Too Good To Be True

We know what you're wondering: How would the 1994 baseball season have come out? We hate to tell you—it came out great. It was one of the greatest seasons of all time, and you don't have to wait 30 years for David Halberstam to prove it with some pseudo-nostalgia like The Summer of '94. No, we're going to tell you right now about pennant races so stunningly satisfying (Cleveland? After 40 years?), with enough individual achievements (a .400 hitter at last!), that all of baseball history was seemingly compressed into just 162 games.

And that was just the regular season. Well, we won't get into how the postseason played out just yet. For the moment let's just say that under the new playoff format, the entry from the American League West, sub-.500 record and all, proved more entertaining than embarrassing. And without telling you how the World Series ended (seven games, back and forth—we'll tell you that much), we will remind you that it's not called the Fall Classic for nothing. And wouldn't it elevate your opinion of baseball to know that at season's end a certain shipbuilding tycoon was going to give up his interest in a certain pin-striped team based in, well, just as a hint, the Bronx?

But we're telling you too much, too soon. You knew what was at stake as the strike loomed last Thursday. Even as the collective greed of owners and players conspired toward yet another work stoppage, 14 different cities were still thinking pennant. Five—five!—players were on track to hit more than 50 home runs, and one of them was on track to hit 61 or 62. A pitcher was almost certain to win his third straight Cy Young Award, and another was bidding for a second consecutive 300-strikeout season.

It was a good season going into the strike. But you know what? And we hate to tell you this. It got really interesting starting, oh, shall we say, Aug. 12? Sure you were angry last week, with the season of a lifetime on the brink of being aborted. History denied—and for what? Something you didn't even understand? (Baseball cap, baseball salary...salary cap!) Relax. Sit back. Aren't you holding a copy of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED in your trembling hands? We've got the rest of the season right here.

Aug. 11: Just before midnight, President Clinton, who has bemoaned the prospect of a baseball strike as "heartbreaking for the American people," announces that owners' negotiator Richard Ravitch and players' union head Donald Fehr have signed a historic agreement to "cease hostilities." The players agree to have their income capped at 50% of the teams' revenue, just as the owners demanded. The players are apparently dazzled by a new clause in the collective bargaining agreement that promises free health care—for life. Los Angeles Dodger player rep Brett Butler explains: "It's called universal coverage." Fehr expresses relief. He has been getting as many as five calls a day from New York Met outfielder Bobby Bonilla, who stood to lose exactly $31,148 a day if the players walked out.

Aug. 13: The San Francisco Giants' Matt Williams crunches home run number 44 at San Diego. He is now projected to hit 60.925 home runs for the season. Sports columnists, confused by the figure, agree that such a total would require an asterisk. They do not believe it can be rounded off. In that same game the San Diego Padres' Tony Gwynn goes 4 for 4 to raise his average to .399. Again, the columnists do not believe it can be rounded off to .400. Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott is arrested for her continued defiance of the no-smoking ordinance in the seating area at Riverfront Stadium. She warns that she will "do hard time" before she ever agrees to "snuff my butts" in the owner's box.

Aug. 14: Minnesota Twin second baseman Chuck Knoblauch strokes two doubles in his first two at bats in Chicago. His challenge of the little-celebrated major league season record of 67 doubles, set by Earl Webb in 1931, is now genuine. In his next at bat, Knoblauch smokes one into the leftfield alley for a certain triple but halts at second. He shrugs his shoulders at third base coach Ron Gardenhire, who is imploring him to continue running. That's double number 48. Columnists decry the constant pursuit of records. Meanwhile, Seattle Mariner Ken Griffey Jr., in the fourth week of the team's 32-game road trip, launches his 41st and 42nd home runs, in Oakland. Columnists agree that he is "almost on pace" to break Roger Maris's record of 61 homers. Griffey is projected to hit 59.17. The Cleveland Indians continue to be a surprise in the American League Central, overtaking the Chicago White Sox; the Tribe leads the division by 1½ games. The Texas Rangers snap an eight-game losing streak and lead the AL West by two. White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell apparently goes AWOL; later, a photograph in Rolling Stone shows him jamming with Porno for Pyros at Woodstock '94.

Aug. 18: The Chicago Cubs complete a sweep of the Braves in Atlanta as Mike Morgan records his third win in 14 decisions. Shawon Dunston creeps past .300 on a 3-for-5 night. The Cubs are 6-0 since the strike deadline passed and are now in third place. An awful lot of information for a team that's 11½ back in the National League Central, don't you think?

Aug. 19: Matt Williams unloads number 47 against Pittsburgh, and his home run projection leaps to 62.403. Columnists agree that that figure will give him the record. However, the meaningful blast in the game comes from the rehabbing Darryl Strawberry, whose solo shot in the seventh gives the Giants a 5-4 victory and pushes them into first place in the National League West, ahead of the Dodgers. Los Angeles manager Tom Lasorda, whose team loses to the Florida Marlins, rehashes his old tirade: He can't understand how a player released by a team—for that player's own good!—is allowed to come back to haunt that team. However, not one word of the tirade is printable; audiotapes quickly circulate in the media underground. Marge Schott will not pay the fine for her misdemeanor offense; hard time looms.

Aug. 24: Frank Thomas of the White Sox adds to his Triple Crown numbers. He leads the league in batting (.361) and RBIs (116) but now trails Ken Griffey Jr. in home runs, by two. After belting two homers in Toronto, Griffey now has 45. He is "not quite on pace." The New York Yankees' Jimmy Key (17-5) drops his second straight decision, and the Yankees' lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East is trimmed to 2½ games. Black Jack McDowell returns to the White Sox. "His eyes look like pinwheels," says teammate Ozzie Guillen.