When Baseball Stopped: 1981 and 1994

and what made them so memorable. With no sports having been going on this way for a while now due to the coronavirus pandemic, we thought this might be a good time to look back at some of the Special Teams in the years in which we had work stoppages and we didn't have any games. This will be the Major League Baseball Strikes and Lockouts edition as we look back at two specific years in which the Major League

Baseball season got interrupted. At one point, it got interrupted for the rest of the year, and we look back and see what teams were robbed, what teams were set to have great seasons, maybe win the World Series, big time records that could have been broken. So this is the Baseball Strikes and Lockout Podcasts with Special Teams. I'm Jason, and the man you're gonna hear right now is Mike Arming.

Absolute madness. We've seen it. We talked about labor piece and take it for granted, right because we talked about the giant piles of money and players and sometimes they stick their feet in their mouths Hi Patrick ewing Uh from your NBA sessions. Yes, we make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of much on infamous quote

from the NBA world. But all the mechanics of trying to put this thing back together and as we've talked about a lot with the pandemic, trying to figure out how to get it back together again, what makes sense, what's the next iteration? How do you make it function? What's fair, what's right? And how do you bring two sides together to say, all right, here's how we're gonna Frankenstein together a season. And as we're about to talk about it gets a little bit uh odd. So what

was the first strike slash lockout? We're gonna look back at the night one Major League Baseball strike which began, as many other seasons we're going to we had Fernando Mania. This is when Fernando Valenzuela made his debut. And you know, for people who were born later, what was Fernando Valenzuela. What was Fernando Mania like? It was kind of like what Lynsanity was with the Nix and Jeremy lit a few years ago. And every time Fernando Valenzuelo would pitch,

look at this who is this guy? He closes his eyes, he looks up to the sky. I mean, everywhere you went it was about Fernando Mania. So you know, being a lusty I used to uh pull out the Fernando to the mound that big wind up. Okay, all right, and here's still kind of ocasionally one would get away and a guy to have to wear it, but blust that one. I'm doing my Fernando impression. But I got hit in the face. Yeah. Sorry. I love throwing the ball like Fernando valence Whille. It's what I do. Never

hit anybody in the face. Uh to four eight e r A. All the complete games. I mean, just fantastic stuff from from this kid or so we were totally he was a kid, yeah as a kid, never matter. It was so Fernando valence Whala debuting for the Dodgers on the West Coast. People didn't get a chance to see him. The mystery was there for him. It was awesome.

Another big highlight before the MLB striking eighty one Paul Tucking in Rochester Triple A teams played a thirty three inning game, a game that had to be settled a different day because they decided finally after thirty two winnings were done playing. It was Easter Sunday and these two teams had to finish a game a few months later. And I'm telling you, I read the book Bottom of the Thirty Three, which came out a few years ago. It is one of the top three sports books of

all time. It is so incredibly interesting because the the author goes into um life on Pawtucket and what life was like, and there's stuff on Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs and Rich Gedman and what happened to all the players playing in this game that went thirty three innings and fans who were at the game, And it's like you're reading a great fictional book about a thirty three ning baseball game, except it was real. And I'm telling

you I I read sports books all the time. Bottom of the Thirty three one of the best sports books you could possibly buy and read. It was it was just fantastic. And the thing is, I read it knowing full well I forgot who won the game, so I didn't go look up or anything I want to go. I kind of want to be surprised. And then as I read the beginning that I go, oh, okay, I think this guy is big for a big reason. All right,

we'll get to that. But it is. It is like one of those books that John You'd figured John Feinstein would write and he would take all this time to do research on these teams. It is just that good. And this was Pawtucket in Rochester, so the major I used to go to the live school library and I take out whatever sports book I couldn't to do book reports. And eventually they banned me from taking any sports books out. Wow you got because you never returned them. It was

like on the nineteen nineteen White Sox, I still have it. Sorry, no, no, But it'd be like, you just get a book report on the the Yankees two weeks ago. I don't care about the history of the insert teen here. It's like, no, you will, and I'm gonna tell you why it's compelling. Next. For three years, I did a book report on the baseball Life of Sandy Kofax, Like, I know so much about Sandy Kolfax's life because for three years I did it, and then one for the fourth year. I think it

was like fifth or sixth grade. I went to do it and I couldn't find the book, and I said, Mom, where's my Sandy Colfax book? She said, I threw it out because I wasn't gonna have you do another book report on that book. Read something else. I'm like, okay, you meanwhile, like I never read. I read all the time. I just want to do a you know, book report on Sandy co Fax again. But she threw the book away. I just like, Sandy co Fast, what do you want

from me? So the season begins and the players strike on June twelfth. This was over free agency compensation. The owners wanted compensation for free agents to sign in other places. In other words, kind kind of like the NFL. You trade a guy, you lose a guy, you get you get a compensatory draft pick. Well, the owners wanted compensation if a free agent one of their players went and signed someplace else. The players said, wait a minute, that doesn't mean we really have free agency. It's you know,

it's almost like a trade. So this is what they struck on. There were fifty plus games missed, and I'm gonna tell you exactly what happened to finish the season here, and you're gonna say, no way, major League Baseball is

not gonna do that. No, this is exactly what they did. No. But Jason, I mean, remember, people are well well aware of what a guy like Rob Man for a dozen't do in the job now, the Astros and Red Sox decisions here in so anything else you say that a commissioner did, I gotta think people kind of shrug at this point, going yeah, I'll buy that. Yeah, but this was easy stuff. It wasn't well Rob Man for his

easy stuff too, so he had easy stuff. They did what the players strike on June twelve, and they missed fifty games before they recommenced the season. What Baseball decided was all those teams that were in first place on June twelve of the four divisions, because this is back when Major League Baseball was just n least n L West, A least n L a L West, they were the first half winners. So these four teams that won the

first half clinch playoff berths. So that means Oakland, the Yankees, Philadelphia, and the Dodgers all clinch playoff spots. So no matter what they did in the second half of the season, they were in the playoffs. I mean, how insane's going on three on vacation. We just decided to stop on the twelve. Oh yeah, you're in the playoffs. Oh that's awesome, Thank you so much so management, it was come. It

was insane, right. So now the first question is, okay, what if the same team wins the division in the second half of the season. That was a problem. So Major League Baseball decided, well, if a team wins both has, they would have to play the team who finished second in their division in the second half. Okay, So that that's how it went. So you could win your division at the second half of the year, but it doesn't matter because you would still have to play the team

that finished second in the second half. That's how baseball said that, instead of just picking up the season where they were and finishing it, no, no, no, we're gonna do this crazy ask first half second half thing, which doesn't make any sense. So that's what Major League Baseball decides to do. First half winners, I want to play the second half. I mean, how do how do you? That's like something an eight year old kid would come

up with. But the meeting to where this gets agreed to, I mean, there's so many, so many problems with it without even researching anything else, just all right, you win both both halves. Why don't you get a buy instead of another team? Hey, you know what, you get the bonus round because this team dominated both halves. How does that make any sense? You still have to play even though you're the best team. But wait a minute, it wasn't that said a couple of a couple like two

minutes ago. You're not gonna believe a major league Baseball didn't And who was the one who said, well you see what Rob Manford's done. I think people believe it. No, no, no, it's absolutely insane. You came full circle in two minutes. To my point. No, it's Look, I can still see how it gets under the table. I just don't see how it's not swept away. That's that's the point I'm

trying to make it. Who's like a lot of decisions, Like you know, when I worked at yah who years ago, we'd be sitting in these meetings that would become two to three hours long and somewhat everybody got to have their say, and they'd start an idea, and after about three sentences, you knew why it wouldn't work for twelve reasons, so I'd cut it off at the past. In my next annual review, you know what it said. Stop being from Chicago, California. People don't work like this. You have

to let everybody have their say. I'm like, I was had three hours and fifteen minutes for this meeting, and I actually still have to get my work done, as opposed to a lot of these folks that just said, look, I give you eight hours. I'll see n hell. I actually cared that we were getting a job done, so I would live there if I needed to to make sure we got it done. Sitting here in this meeting listening to bad ideas doesn't work. This is a bad idea that should have never stayed on the table. And

and here's how bad of an idea was. Let me just take you through a couple of things that happened because of this. So now baseball is back in their play instead of just saying we're gonna pick up the seats and play another you know, they decide to take the schedule from where it sits. Right, so at the end of the year, teams play an odd number of games.

It's not like everybody played a hundred and twenty get no, no, no, no. Some teams played one or two more games than everybody else, and everybody played around a hundred and ten games, but some played a hundred and twelves, some played a hundred nine. I mean, how do you not even just have here's the schedule for the rest of the year to make it fair for everybody. Nope, Wh're just gonna have everybody play whatever games you finished with you finished with. I mean,

that's what Major League Baseball decides to do. The Yankees. They win the first half, right, this is the first time the Yankees have been good in a couple of years. The Yankees win. Gene Michael is the manager of the Yankees. Yankees win the first half. What happens over the strike he has fired and replaced by Bob Lemon for the second half of the season. So he wins the first half as Yankee manager and gets fired during the strike. Apparently the Yankees didn't like how he struck uh and

so I mean, oh, that's this was peak Steinbrenner. I mean, I mean, this is a guy that took over the Yankees, and and first thing he did was say, the following players need to get a haircut. And they read out the numbers of the players, you know, and they were all cheering, going, I gotta get a haircut. But this is the beginning of peak Steinbrenner. You're you're firing your manager. He just won the first half, and your fireman replacing

him for the second half of the year. Look at look at that lineup they were fielding in nine one though, Just to go back down memory lane, Rick Serones, your catcher, Bob Watson. Respect Bob Watson. He did a lot of things from Major League Baseball after he retired. Long long time exact right Willie Randolph, Bucky Blank and Dent, Greg Nettles.

Just one of my strata matic teams. Jerry Mumfrey and center field with Windfield and Reggie Jackson on either side of him, and then Bobby Mercers, your d h coming off the bench, the legendary hair of Oscar Gamble and Bob Watson. I think he scored the one millions run in baseball history. If I'm not mistake, I believe that

he was as he on a home run. And I think it came down to the fact that, like they knew the millions run was going to be scored the next day, if I'm not mistake, in my baseball history, they knew the millions run was gonna be scored, and everybody was tearing asked around the basis to try to score. And I think Watson hit a home run in the first inning of a game, and he crossed the plate like ten seconds before somebody else did, like scoring from first on a single, you know, because they wanted to

be the guy to scored the million run. If I'm not mistaken, I think that's how it went for Bob Watson. So he scored from second on the three run homer by Milt May Milt May Mit Candlestick Park. But I mean, is that like, did he win a Lanka Vision kind of experiencer. Yeah, I don't know about I don't know what he did. What do you get for that? Here's your Laurel and Hardy handshake Bob Watson to congratulations. So

the Yankees fire Gene Michael. They fired their manager. The red Heads wind up with the best record in baseball sixties six and forty two. They don't make the playoffs because they finished second in the n L West the first half and they finished second in the n L West the second half. This is because their last game of the season, they get knocked out because the Braves beat them. Bob Horner hits to how how good was

Bob Horner? Bob Horner hits two horror runs and he scores the game winning run and the Braves beat the Reds, knocking the Reds out. They finished second in the first half they finished in the second half. They actually had a the Reds actually had a like a uh something on the field of like a ceremony in which they had a bantner that said Baseball's best record. But you know,

they didn't make the playoffs. They were trying to. It's like the Cults when they celebrated a FC South champions and they put the banner up a few years ago. Oh yeah, when they when they made the a f C title game and they lost the right right right Colts you and now they have that stupid seas for Cookie logo. So the Reds don't get to make it. Neither do the Cardinals who had a great record, and we get to the playoffs, and the playoffs are a

completely separate story entirely way. Do you year how that turned out? Coming up next right here on Special Teams. Time to continue on here on Special Teams. As we look back at the last time we saw some sports that either didn't have a season or parts of a season, or we're broken up by a strike or a lockout. We're looking back at the Major League Baseball season, and when we last spoke, we were set up for the playoffs finally, the first half division winners playing the second

half division winners. The Expos made the playoffs in one for the only time in franchise history until the Nationals in two thousand and twelve. Now, the Expos back in the early eighties were so talented. I remember playing Strata Matic and another homemade baseball games. I always wanted to

be the Exposed because they always hit the ball. I mean, this was Gary Carter and Tim Raynes and Andre Dawson, Larry Parrish, Warren Crow, Marty Ellis Valentine who had the half football helmet because he got hit with cheek and he would have the half football helmet to protect him. I mean, the all they did was matched the ball in Montreal was fantastic and the only time they made the playoffs, so they moved to Washington two thousand twelve.

That was a scary lineup, up and down. I mean, just consistent hitters throughout that, throughout that that roster, and Jerry Manuel was on there. I gotta give a shout out to the old one. Uh. And let's face it, there were a couple of years that the Expos had had in Major League Baseball history that you know, you can celebrate a cast of all stars. So yeah, and it's always and it's always strike here the X that is right, that is when they had they were at

their best. Yeah, whenever there's a season that's gonna be cut shorter, we haven't straight. Yeah, we're gonna be great. That's the Expos are there. So this is the series. They lose to the Dodgers in five games. Rick Monday hits the big home run of the ninth inning. The Expos actually put the tying run at second base in the bottom of the ninth, but the Dodgers get out of it. The Dodgers beat the exposed the Expos go home. And I remember listening to this game in the car

with my grandfather. I think we were picking up my grandmother from the airport and my my grandfather. We were big Mets fans, both of us. But the playoffs are on, and I was rooting for the Expos because you know, the Expos were a new team, right. He's like, oh my god, the Expos are right. They play in Canada. How cool is that? But my grandfather grew up a Dodgers fan because obviously, you know, the Mets didn't come

around until you know, the nineteen sixties. And so we're listening to this aim in the car and we'll listen to Game five and the Expos rob. I'm like, oh my god, the Expos and I'm excited, and he gets mad and he keep quiet in the back. You're only rooting for the Expos because I'm rooting for the Dodgers. I see what you're doing, and I go, no, I'm not just the Exposer fun and he was, no, you're only rooting for them because you don't you want you want me to lose. And I'm going, oh my god,

this is a conversation. I can't believe I'm having here as a ten year old kid. But yet that was the conversation. I was apparently rooting for the expos just despite my grandfather. Well, I mean some folks take things personally and they need they needed needed to combatant. Maybe that was the thing. There was something else you did and he was mad about, but he decided to make it up out the next Yeah, I'm sure I just forgot to take the garbage out, and he got you know,

I meant mad at me for that. I mean so many things come around too. He would just work himself up all the time. He's one of those of those people that when he got mad at you for a little thing, it didn't matter because the little thing would then mushroom. Like he could say, hey, can you bring my glass upstairs and put in the sink when you go upstairs? Sure? Pop, And then like you know, I woke upstairs for forty five minutes and I'll forget. In forty five minutes, I go upstairs, I forget to bring

the glass. You've got to bring my glass up And I knew, oh, this is just the beginning. And then it went from I forgot to bring the glass up to then like I forgot to bring the garbage out. Then it was I didn't do good on the test, and then it was something I did a year ago, and I'm going, when does it stop? Like how high do we go to stop? I mean where? Where? Where? Where is the endpoint of this? It could come anytime, so I knew just the tiniest thing was it. And

he was mad at me. But then thankfully the Dodgers won and he was okay, and then they were gonna go to the World Series, and I was obviously rooting for the Dodgers then, so then we got along pretty well. So the Dodgers go to the World Series in the National League, and this was the American League, the first playoff appearance for the Milwaukee Brewers. This was kind of the launch of what would later on be Harvey's Wallbangers, but not quite yet because he he wasn't a manager.

But this was such a fun team. And growing up as I did hating the Yankees, I spent a lot of time. Look, the Mets were terrible, so it wasn't like, you know, all the men, but I was always like, really, you were really rooting against the Yankees. So I had deep deep knowledge of the A L East, and all the teams were really good, and Milwaukee was so much fun because they were a lot like the Expos. All

they did was hit. I mean this was Ted Simmons and Paul Mallet or Cecil Cooper, Ben Ogilvie Gorman, Thomas Robin Young who was still a short stop at this point, Jim Gantler, I mean, this was this was a team that all they did was hit. And they made a big trade with the Cardinals that year to get Raleigh Fingers and Pete Vukovic who would go on to be a star of Major League as first baseman. But this team, I mean, this was going anywhere and meet about nine.

So this team was incredibly talented. This was the beginning of their run. They would get to the World Series, but not this year. But all they did was hit. I mean this was top to bottom. I think Jim Gantler was the worst hitter in the lineup, and this is a guy like he would have bat third for the Mets. I mean that's that's how That's how good of a team this was. You've got m v ps and Hall of famers on this team. It was insane. How good they were in the trade. They get to

throw Pete Vukovic. You're throwing a number one picture and one of the best closures in baseball. I mean, I don't know how the Brewers didn't go and win the World Series this year. I'll tell you what that was. You want to talk strata matic teams, that was the strata matic team to go to war with those couple of years they're in Milwaukee. But yeah, I mean talent top to bottom and guys that maybe don't get remembered

outside of Milwaukee as much as they should. But yeah, ultimately it comes down to one of those classic matchups and the the perennial powerhouses making it through what was a very odd season. It's almost like you just said, you know what, this has been crazy. But if we get to that series on the coast, everybody will free give us and it'll be okay. And that's that. Look, that's what happened. Bob Lemon manages the Yankees to the World Series. Gene Michael couldn't do it. So the second

half pick up. So I got big news. We we we got somebody new coming in to help us. Oh great, great? What is is? It? Is? It? A player we got. No, you're fired, and somebody else is gonna manage the team. Get out. So the Yankees make the World Series and and look, the entire world was expecting it to be just like it was in seventy seven and seventy eight, three years earlier, when the Yankees beat the Dodgers four games to two. They beat him again four games to two.

A lot of the same players for the Dodgers, a few different ones. This begins the Dodgers big rookie of the year run Fernando Valence, Walla, Steve Sacks. All these players they had were great. The Yankees were expecting Dave Winfield to carry them in the World Series, and he had a horrendous World Series. It was awful. He didn't get his first hit, I think, until Game four, and I remember him asking for the ball at first base.

Like the Yankees are losing the World Series. He doesn't get his first hit until the series is almost over and he's asking for the ball at Frank, you have the ball. That's my first world here, can have the ball, can have the ball. Yankee fans went crazy on him when that happened. Dave Winfield went from he is the toast of the town. He looked San Diego Padres superstar. Who the Yankees getting. George Steinbrenner is is is talking

about World Series with Winfield. He was the big get for them, and then he turned into Mr May That was Steinbrenner's big nickname for Dave Winfield was Mr. May was he was good during the regular season when it wasn't as important, but he wasn't Mr October, which was Reggie Jackson's nickname, because Reggie Jackson would come through in

the clutch. So again, this is Pete. George Steinbrenner and Dave Winfield bore a lot of the brunt of the criticism for the Yankees losing the World Series of the Dodgers, well, I mean, it's funny because you know, you get off to a two game to nothing lead, so it's like, all right, your cursin unless you're not. Uh. And for Dave Winfield, famously, I mean a guy with talent to play pretty much anything he wanted to in professional sports

and was supposed to be the guy. And then eventually it us lead from him into Don mattig Lely and they were supposed to tag team and be beasts and had a couple of big years statistically but didn't result in anything. Uh and you saw it on full display here. I wonder if he still has that ball. I'm sure he does. This is the ball. It's better one. You see this ball right here, through it through Steinbretterer's window.

Now I was happy the Dodgers when I was stunned because I really thought the Yankees are gonna find a way to win. And putting a cap on this incredibly crazy season. The m v P of the World Series was Ron Say and Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager. Three players shared the m v P in the World Series. Now, Ron Say, they all had good World Series. Ron Say hit three fifty knocked in six runs. Pedro Guerrero hit three thirty knocked in seven runs. Steve Yeager had a

couple of home runs. He knocked in four runs. You couldn't pick one of those guys. You couldn't pick Indrow, You couldn't pick Ron Say. I mean you gotta pick all three. It's it's all three of the head four hits in the series. He wins m v P. I mean, I don't get an I don't don't get four four hits and fourteen at bats two him runs four rb I and he gets to hold the hardware. He's probably made a lot of money through the years with that inscription. Oh,

I'm sure are you kidding? People say, oh, Steve Yeager, are you that test pilot that broke the speed of so out? No, that's Chuck Yeager. I'm Steve Yeager, catcher for the Dodgers, And he was the one. Steve Yeager was the one who came up with the throat protector on the on the helmet because he got hit in the throat once. He goes I don't like that feeling. And he's got he came up with the throat protector. I bet he's a billionaire because hopefully kept the rights

to it. But he should be a billionaire for that. I hope he got the patent on that. Oh, that would guess the patents always he didn't get the patent. Patent pending, patent pending. I mean, you've got problems. I I can't imagine a year like that again happening in

Major League Baseball. That's how baseball decides to get through the strike and have this happened, and you have the best team's sidelined because you know, they just had the misfortune to not be in first place the day of the strike and falling just short at the end of

the season. Yeah. No, between social media and what is now sports talk radio and sports television, there's no chance that because that's gonna get leaked to someone for the as a test balloon, that that's what they're thinking of, just like during the pandemic. You know, hey, we'll play baseball here. No, you don't like that, we'll play baseball there,

and then we'll do this. You know, there were a couple of fun things in that season surrounding UH that are great historical notes not necessarily tied to the strike. Go ahead and can I lay it? Absolutely? Go ahead? All right? So uh, I'm gonna say the best for less. July eleven, Williams, Well, that's it and I'll sing it later to uh. July eleventh, the Pirates signed an undrafted amateur free agent, Bobby Nia And who knew seventy five years later the Mets would still be paying one of

the famous contracts. Uh. The Wrigley family sold the Cups to the Tribune for twenty million dollars dollars Yeah, that's pretty good, all right. And I have one last one that you're gonna love. In the amateur draft in June, right before the strike, the New York Mets decided with the twelve pick to select a young fireballer named Roger Clements.

Instead of deciding to sign with the Mets, he decides to attend the University of Texas and Austin become a Longhorn, and then later goes to the Red Sox and the as the nineteenth overall pick in the Major League Baseball Draft and the rest is history. Yeah, that that's that's how works out for the Mets. He goes seven spots lower in the night. I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna go to school and improve, And you want up getting

taken later and you turn into a Hall of Famer. Yeah, well, alleged alleged Hall of Famer, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame qualities, but not quite a Hall of Famer. Don't even get me started on that. Nonse. Yeah, you know how I feel about all that mess. So that's the one Major League Baseball strike coming up next? What about the nineteen MLB lockouts? Some things you probably weren't aware of that went on the year, there was no World Series.

That's coming up next right here on the Special Team's podcast. So he said goodbye to one MLB strike and jump ahead of the MLB lockout, which the regular season ended on August eleven. This was a story that has been chronicled many different times in many different ways over the past few years. We're gonna try to bring you some things that maybe it didn't remember of what surrounded this season. It ended, as I said, August eleventh, and it was a day that we knew was coming, all right. This

is when I was a production assistant at ESPN. On Sports Center, we covered the upcoming MLB lockout where the owners locked the players out every single day. The last game was an Oakland A's game. In the very famous shot of the fan at the A's game wearing a jail suit uh with the date on there, like the players and the fans are being held hostage and being put in jail by the owners. Why there's no baseball? I remember we showed minor league baseball highlights on ESPN

and ESPN two while the strike was going on. It was it was it was just what do we do for programming? Now we're in the middle of August, a football is not really starting. We don't have a lot of football highlights to show well, and let's show minor league baseball highlights. So we did well. And back then we didn't show training camp footage ad nauseam like we

do now, right. I mean, you didn't know you would be every you would get like a three minute whip around of oh here is here is Fred Edelstein, and here's forty five seconds from Raiders camp, and then here's Mark Schwartz who was at Rams camp for another forty five seconds, and and oh it's it's it's gonna be in at training camp. Whip around. It's gonna be you know, two and a half minutes of sports and I meanwhile, that's like an entire show now on ESPN NFL, I

will focus on these three teams. But back then that's what you had. No that that's it's just come such a long way. I mean you think about thank four, I mean, pre Internet, pre any of our social media fun and they there wasn't not to say we didn't have the first for it, but it was one you didn't you didn't know what you wanted yet because you hadn't been exposed to it. It was where we go. Yeah,

I mean, baseball was the daily. Hey you needed something for beat writers, and here's the latest quote out of the clubhouse or whatever else with football until it got in season whatever. Uh, And then most of that was carried the torch was carried in each market by the

local beat reporters for the newspapers. Right, there's no sports in sports talk radio is in its infancy at this point, so you don't have the quote machines that you would and the arguments that you have now would be, Hey, here's a little something and a little bit of a snippet, and it would be a stock photo that would be up on the screen. I mean, that's just the way it worked. Or here's video from last year. You might

remember this player. When they canceled the World Series. There was a big press conference when new was coming and Bud Ceiling put out a an announcement on a piece of paper and everybody, all the media who was attending, and he wouldn't say the World Series was canceled. He put out a piece of paper, a press release saying the World Series is canceled. And he started off by saying, Okay, so you've all seen the release. Uh, let's talk about

it now. He wasn't gonna be the guy to say the World Series is canceled because he knew that's what they would replay ad nauseam for him for the rest of his life, so he wouldn't. He couldn't own it, right, He couldn't own the fact, couldn't be the guy to say the World Series is canceled because I'm not gonna have that be something that I am known for for

the rest of my career. And now at this point, it was a lost season for all of us, right, Even you've heard many times Ken Griffey and Matt Williams were on pace to potentially break the home run hitting record. Matt Williams had forty three. He actually was better than Griffy. Tony Gwynn was hitting three. Potentially he was gonna hit four hundred. But there's three other stories that from the season that are worth getting into for a few minutes,

because this is stuff that people forget about. The first thing is that the best team in Major League Baseball, just like it probably was in one the Montreal Expos, they were in first place, they were rolling. They were loaded, They had the best record. They had five All Stars on this team. They had Boyses the lou Marquis Grissom, Mike Lansing who was really good early in his career, Larry Walker, Cliff Floyd, he got Pedro Martinez, Ken Hill, Jeff Facero on the mound. This was a loaded team.

This is ken Hill. When you know he was ken Hill. Oh my goodness, look at this guy. If he could just extend his arm all the way out instead of short arming the ball, maybe you could throw even harder. But this team was loaded. They were in first place and there was no World Series. So for the second time we have a stoppage. The Expos are really good and they don't get to play in the World Series seventy four and forty. At that time, I forget what

year it was. I want to say it was maybe two or three years hence maybe a little deeper into the decade. But at one point there was just the huge graphic of you know, between the two starting teams in this All Star Game tonight, Uh, we could put together a full roster of Montreal Expos alumni. Right. We was just one of those things where you just had star after star that moved on to other occupations. I mean, for me, it was a huge summer because Frank Thomas

was just absolutely mashing. The White Sox had sixty seven wins, and this looked like a team that could compete with the Yankees maybe and and battle for the a L pen. It instead, it goes into the wayside. Right, great, Frank Thomas gets an m v P Award, but beyond that, it doesn't. It doesn't resonate to anything else other than what might be. So the expos again gets screwed. But now let's look at the American League West, because you examine this and you say, there's no way this is

mathematically possible. In first place in the a L West. On August eleven, now, so this is a This is a month and a half before the end of the season, the Texas Rangers were in first place. Their record was fifty two and sixty two. They were ten games under five hundred, and they were in first place. The Angels were forty seven and sixty eight. Alright, so they're twenty

one games under five hundred. They're five and a half games out right, They're still in striking distance with a month and a half to go, and the team, Oh my goodness, this is this is probably the worst division in modern baseball history. Your team in the in the middle of August, not even a five. I get where sometimes maybe the team is at five hundred middle of August and all right, you know, you make a big run at the end of the year to win the division.

Win nine games, you in ninety games. You're a bad division winner. Ten games under five hundred, ten games under. In the Rangers were division leaders in the A L West, and now everybody would cry saying they shouldn't be about to be anyway. You have playoffs aera. Oh yeah, yeah, you can't have him in. He can't be can't be under five hundred win the division. I mean, well, it's it's like the first and half, first and second half winners we were talking about before. You don't qualify, so

there's no random random team gets selected. I'd like to think at some point somebody would have gotten over five d and in that to it. But I don't know. Man, your ten games under in the middle of August, I don't know that. You get up there maybe when eighty some odd game, maybe win eight eight five games, and you win the division. But you gotta go on a huge run to win eighty five games. You gotta win thirty of your last games to get there, saying there's

a chance. Oh, I mean, that's just then there needs to be a documentary just on that. That's really it is. That's the worst division in modern baseball history. Uh. And this it's like everybody in the a f C East got the Patriots, but at least they had the Patriot It had it there. The third story surrounds the Yankees, who are the best team in the American League. Now this was big because this was the first time the

Yankees were really good in a long time. Right. We go back to eighty one, they had won the World Series and in seventies seven and seventy eight, Orioles go to the World Series. In seventy nine and the Royals go to the World Series and eighty when George Brett hits up three run Titanic home runoff Goose Gossage to help win the al Pennant. The Yankees get to the World Series and eighty one and they lose to the

Dodgers and then that's it. And they hadn't been there in a long time, like they hadn't been to the playoffs since the strike. Here they would have been in the playoffs. They likely would have had a good postseason run because this was the beginning of the new Yankee dynasty that dominated from for the next ten or fifteen years. I mean, this was the birth that didn't have everybody on the team. Obviously Derek Jeter was a couple of

years away, but you still had Paul on you. You had some guys who who formed the crux of the Yankee dynasty that began with the World Series in Now, the weird part about this is that Don Mattingly retired after the season, right, so we started with the Yankees after they went to the World Series. This was his year right to go to the playoffs. And looked, Don Mattingly was the best first baseman in Major League Baseball for a few years. He could hit the ball to

every field. Early in his career, he was a guy that could pull that that when he pulled the ball was great, but he would hit lazy fly ball to left field. Then he figured out how to go the other way and he would hit three thirty and as good as Keith her Nandez was and you know how much I love Keith R. Nandez. Matting Lee could hit better. I mean, Carnandez is a better fielding first Cornanda is one of the best fielding first basements in the history

of the game. Down hitting the ball, matting Lee was a better hitter. I mean at that point, Mattie, he was more consistent. He could hit the ball to all kinds of fields. He plays one more year and retires. Mattingly come in after they go to the World Series and retires the year before their run, never getting to the postseason. Fan about never winning a World Series. Mattingly, he's one of the best first basement of that decade. Plus never even got to play in the playoff game.

Yeah no, that's that's the U one of the more amazing careers. I just remember following him, and I mean I was doing all the training cards stuff and shows, And what got me hooked was at one point all the short printage Mattingly rookie and second year stuff that found its way off the back of rail cards into

this UH shop we used to go into UH. So we watched him keenly because we were invested in him and that deep crouch that he had and you know, whether he got hurt because of a horseplay in the clubhouse, as some rumors they've denied, or just that that crouch came out. Remember Kevin Moss hit the same way, and once they changed his stands, he was never the same player either, bloat out and you say, wonder if the work on his back, because he would explode out and

would actually increase his strike zone. And it was to see him hit the ball that way to be able to to time it the way he was. Every ball was hit so hard, you know, and not many watching him, no, And it's one of the gifts that we had. Right, We're always talking about Boggs and I mean abow to the the altar of Tony Gwynn. Who I mean, it was just a master at the plate. I mean Tom

Mattingly was that good. I don't think he gets remembered, perhaps as fondly as he should, because he didn't get any of that postseason glory, right, I mean, he want a ton of gold gloves, just like you're you're guy Keith and Anders in New York pretty much owned that that award part of the banquet. Hey, can we just give him the guys in New York. Head cool, that

saved us ten minutes. Move on, obviously you had that, but I mean Matting Maddingley was a hell of a player, and it's it's always sad that his timing was so bad on the front and back ends of his career. Well, you mentioned timing, and this brings us to Buck show Walter, Yankee manager who never really enjoyed the success like he did early on in his managerial career. Now show Walter

left the team after the season. Right, the Yankees make the playoffs, they lose that incredible series to the Seattle Mariners, the series that everyone says, say baseball in Seattle, this was Griffey and a Right was a phenomenal uh campaign and the famous video you see of Griffey scoring the game winning run and jumping up after he crosses home plate.

So after that year was over, this is still peak Steinbrenner going on, Buck Showalter has offered a two year contract extension, but he's got to fire his hitting coach Rick down a Right. So here's a contract extension. You just we nearly made the World Series. We got great players on the way. We've got this Jeter guy coming up, who's gonna be really, really good, But you gotta fire your hitting coach. Buck show Walter said no, I'm not doing it, and he resigned. Who doesn't do that now?

Oh you want me to fire my hitting coach to stay manager? Yeah? Okay, Rick, Sorry you're fired, dude. Yeah, I'm the same manager of the y the Yankees. With the Yankees, the Yankees win the World Series the next year, Right, so show Walter could have been there because he's a good manager. Right, Buck Shalter is a good manager. I'm sure they would have won with show Walter. Right, So he Seinfeld too, he he was not as good as Keith Hernandez. But then so show Walter goes and manages

the Diamondbacks, and the diamond Backs have good teams. I remember the Mets beat the diamond Backs to move on in the playoffs, and diamond Backs were good. But eventually he got fired by Arizona. Got fired after the two thousand year where the Mets beat them and went to the World Series. What happened in two thousand one, the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Yankees to win the World Series.

So Bucks show Walter was a year away for winning the World series on two teams and he wound up quitting or getting fired right before that team would win it all. I mean, that's that's just bad timing. That's bad luck, bad time. Uh you know, it's there's histories. Literally, I think we've probably got a book or two out of just that topic. Uh as as we talk about

it right now. But I mean, come back, Luis Gonzalez in the Man of All home runs and then I don't think he had a cheaper hit, Yeah, because the Yankees had the infield in you know they were Otherwise it would have been an easy out and the run doesn't score from third. You got it works. So there is our look back at the years where strikes and not playing affected Major League Baseball. Jason Smith and Mike

Carbon We are your host. You can hear our show on Fox Sports Radio every single night coast to coast, ten pm to two am on the East coast, seven to eleven on the West coast. You have an idea for a future episode the special teams, let us know at how about a fresco Mike is at Swollen Dome. We'll talk to you next week where we look back when there was no NFL games and if you thought the eight one season was crazy, why do we tell you what happened to national football? Leave talk to you then,

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