September 15, 1994: The Baseball Season Is Canceled

September 15, 1994: A date which lives in infamy. There is no joy in Mudville, or anywhere else.

Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, a walking conflict-of-interest as the Acting Commissioner of Major League Baseball, cancels the remainder of the regular season, and the postseason, including the World Series, following a vote of the team owners. No Commissioner, in any of the "big four" North American sports, had ever done that before.

The vote is 26-2. Oddly, the 2 who voted to go on with the season and not betray the fans were 2 of the most hated team owners of the era: Peter Angelos of the Baltimore Orioles and Marge Schott of the Cincinnati Reds.

There were 7 games originally scheduled for that Thursday, which was a travel day for the other teams then in the major leagues. All times listed below are Eastern Daylight Time:

* 2:05: Cleveland Indians vs. Milwaukee Brewers at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* 7:35: New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays at SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* 7:35: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* 7:35: Florida Marlins (now the Miami Marlins) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* 8:05: Oakland Athletics vs. Chicago White Sox at the new Comiskey Park (now Guaranteed Rate Field) in Chicago.

* 8:05: Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros, at the Astrodome in Houston.

* 10:05: Cincinnati Reds vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* Not scheduled to play: The Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the California Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels), the Chicago Cubs, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals), the New York Mets, the San Diego Padres, the San Francisco Giants, the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.

* Not yet established: The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Rays.

This was in midweek of the NFL season, and a few weeks before the starts of the NBA and NHL seasons, so those leagues did not play on this day.

*

That strike, lasting from August 12, 1994 to April 25, 1995, was rough. Although President Clinton got the Crime Bill passed, his health care initiative failed, the Republican Party won control of both houses of Congress, and began passing bills slashing social services, which Clinton had to veto. A ferry carrying passengers from Estonia to Sweden sank, killing over 800 people. The Taliban was founded. A religious cult unleashed a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, killing 13 and putting 5,000 in the hospital. Singer Selena (Quintanilla-Perez, not Gomez) was murdered. And, just before baseball started play again, a white "Christian" domestic terrorist blew up the federal government office building in Oklahoma City.

It wasn't all bad. A totalitarian government in Haiti fell. The Channel Tunnel opened, finally linking Britain with the European Continent by road. Sony released the first PlayStation. George Foreman regained the Heavyweight Championship of the World, 20 years after he lost it to Muhammad Ali, by knocking Michael Moorer out, making himself the oldest Heavyweight Champion ever, age 45.

Billy Wright, and Wilma Rudolph, and Howard Cosell died. Halsey, and Carlos Correa, and Giannis Antetokounmpo were born.