hefner as a "cautionary story for others," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said Tuesday that he already has talked to Harvey about slowing down the ace's own recovery from Tommy John surgery. ...
"My sense is that Matt will at least take this into account, as we will," said Alderson, who already has had an initial conversation with Harvey on the subject. "My sense is he's reassessing."
• As if the Mets' injury troubles weren't bad enough already, pitcher Jacob deGrom landed on the 15-day disabled list with rotator cuff tendinitis. The diagnosis could have been much worse, however, and deGrom is expected to return to the rotation as soon as his DL stint runs out. (via NJ.com)
Around the Horn
• Orioles manager Buck Showalter has an interesting idea for what to give Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter as his parting gift during Jeter's farewell tour around the league: (via WashingtonPost.com)
"I would give him a big picture of the home run," Showalter told reporters Monday before Baltimore's 11-3 win over the Yankees. "Well, it wasn't a home run. We know that. That's what I'd give him. A big picture and have the whole Baltimore Orioles team sign it. That's a good idea. That's cheap, too, right? Make it in bronze or something. Not that we remember that at all."
• The Rochester Red Wings, Triple-A affiliate of the Twins, completed a no-hitter Monday in Rochester, NY. The no-hitter alone is remarkable enough, but then consider that the game was started July 24, in Durham, NC, and by a pitcher who has since made his major league debut. (via Yahoo! Sports)
• Baseball's team owners have a chance to vote for a new commissioner Thursday to replace the outgoing Bud Selig, but if no candidate gets the nod, there's no clear plan for what will happen next: (via NJ.com)
Current commissioner, Bud Selig, was asked what would happen if one of the three doesn't garner the necessary 23 votes from the 30 owners to take the job.
"I'm not going to deal in hypotheticals," Selig said at a press conference at Camden Yards Tuesday. "We have a very well-refined process. I think there's been enough time. So I'll play this hour by hour, vote by vote."
• Mariners ace Felix Hernandez is having a career season and continued Monday night, pitching seven innings and giving up just one run on three hits. The outing was King Felix's 16th consecutive start in which he pitched seven innings and gave up two or fewer runs, the longest such streak since 1900. (via Yahoo! Sports)