We'll never know if Matt Williams, who had 43 homers and was on pace for 61, could have been the first to break Roger Maris' home-run record, squashing the great juiced homer race of '98 between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. 394 batting average, the highest of any player since Ted Williams in 1941. We will never know whether Gwynn could have hit. "When the strike hit and we decided to go with replacement players, Michael could not be part of that.'' "I think he would have definitely given it one more year if not for the strike,'' Reinsdorf told USA TODAY Sports. He sat out and then announced in March he was returning to the NBA, winning three more titles with the Bulls, but giving up his dream of playing in the major leagues. Yet with the strike still going on, Jordan refused to cross the picket line and play with the replacement players. He refused to give up, played in the Arizona Fall League and vowed to return to the White Sox's spring training camp in 1995. Jordan spent the season at Class AA Birmingham (Ala.), hitting just. Jordan began playing baseball in 1994 for the White Sox, also owned by Bulls' owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Who played in the world series last year free#
While free agents worked out at local high schools during the offseason, and others headed to Homestead, Fla., there was Jordan, who had retired from the Chicago Bulls in 1993 after nine seasons and three NBA titles. "It's weird, of all of the walks I ever had in my career (770), that's the only one I remember.'' I'm going to go up there and try to hit a home run.' I ended up walking. "And I remember walking up to the plate, and thinking, 'This could be my last at-bat ever.
"We were playing our last game against the Orioles in Baltimore,'' Brunansky says.
The longer the strike dragged out, and the more he hung around his three young kids, he told his agent he was done. Tom Brunansky, who helped lead the Minnesota Twins to the 1987 World Series title with 32 homers, also planned to play one more season after 1994 and return to the Red Sox, thinking they had the team to finally end their World Series drought.
If we hadn't gone through all that and the union had been broken, we would have been like football.'' "Guys like me and Rickey (Henderson), we paved the way for all of these big salaries and the money they're' making today. It was my fifth strike or lockout, and I was pretty much done, but I was proud what we were able to accomplish. "I had pretty much done everything in baseball," says Henderson, who ended his career with the Kansas City Royals. "That's what it was like back in those days.''īy the time 1995 rolled around, the strike gave players an option most never had considered. He bought me some beers, and I wandered the street all night. "I remember getting to Chicago, opening day was the next day, and we went on strike. When I made the White Sox as a rookie, I was literally broke. We didn't have the money like the guys today. "The owners always tried to stick it to us, but we weren't going to let them break that union. Gossage's Hall of Fame career began with a strike as a rookie in 1972 with the Chicago White Sox and ended with the 1994 strike with the Seattle Mariners, with six work stoppages in between. They have no idea the blood, sweat and tears we went through.'' "Most of these guys in the big leagues today,'' Gossage says, "they don't have any freakin' clue on how they're being paid all of this money. Gossage and former pitcher Charlie Hough are the only two players in baseball history who endured all eight work stoppages, while many of today's greatest stars, such as New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, never have lived through one. Even today, 20 years later, I still haven't announced my retirement. "The strike got me, man,'' Gossage told USA TODAY Sports. Yet for so many others, from Hall of Famer Goose Gossage to Bo Jackson to Sid Bream to Lloyd McClendon, they never would play another major league game.
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