April 1, 1972: Baseball's 1st Strike

Players Association executive director Marvin Miller

and players' representative Joe Torre. Behind them, Andy Messersmith,

who would end up becoming the player who broke the reserve clause.

April 1, 1972: The first Major League Baseball strike begins. It ends on April 13, when the team owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association -- represented, respectively, by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and Director Marvin Miller -- agreed on a $500,000 increase in pension fund payments, and the addition of salary arbitration to the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The pushback of the start of the regular season resulting in (depending on the team) 6 to 9 games being canceled, and never being rescheduled. This would not matter in the National League, as both Division races were easily won: The East by the Pittsburgh Pirates' "Lumber Company," and the West by the Cincinnati Reds' "Big Red Machine."

But both American League races would be close: The West was won by 5½ games, the Oakland Athletics (A's) over the Chicago White Sox; and the East by the Detroit Tigers by only a half-game over the Boston Red Sox, with the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees also within 6½. If just one canceled Red Sox game had been rescheduled, and they'd won it... But it wasn't, and Boston fans would have to wait.

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April 1, 1972 was a Saturday. Hockey star Darren McCarty was born.

Baseball, as said, was on strike. Football was out of season. Only 1 game was played in the NBA: The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors, 122-94 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Kentucky Colonels, 122-108 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. Rick Barry scored 50 points for the Nets, and John Roche scored 31. For the Colonels, Artis Gilmore scored 30, and Dan Issel 28.

* The Virginia Squires beat the Miami Floridians, 125-100 at the Hampton Coliseum, outside Norfolk in Hampton, Virginia.

* The Denver Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-105 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

* And the Utah Stars beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 106-96 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. These other 4 games could each, at the time, be considered a geographic rivalry, if not remaining an arch-rivalry:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 6-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins play to a tie, 4-4 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the California Golden Seals, 9-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And in English soccer, Arsenal defeated East Midlands team Nottingham Forest, 3-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.