Between the salary cap and revenue sharing, and in addition, commissioners holding all of the power, it was no surprise the years of tension led to what became the 13th work stoppage in the history of baseball.
A timeline of baseball salary as stated by John Helyar in Lords of the Realm:
· 1 1984
o -The PRC would push for some major structural changes: a cap on team payrolls, for one, and a cap on the maximum raise in salary arbitration
o 21 of 26 teams lost money, for a combined operating loss of $41 million
· 1990
o Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf favored a lockout in the hopes of achieving the goal of determining salaries of players with under 6 years’ service by a statistical formula
o PRC brought the idea of a “revenue participation” plan to the table. It stated that the players would get 48% of the gross
In a span of 10 years, the PRC made many poor attempts at compromising with the needs and requests of the players.
But the salary cap, though a large factor in the strike, wasn’t the only reason players were infuriated; there was also the idea of revenue sharing.
While some may argue that revenue sharing could be seen as a positive aspect, as the smaller teams would benefit, it only heightened tension. There was no way that the larger city owners would agree to help out teams in smaller cities. The idea of balance doesn’t quite factor in when owners are clearly only concerned with the success of their team.
Finally, a dictatorship didn’t work for Hitler, I don’t know why people would think it could work for baseball. The commissioner at the time, Fay Vincent, had all the power—what a bad idea—all the power and yet no concern for the players or their demands. The commissioner remained focused on one thing—himself! It’s a good thing he was forced to resign in 1992.
As with most mistakes, hopefully the strike of ’94 was a message learned.
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