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Post by castletonsnob on Mar 19, 2017 17:50:12 GMT -5
How would things be different if the 1994 MLB Strike never happened? Would baseball still be the #1 sport in America?
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Sam Punk
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Post by Sam Punk on Mar 19, 2017 21:01:40 GMT -5
Expos would still be in Montreal.
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sfvega
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Post by sfvega on Mar 19, 2017 21:20:52 GMT -5
No, both the NFL and NBA were trending up huge. The NBA still is. There was really no way that MLB would be the #1 sport today or even 15 years ago. The HR race helped the MLB regain popularity to about the same way they were before. Baseball fans don't really stay away from the game, but casual fans have been increasingly hard to capture for baseball and now their once in a 100 years events (Cubs and Sox) are gone, there's even less of a gimmick reason going forward. The strike really fudged things in the short term, but the difference at this point in where they are and where they could be is completely negligible to me.
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Post by The Barber on Mar 20, 2017 1:46:09 GMT -5
How would things be different if the 1994 MLB Strike never happened? Would baseball still be the #1 sport in America? Montreal might have won and baseball would still be in it's same position it's at now (a distant #3, possibly #4 or #5 if you count college sports).
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Post by Can you afford to pay me, Gah on Mar 20, 2017 4:05:57 GMT -5
The only different would be there wouldn't have that slump post strike pre Home run chase. The popularity of the game was never going to reach NFL levels. The NBA and MLB is a battle for #2. ESPN morning radio like first and last would make you think MLB or the NHL don't exist, the only time I've heard anybody on that show talk about baseball was when A-Rod was having his last at bats and when the Cubs won. The playoff itself hardly anything until it was over with and they still manage to find ways to get NBA into that situation. It's nuts and sucks that it all that is on when I drive to work for sports.
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sfvega
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Post by sfvega on Mar 20, 2017 6:28:42 GMT -5
The only different would be there wouldn't have that slump post strike pre Home run chase. The popularity of the game was never going to reach NFL levels. The NBA and MLB is a battle for #2. ESPN morning radio like first and last would make you think MLB or the NHL don't exist, the only time I've heard anybody on that show talk about baseball was when A-Rod was having his last at bats and when the Cubs won. The playoff itself hardly anything until it was over with and they still manage to find ways to get NBA into that situation. It's nuts and sucks that it all that is on when I drive to work for sports. I really respect your opinion, but it's no race. NBA is running away with the #2 spot and is going to be competing soon for #1 if you trust projections. Younger demos watch NBA more than the NFL.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 14:06:16 GMT -5
White Sox beat Montreal in 5 games to win the Series. That Sox team was loaded. I dare say they were better than they were in 2005.
Could Frank have hit .400? Maybe. Could Tony Gwynn hit .400? Very possible. Could Matt Williams and Ken Griffey Jr. break Maris' record? Definitely.
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Ben Wyatt
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Post by Ben Wyatt on Mar 20, 2017 14:23:33 GMT -5
I forget the exact details, but Sammy Sosa would have been a member of the Boston Red Sox.
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Post by Porky's Butthole on Mar 20, 2017 14:44:21 GMT -5
-Matt Williams breaks Maris' record.
-Cleveland makes ALCS at LEAST. (god what a stacked f***ing team)
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Post by Can you afford to pay me, Gah on Mar 20, 2017 17:01:05 GMT -5
The only different would be there wouldn't have that slump post strike pre Home run chase. The popularity of the game was never going to reach NFL levels. The NBA and MLB is a battle for #2. ESPN morning radio like first and last would make you think MLB or the NHL don't exist, the only time I've heard anybody on that show talk about baseball was when A-Rod was having his last at bats and when the Cubs won. The playoff itself hardly anything until it was over with and they still manage to find ways to get NBA into that situation. It's nuts and sucks that it all that is on when I drive to work for sports. I really respect your opinion, but it's no race. NBA is running away with the #2 spot and is going to be competing soon for #1 if you trust projections. Younger demos watch NBA more than the NFL. See I don't follow the NBA to know the ratings difference between them and a MLB game. Hard to being that the closest team to me is the Bulls or OK. The NFL yeah I lost a ton of interest after the whole Rams deal, now I'm not saying I was one of those full blown boycott of the league but I wasn't as into it as I was before and honestly the NFL as a league is a double end lite fuse at this point. With these teams moves and pissing off fan bases and greed I feel soon as long Goodell is commissioner its going to blow up in his face.
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Renslayer
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Post by Renslayer on Mar 22, 2017 2:20:12 GMT -5
Even if the strike never happened, the nfl was bound to pass them in popularity soon enough.
On the field, the Expos probably beat the Indians in the World Series in 7 games. Those 90s Indians lineups were fearsome
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Reflecto
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Post by Reflecto on Mar 22, 2017 22:47:52 GMT -5
Even if the strike never happened, the nfl was bound to pass them in popularity soon enough. That's the problem- the strike may not have helped, but the Internet was going to break out in 1995, and with it Fantasy sports were about to change forever from Rotisserie baseball and what it was, to what fantasy's become. Because of that, the NFL, which is a far easier fantasy sports games to deal with than the far more indepth, long season of baseball...and that'd rise football to overtake MLB.
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pegasuswarrior
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Post by pegasuswarrior on Mar 23, 2017 18:56:10 GMT -5
This is very fair question to pose. It's not at all far-fetched. Major League Baseball was huge. And much respect to its fan base because it's the one sport where the powers that be gave its base the middle finger and they responded by walking away. NFL does that same thing (short of a strike) on the reg and still people ask, "Well, that sucks, but may I have another?"
I think there's a shot it would still be over like rover. And also--more importantly--some of the asinine things they've tried to do to trick people into watching, rather than letting baseball be baseball, would've never happened.
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Mar 24, 2017 11:36:29 GMT -5
The only different would be there wouldn't have that slump post strike pre Home run chase. The popularity of the game was never going to reach NFL levels. The NBA and MLB is a battle for #2. ESPN morning radio like first and last would make you think MLB or the NHL don't exist, the only time I've heard anybody on that show talk about baseball was when A-Rod was having his last at bats and when the Cubs won. The playoff itself hardly anything until it was over with and they still manage to find ways to get NBA into that situation. It's nuts and sucks that it all that is on when I drive to work for sports. I really respect your opinion, but it's no race. NBA is running away with the #2 spot and is going to be competing soon for #1 if you trust projections. Younger demos watch NBA more than the NFL. I just think in general the athletic people that played football will go back into Basketball. I am sure some kids are taking note of the young guys retiring early and with the guaranteed money you can make in basketball, I see that ultimately being the choice for kids that we will began to see in maybe 5 to 6 years
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trust
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Post by trust on Mar 24, 2017 12:30:53 GMT -5
NFL has been number one long before the strike in the MLB happened. I am not sure sure if NBA will ever be more popular than NFL in the US. However, I do predict in the next 50 years basketball will be the most popular sport in the world.
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Post by Lupin the Third on Mar 24, 2017 12:54:46 GMT -5
Montreal Expos: 1994 World Series Champions.
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sfvega
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Post by sfvega on Mar 24, 2017 17:20:22 GMT -5
I really respect your opinion, but it's no race. NBA is running away with the #2 spot and is going to be competing soon for #1 if you trust projections. Younger demos watch NBA more than the NFL. I just think in general the athletic people that played football will go back into Basketball. I am sure some kids are taking note of the young guys retiring early and with the guaranteed money you can make in basketball, I see that ultimately being the choice for kids that we will began to see in maybe 5 to 6 years This dialogue about the shift already started probably around when Head Games came out. That parents are going to stop letting their kids play football and that's going to bleed into the talent pool for basketball and even baseball. Basketball's talent pool is due to spike. It's also going to eventually affect the talent pool in football and possibly result in a worse product.
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Unocal 76
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Post by Unocal 76 on Mar 28, 2017 18:24:10 GMT -5
Baseball was at a point where its best teams were no longer the biggest talk in all of sports.
This wasn't like when the 1986 Mets were a team whose appeal went beyond New York.
By 1994, the New York Rangers' Stanley Cup run and the Dallas Cowboys/San Francisco 49ers dueling at the top of the NFL made them arguably bigger teams than the Blue Jays who had just gone back-to-back.
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Phil Parent
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Post by Phil Parent on Mar 29, 2017 15:30:41 GMT -5
Well, I wouldn't be reading an article about how the investors that want to bring back the Expos have everything figured out about the money they needed and the new stadium and are just waiting for Manfred's go to start building...
They would have never left. And would have won the World Series. That "Best Team In Baseball In 1994" banner MLB gave us 3-4 years ago IS super cool, but it's not the same.
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Post by Vice honcho room temperature on Apr 21, 2017 7:33:27 GMT -5
You think Tony Gwynn would have hit .400?
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