The 1981 baseball strike was the fifth work stoppage since 1972. ^[1] The strike began on June 12 and forced the cancellation of 713 games (or 38 percent of the Major League schedule) in the middle of the regular season. The following are the baseball events of the year 1981 throughout the world. ... The following are the events of the year 1972 that happened world-wide throughout the sport of baseball. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... A percentage is a way of expressing a proportion, a ratio or a fraction as a whole number, by using 100 as the denominator. ...

An estimated $146 million was lost in player salaries, ticket sales, broadcast revenues, and concession revenues. The players lost $4 million a week in salaries while the owners suffered a total loss of $72 million. ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Indian Ocean Territory[1], the British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 2. ...

The Strike Deadline

The Executive Board of the Players' Association voted unanimously to strike on May 29 due to the unresolved issue of free agent compensation. The deadline was extended briefly, however, after the Players' Association's unfair labor complaint was heard by the National Labor Relations Board. The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the union of professional major-league baseball players. ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the United States Government charged with conducting elections for union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. ...

Reasons for the Strike

The strike was called in response to the owners desperately wanting to win back the prerogatives over the players. The owners had already lost at the bargaining table and in the courts on the issue of the free agency draft. At issue during the seven week long negotiations was the owners demanding compensation for losing a free agent player to another team. The compensation in question was a player who was selected from the signing team's roster (not including 12 "protected" players). The players maintained that any form of compensation would undermine the value of free agency. Free agency can be: In Latter-day Saint theology, free agency is the name of the human capacity to make choices for themselves and to choose between right and wrong. ...

Reaction

Although the strike was called by the players, many sportswriters and even fans placed most of the blame on the owners. Sports Illustrated reflected this particular opinion loud and clear with the cover headline that read "Strike! The Walkout the Owners Provoked." One of the reasons the owners doled out such hefty contracts from 1978-1981 (43 players each negotiated contracts worth over $1 million during this period) was because they were afraid of losing disgrunted stars in the free agency reentry draft. So the owners paid their players the so-called new going rate in order to keep them from going elsewhere. The first issue of Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1954, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Mathews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. ... This article is currently under construction // This year in baseball Events January 19 - Eddie Mathews is elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America on 301 of 379 ballots. ...

The Strike Ends

On July 31, 1981, a compromise was reached. In the settlement, teams that lost a "premium" free agent could be compensated by drawing from a pool of players left unprotected from all of the clubs rather than just the signing club. Players agree to restricting free agency to players with six or more years of major league service. ^[2] The settlement gave the owners a limited victory on the compensation issue. July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Reportedly, the negotiations were so bitter that when a settlement was finally reached, Major League Baseball Players Association representative Marvin Miller and the owners' negotiator, Ray Grebey, refused to pose with each other for the traditional "peace ceremony" photograph. The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the union of professional major-league baseball players. ... Marvin Julian Miller (born April 14, 1917 in The Bronx, New York City) is the former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 - 1982. ...

The All-Star Game

Major League Baseball resumed on August 9 with the All-Star Game in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. The All-Star Game, which was originally scheduled to be held on July 14, now served as a prelude to play resuming on August 10. August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining. ... The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also popularly known as the Midsummer Classic is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by fan vote for the starting position players and by the manager (the managers from the previous years... Nickname: The Forest City Motto: Progress and Prosperity Location in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA Coordinates: Country United States State Ohio County Cuyahoga Founded 1796 Incorporated 1836 Mayor Frank G. Jackson (D) Area    - City 82. ... Cleveland Stadium (also known as Municipal Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium and The Mistake on (or by) the Lake) was a baseball and American football stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. ... July 14 is the 195th day (196th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 170 days remaining. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

When play resumed, attendance dropped in 17 of 26 cities and television ratings slumped sharply. Ironically, despite the disgruntled fans, the All-Star Game surprisingly had the largest crowd ever in attendance (72,086). When TV viewers or entertainment professionals in the United States mention ratings they are generally referring to Nielsen Ratings, a system developed by Nielsen Media Research to determine the audience size and composition of television programming. ...

The Split-Season Format

Main article: 1981 American League Division Series

Main article: 1981 National League Division Series

Due to the two-month strike, the owners tried to create an equitable solution. So on August 6, the owners decided to split the 1981 season into two halves, with the first-place teams from each half in each division (or a wild card team if the same club won both halves) meeting in a best-of-five divisional playoff series. The four survivors would then move on to the two best-of-five League Championship Series. It was the first time that Major League Baseball used a split-season format since 1892. The 1981 American League Division Series matched the Oakland Athletics against the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees against the Milwaukee Brewers to determine the winners of the two divisions. ... The 1981 National League Division Series (NLDS), the opening round of the 1981 National League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 6, and ended on Sunday, October 11. ... August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... In North American professional sports leagues, the term wild card refers to a team that qualifies for the championship playoffs without winning their specific subdivision (usually called a conference or division) outright. ... The League Championship Series is the official name for a round of playoffs in Major League Baseball. ... The following are the baseball events of the year 1892 throughout the world. ...

Flaws

The split-season idea (although garnering the league more playoff revenue) wasn't without its flaws and criticism. A proviso was added that if a team won its division in both halves of the season, it would still face a playoff round against the second-place club in the second half. All of the first-half winners lacked incentive (as opposed to the minor leagues where if the same team did win both halves it was given a bye into the next round) to repeat and ultimately dawdled through the second-half of the season with a composite record of only three games above .500. To make matters worse, the Cincinnati Reds (National League West) and St. Louis Cardinals (National League East) each failed to make the playoffs. This was despite the fact that they had the two best full-season records in the National League that season. In contrast to the Reds' and Cardinals' bad luck, the Kansas City Royals made the postseason despite owning the fourth-best full-season record in their division and posting a losing record over all (50-53). Revenue is a U.S. business term for the amount of money that a company earns from its activities in a given period, mostly from sales of products and/or services to customers. ... A Class A California League game in San Jose, California (1994) Minor baseball leagues are North American professional baseball leagues that compete at a level below that of Major League Baseball. ... Major league affiliations National League (1890–present) Central Division (1994–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 1,5,8,10,18,20,24 Name Cincinnati Reds (1876–present) (Referred to as Redlegs 1953-1958) Ballpark Great American Ball Park (2003–present) Riverfront Stadium (1970-2002) a. ... In Major League Baseball, the National League Western Division, or NL West, is one of three subdivisions of the National League. ... Major league affiliations National League (1892–present) Central Division (1994–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 1,2,6,9,14,17,20,42,45,85 Name St. ... The National League East Division is one of Major League Baseballs six divisions. ... Major league affiliations American League (1969–present) Central Division (1994–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 5,10,20,42 Name Kansas City Royals (1969–present) Ballpark Kauffman Stadium (1973–present) a. ...

Major League Baseball Final Standings

First Half of Season