At the top of March, Spring Training kicked off in a way that could best be described as “humdrum.” With unsung players taking the field, fans of the game let it be known that without the stars, the sport wasn’t worth their time. On March 2nd, a total of five spring training games took place in Florida. Of those five contests, none of them drew 700 fans, which, for reference, meant that only about one-tenth of the usual spring crowd around this time opted to attend the exhibition games. One of those five ballgames was a showdown in Bradenton, FL, between the Minnesota Twins and Pittsburgh Pirates. About 685 fans were in attendance to watch a blend of no-name minor leaguers and replacement players. During the action, 35-year-old Pirates reliever Jimmy Boudreau, son of Hall of Fame shortstop Lou Boudreau, participated in the practice event and, sadly, epitomized the “spring training with makeshifts” experience in one particular action. While heading over to third to back up the base on a play, Boudreau, who, from 1982-86, attempted to reach the Majors but never made it beyond AA, ran over Minnesota’s third base coach, Ron Gardenhire. Gardenhire, who, unlike Boudreau, played in the Majors, appearing in 285 games, left the ballpark that day with a torn Achilles tendon from the collision. “It was a real sad day in the history of baseball,” said Pittsburgh’s coach, Jim Leyland, after the embarrassing game. “It was awkward…it was a tough day.”
Though a humiliating moment for everyone involved, what happened over in Plant City, FL, might take the cake for the most embarrassing moment of the day with replacements. Before the game, Reds pitcher, a 48-year-old named Pedro Borbón, who last appeared in MLB in 1980, fell over after running backwards while preparing for the contest. Trying to play it cool, Borbón turned to his manager, Dave Johnson, who was uncontrollably laughing at his blunder, and yelled, “You know what they do to a horse with a bad leg? They shoot him.” To which Johnson replied, “I wouldn’t waste the bullet.” Borbón then fired back, saying, “Hey man, if you want me to pitch, then don’t tell me to run.” In his 15 years away from the sport, Borbón had been living life at his farm in Texas, raising exotic birds like parrots and cockatoos and retailing them to the public. With that said, I think it’s safe to say that Johnson didn’t necessarily want the almost-50-year-old man to pitch. He just didn’t have any options at that time.
Give coach Johnson credit, though, for his willingness to, at a minimum, go through the motions with the makeshifts. Detroit’s skipper, the legendary Sparky Anderson, a 3-time World Series-winning manager, remained at his offseason abode in Thousand Oaks, CA, when the Tigers began Spring Training. Anderson, who was used to spending this time in March with players like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Pérez, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, and other iconic figures of the game, refused to coach a team of replacements. Right off the bat, his stance proved to be a reasonable one. In their first exhibition game, the fill-ins suiting up for the Tigers committed three errors in a flustering loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3. “When you make a decision, you feel you’re right, but a lot of things go through your mind,” said Anderson in a phone interview regarding the situation. “But the longer this thing goes on, the more certain it was the right thing to do.” Later in the discussion, Sparky noted, “I miss spring training. I miss the guys. But I don’t miss the stuff that they’re passing off as baseball.”
Aside from the fact that the real Tigers weren’t on the field, the looming possibility of stopgaps starting on Opening Day also meant that these subs would be the ones donning the sacred uniforms, those reserved for the cream of the crop, withheld for legends of the game’s past like Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, and Sam Crawford, to name a few. To make matters worse, right around this time, Detroit had brought in an exotic new cap for road games. It was a fresh lid with a literal tiger in the heart of the emblem, which, from a fan’s perspective, could be perceived as a move by management to enhance their intimidation factor. In this universe, tigers are about as frightening a creature as any, so to include one on the hat was a nice touch as the team competes for a title. However, in baseball, an organization’s ‘threat level’ is in direct alignment with their product on the field. If backups were to suit up, the tiger on the cap would be about as alarming as Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger or Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.
While on the subject, another team that was in danger of diminishing the value of its rebranded allure was the Houston Astros. In 1994, Houston’s owner, Drayton McLane, who bought the team two years earlier, was eager to jumble things up after years of subpar play. His solution was to introduce a whole new look for the franchise. Dropping the team’s rainbow look, a vibe that they had started sporting since the mid-70s, which was then toned down as the years progressed, McLane brought in a newfangled color scheme. The home jersey was white with “Astros” engraved across the chest. The letters possessed a white-colored exterior and were shaded in with a navy hue. Hovering over the back end of the name, specifically over the ‘o,’ was a gold-lined “moving star.” The road uniforms had a similar vibe, a gray base with “Houston” in place of “Astros,” with the “moving star” located over the ‘o’ in ‘Houston.’ Their hats for these contests were navy with just the star on them. When asked about the team’s facelift, McLane told the Associated Press, “We want to symbolize the new Houston Astros, the team of the 1990s and beyond.” He would go on to say, “We wanted our fans to see something new, something very contemporary for young people…something that shows movement, something that shows the future.” When the team debuted them in ’94, the shooting star appeared to possess the power to propel players to new heights. As mentioned, Jeff Bagwell put on a hitting clinic en route to winning the NL MVP, and his teammate, Craig Biggio, also put on a show, as the 2nd baseman hit .318 with 44 doubles and 39 steals. In the history of the game, only two other infielders had matched those numbers over the course of a season: George Sisler (1920) and Honus Wagner (1904). Like Detroit’s fanbase, supporters of the Astros were eager to see Bagwell and Biggio sporting the futuristic livery for the upcoming season. At this moment in time, it seemed that there was a better chance of them seeing Juan Guerrero in the infield, one of the replacement players that Houston had on board for Spring Training. When asked by the media why he was keen on making a comeback in baseball after struggling in 1992, the one year he was up with the major league club, Guerrero said the decision revolved around his present financial situation. After spending seven months in 1993 inside a Dominican Republic jail because of drug charges, Guerrero was low on funds. “I’m very, very broke,” he said in an interview. “When you’re broke, you’re broke. When you’re very, very broke, you’re broke—and you owe other people money, too.” Along with the desire to collect some shackles for himself and others, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity gave Guerrero the chance to bandage his public perception. Following a hearing regarding his arrest in January of 1993, where he was accused of consuming crack cocaine, which he denied, Guerrero, according to information compiled from News Services, shouted brickbats at reporters who were covering the matter and ended up smashing one of their cameras out of rage. The situation got ugly, and a dozen soldiers with automatic weapons needed to whisk him back to the San Cristobal jail, where he had been dwelling since the arrest. With that said, the chance to start at third base for the Houston Astros and amend his reputation meant a lot to Guerrero.
Since MLB’s inception, and even before the league was formed, Spring Training baseball has been a pivotal part of the sport’s soul. It’s a stretch before the season where fans undergo a more intimate experience with the ballplayers, at a time when the weather is just right, and the anticipation for the upcoming year is at an all-time high. Spring Training allows enthusiasts to get an up-close look at some of the game’s best as they prepare for the impending grind. Every fanbase has the right to believe that their cherished club will go all the way, as any data that could prove otherwise is nonexistent. It’s a period when games are played in locations outside of the typical regular-season venues, giving fans from all over the opportunity to see the game’s best in their local area. A beautiful example of this came back in 1925, when the St. Louis Cardinals headed over to Stockton, CA, for a series of exhibition games against the Sacramento Senators, a minor league baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League. Though, at the time, the Redbirds hadn’t made much noise in the league, they had Rogers Hornsby, whose play alone was enough of a reason to stop what you were doing and head over to the ballpark. In this particular series, it was announced beforehand that Hornsby would not be active for the first two tilts. According to The Sacramento Bee, attendance in the first game was a ‘flop,’ and the second one was no different, as fewer than 500 people were on hand. However, with Hornsby in the lineup for game number three, about 4,000 people made their way to the park to watch the icon perform. Hornsby didn’t disappoint, going 2-for-5 with two runs scored. In the regular season that year, Hornsby went on to win his 2nd Triple Crown, as the all-timer led the league in batting (.403), home runs (39), and runs batted in (143).
Speaking of spring training attendance records, in the Spring of 1946, a record 27,449 fans piled into Ebbets Field to watch the Brooklyn Dodgers scrimmage the New York Yankees. In the 8th inning of the contest, the nearly 30,000 enthusiasts got to see Joe DiMaggio club his 18th homer of the Spring. In the Spring of ’55, just months after the New York Giants swept the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series, the two pennant winners went on a nationwide tour so that fans from all around could see the best practice against the best. That, and of course to provide people the rare opportunity to see Willie Mays, the 1954 NL MVP award winner, play baseball. Throughout the Spring, Mays and the Giants battled Cleveland in cities such as Knoxville, TN, Phoenix and Tucson, AZ, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Montgomery, AL, Columbus, GA, and Charlotte, NC.
I allude to these moments in time involving some of the game’s greats to show that Spring Training was, and always will be, about giving the fans the best experience by showcasing the sport’s superstars. The greats are the ones who grow the game. They are the reason that people tune in on the radio and TV and pay money to go to the stadium. In 1995, when the replacements took the field, it was a true slap in the face to the fans.
Around the same time that Spring Training rolled out in pedantic fashion, the real players presented the owners with a fresh offer. This one involved a 25% tax on all payrolls above $54 million. Had this gone into effect in the year prior, just two teams, the Detroit Tigers and the Atlanta Braves, would have been charged. “We gave them what we thought they were looking for,” said Toronto’s Paul Molitor, in a report posted by The Associated Press. “We’ll find out their response.” As expected, the owners opted not to publicly acknowledge the proposition, and once again, talks broke off. On Pi Day, the NLRB announced that they would be issuing another grievance against the owners for unfair labor practices, marking the 3rd time throughout this elongated strike that the owners had been found guilty in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. Then, on the 26th, the NLRB voted, in a 3-2 vote, to seek an injunction against the owners. Via Britannica, an injunction is “an order by a court to one or more of the parties in a civil trial to refrain from doing, or less commonly to do, some specified act or acts.” In layman’s terms, this was the agency’s attempt at putting an official end to the strike, as the players said they would adhere to the process if a judge were to cast an injunction against the opposing party. The next day, the NLRB took action and requested that a Federal District Court judge grant a preliminary injunction against the owners. Now facing an injunction, at the bargaining table for the first time since March 4th, the owners pitched a new proposal to the players, which was in line with the previous rules, dating back to the last bargaining agreement in place. According to the Associated Press, under this plan, “the portions of payrolls above $50 million, or 108 percent of the average, would be subject to a 50 percent luxury tax.” While their previous plan would have affected 15 of the 28 teams, had it been active in 1994, this one would have impacted 11 of those 15 teams. Dovetailing from the ’94 Tigers example, Detroit would have had to pay $6.4 million under this proposal. Keep in mind that, in accordance with the players’ latest suggestion, Detroit would have only had to muster up $660,000.
With Opening Day in the rearview mirror, something had to be done surrounding the potential product on the field, so on March 30th, the owners, in a 26-2 vote, with Baltimore and Toronto being the two to object, approved the use of replacement players to kick off the season. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner had originally sided with the Orioles and Blue Jays but wound up flipping sides by the end of the league-wide conference call. The players then offered up a new proposal, one that was slightly different from their March 4th suggestion.
Thankfully, on the last day of March, in recognition of the preliminary injunction, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor sided with the players and issued an official injunction against the owners, forcing them to honor the terms and conditions surrounding free agent bidding, salary arbitration, and anti-collusion matters that were outlined in the expired collective bargaining agreement. The defunct agreement would be revived and live on for the 1995 and 1996 seasons. All that time, and the league pretty much ended up right back where they started before the strike was in effect. By and large, Sotomayor’s call put an end to what seemed to be an everlasting strike. Totaling 232 days, the 1994 strike was the longest work stoppage in not just MLB history, but in the history of all professional sports in North America. In a matter of hours, the replacement players, eager to get their 15 minutes of fame, were kicked to the curb. “I sort of expected it,” said replacement player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitcher Jason Pfaff, to the Associated Press, after finding out that the starters were back on board for the regular season. “I wasn’t going to believe it until we were actually on the plane. I wasn’t going to believe it until we were actually standing at home plate.”
With the strike ending in an uninspiring fashion, though everyone was thankful that the stars would be the ones taking the field, many of the game’s fans were anything but ecstatic over the news. To them, the prolonged stoppage was just the nail in the coffin for the sport that they once loved. When it was announced that the league would be up and running again, the Birmingham Post-Herald asked their audience to chime in on the matter. “I feel that the baseball strike has forever changed me as a baseball fan,” said Mike Smithfield. “I had considered Major League Baseball to be my favorite sport to watch, but I cannot say that anymore.” Though Smithfield’s words were somewhat harsh, John Ellis took his disdain to another level. “I am a Little League, college, and minor league baseball fan. Don’t classify me as a Major League baseball fan. I hope that every striking player loses his money and has to file for bankruptcy.” Amongst the bunch of irritated fans, Ron Davis provided arguably the most authentic response. “They have dampened the spirit of many fans, but the GAME lives on.”