1994 World Series

1994 World Series
< 1993 World Series 1995 >

The 1994 World Series was canceled on September 14 of that year due to an ongoing strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association, which had begun on August 12. It was only the second time in the event's history (the first was in 1904) that the Fall Classic was not played.

Playoffs

This was to have been the first year of a regularly scheduled three-tier playoff system, with the NL and AL divided into three divisions (East, Central, and West) at the start of the 1994 season. (An unscheduled three-tier system was used in 1981 due to the shortening of the season by a mid-season labor dispute.) The new playoff system (involving a wild card team in each league) did not go into effect until the 1995 postseason. Had the postseason taken place based on team records as of August 11, the participants in each division series would have been determined as follows:

  Division Series League Championship Series World Series
                           
  East  New York Yankees 0  
WC  Cleveland Indians 0  
  East/WC  NYY/CLE 0  
American League
  Central/West  CHW/TEX 0  
Central  Chicago White Sox 0
  West  Texas Rangers 0  
    AL  NYY/CHW/CLE/TEX 0
  NL  MON/CIN/LAD/ATL 0
  East  Montreal Expos 0  
West  Los Angeles Dodgers 0  
  East/West  MON/LAD 0
National League
  Central/WC  CIN/ATL 0  
Central  Cincinnati Reds 0
  WC  Atlanta Braves 0  

Atlanta Braves' run of division titles

Because division champions from 1994 are unofficial, the Atlanta Braves are officially credited with winning 14 consecutive division titles from 1991 to 2005, winning the NL West in the final three years of the two–division system and then winning 11 consecutive NL East titles from 1995 to 2005. At the time of the season's cancellation, however, the Braves were in second place in the NL East at 68–46, six games behind the Montreal Expos. The 11 titles from 1995 to 2005 are an MLB record nonetheless. The Braves had a 2 1⁄2-game lead over the Houston Astros for the NL wild card at the time the rest of the season was canceled.

"Unofficial" champions

The Associated Press writers, at the end of the aborted season, chose to name "unofficial" champions when naming their Managers of the Year as Felipe Alou of the Expos and Buck Showalter of the Yankees, who were leading when the season abruptly ended. The next season's All-Star Game managers are, by tradition, the managers of last year's league champions; and so the leagues chose to name those unofficial league champion managers of 1994 to the traditional honor of managing the 1995 All-Star Game.

Television coverage

The 1994 World Series was scheduled to air on ABC, in the first year of six-year-long joint venture with Major League Baseball, ABC and NBC called "The Baseball Network." Because this Series was cancelled, ABC and NBC shared broadcast rights to the 1995 World Series, after which the joint venture was ended, and Fox started televising MLB games the following season. Fox and NBC would alternate World Series telecasts from 1996 up to 2000, after which Fox held exclusive rights to all subsequent editions.

Home field advantage

The 1994 World Series was supposed to have the AL champion open at home for the second year in a row because the playoffs were expanded to include the new wild-card round.[1][2] Up to 1994, the NL champion opened the World Series at home in even-numbered years and the AL champion in odd-numbered years, with this then being reversed starting 1995 because of the missed 1994 World Series. From 1995 to 2002, the NL champion had home field advantage in odd-numbered years and AL in even-numbered years. Beginning in 2003, the league that won the All-Star Game had its champion open the World Series at home.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lupica, Mike (October 22, 1994). "Empty Feeling". Newsday. p. A42. The World Series was supposed to start tonight.
  2. ↑ Walker, Ben (October 23, 1994). "Game 1 of World Series passes by". Associated Press. Because of the expanded playoffs, including the new wild-card round, the World Series schedule had been flipped this season to open again at the home of the AL champion.

External links

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