Practice Fields Remain Quiet as the Lockout Drags On

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Baseball in glove on calendar

If they weren’t there already, this week the first pitchers and catchers would have been reporting to American Family Fields of Phoenix in advance of the official opening of Major League Baseball’s spring training camps on Feb. 15. Instead, the facility’s practice fields and training spaces will largely remain quiet and might be that way for a while.

Monday, Feb. 7 is the 67th day since the owners locked out the players following the expiration of their collective bargaining agreement with the MLBPA, and progress toward a new agreement has been slow at best: Following the lockout the owners did not make a proposal for six weeks, then held just a handful of meetings that were largely reported using words like “contentious” and “heated,” and declared many of the players’ top priorities non-negotiable.

While both sides still have some time to figure things out, the early spring training games are in serious peril at this point and the opening weeks of the season are not far behind them. The Brewers have played just four abbreviated-but-completed seasons in their 53-year franchise history (plus the 1994 season, which was halted in August and not completed). Those four seasons might serve as something of a precedent if a work stoppage encroaches upon the start of the start of 2022’s schedule, so what follows is a look back at what happened, what worked and what didn’t.

1972

What happened: A dispute over the MLB pension plan (it had previously been funded as a portion of the league’s national TV revenue, but owners refused to disclose the terms of new TV contracts) led to a player strike that wiped out the first week of the MLB season. A total of 83 games were cancelled before the season opened on April 15, with teams starting the schedule where they were supposed to be on that day.

Precedents set: The brief nature of this work stoppage and the fact that baseball was back by mid-April mean that this abbreviated season is often a footnote, if it’s mentioned at all, in the larger history of baseball’s labor relations. While this strike is a turning point in the history of the MLBPA (as documented in Dayn Perry of CBS Sports’ recent look back on the year’s events), the work stoppage didn’t have a lasting impact on the public narrative around the game.

What didn’t work: Because teams simply picked up where they would have been on April 15, the schedules were both uneven and unfair. This issue led to a controversial outcome in the American League East, where the first place Tigers made the postseason after playing one more game than the Red Sox, who finished the season tied with Detroit in the loss column. Given this memory, it’s likely future abbreviated schedules, if necessary, will be rebuilt to ensure teams play the same number of games. 

1981

What happened: A dispute over compensation for teams that lost players in free agency led to a seven-week strike from mid-June through July. The owners had sought to implement a “free agent draft,” where a team losing a player to free agency would be able to draft a player away from their former player’s new team. A total of 713 games, more than a third of the schedule, were cancelled due to the strike and when play resumed a one-time playoff structure was created where each division’s leaders from the first and second half would face off in the first-ever “Division Series” and determine which teams advanced to the Championship Series round.

Precedents set: While the 1981 season was significantly abbreviated and the postseason changes to the sport were unprecedented, the end result proved that fans and historians alike would still treat the outcome of an unusual season as legitimate. Despite major changes to the season and postseason’s structure, there is no asterisk in any record books next to the Dodgers’ World Series win this year.

What didn’t work: Rewarding the best team from the first and second half in each division had an unintended consequence: In the National League the two teams with the best overall records in their divisions, the Cardinals and Reds, each missed the postseason because they had not led either half. The eventual World Series champion Dodgers would not have reached the postseason under the sport’s usual playoff format.

1995

What happened: The player strike that abruptly ended the 1994 season and led to the cancellation of the World Series was not resolved in time for the 1995 season to open as scheduled.  The regular season did not begin until April 26, and 18 games were lopped off of each team’s schedule.

Precedents set: Despite all the hostility the sport had generated during the strike, the abbreviated season is still treated as legitimate and its results are not questioned or treated any differently from other campaigns. Like 1972, this season demonstrates that a relatively small delay to the start of the season likely does not have a lasting impact in the narrative around the game.

What didn’t work: While the 1995 schedule was not a disaster, the season’s bigger story was the aftermath and remaining ill feelings toward the sport from 1994’s abrupt finish. All but three of MLB’s then-28 teams saw per-game attendance decline in 1995, with a median decrease of over 6000 fans per game or about 25% of tickets sold. The aftermath of 1994 sets a chilling precedent for what it could look like afterward if a work stoppage drags on.

2020

What happened: A global pandemic suddenly halted spring training in March and the pause lingered into July, when teams held brief “summer camps” in preparation for a 60-game schedule played in empty stadiums.

Precedents set: The biggest takeaway from the 2020 season might be how quickly teams were able to go from “at home” to Opening Day. Players did not report to their respective teams’ training camps until July 1 and no on-field workouts were permitted until July 3, but the season opened just 20 days later on July 23. Using that timeline as a minimum, the 2022 season could feasibly still start on time if an agreement is reached on a new CBA by roughly March 8-10.

What didn’t work: Empty stadium games and an extremely unbalanced schedule that effectively divided the sport into three pods are both unlikely to ever be repeated in anything but an extreme scenario. Two of the special rules adapted for this season, seven innings games for doubleheaders and starting a runner on second base in extra innings, did continue into 2021 but are not expected to remain for 2022.