1994 changed all that with the stupid strike. I thought the owners were to blame as much as the players. They could have called the player's bluffs and brought in replacements (in addition to their manager and two coaches) as the Detroit Tigers did when the players went on strike in 1912 to protest a suspension of outfield star Ty Cobb. Detroit lost the game, of course, but the point was made and Cobb urged the players to return.
The game was all the more remarkable because they were on the road and their players had to be recruited from a North Philadelphia neighborhood. You can look it up. May 18, 1912. The unplanned appearance raised Coach Deacon McGuire's career total to 26 Major League seasons, a record which would not be surpassed until 1993, by Nolan Ryan.
Thanks for the info. I was unaware of that episode! Baseball history is endlessly fascinating to me!
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechfieldofdreams.html
Ray, people will come, Ray.
They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past.
“Of course, we won’t mind if you look around,” you’ll say. “It’s only twenty dollars per person.” They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they lack.
And they’ll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game, and it’ll be as if they’d dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.
People will come, Ray.
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.
America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.
This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.
Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.
The Yankees and White Sox will be playing a game at the Field of Dreams in 2020.