By Woodrow Carroll
If we are fortunate an abbreviated version of the 2020 Major League Baseball season will get under way Friday, July 24. Let no civil unrest nor a nasty virus stand in the way of the Boys of Summer.
Both of Chicago’s Major League Baseball teams will open at home. The Cubs will make their debut at Wrigley Field 6:10 p.m. July 24 against the Milwaukee Brewers. An hour later a few miles to the south, the White Sox will be host to the Minnesota Twins. Fans will not be allowed to attend games, at least early in thge season.
With a history of more than 100 years, Major League Baseball has experienced some bumps along the way. Conditions surrounding World Wars I and II tested MLB’s mettle and resolve. In point of fact, headaches big and small have flared with regularity.
Only the National Hockey League has lost an entire season. The 2004-2005 National Hockey League lockout went without regular-season games, nor was there a hunt for the Stanley Cup in 2004-2005. No names were engraved on Lord Stanley’s Cup in 2005.
Major League Baseball was on the brink in 1994 and 1995.
There was no World Series in 1994. There were, however, some interesting results in what turned out to be a 114-game season.
The 1994 MLB season was to have been the first for the expanded eight-team playoff format. Each league had three divisions in 1994 with the three division winners and a second-best division team in each league playing in postseason.
The big loser in 1994 might have been the Montreal Expos. The Expos came on line in 1969 and never experienced much success. At the time of the shutdown in 1994, the Expos were 74-40 with the best record in baseball. It was the high-water mark for a franchise that never caught the public’s fancy.
The Expos’ franchise breathed its last Canadian air in 2004. In 2005, the Washington Nationals took the Expos’ spot. With a World Series championship in 2019, the Nationals are the reigning champions.
In 1994 at the time of the baseball lockout, the Texas Rangers were leading the four-team American League West Division with a 52-62 record.
After a 232-day strike, the 1995 MLB started late, April 25, 1995. The new playoff format with eight teams worked out well with the two teams with best overall records, the Cleveland Indians, 100-44, and Atlanta Braves, 90-54, meeting in the World Series, captured by the Braves in six games.
Assuming COVID-19 eases its hold, there will be baseball this Summer.