Baseball Labor Stoppages

1972

April 1-13: Players and owners settle on a four-year pension plan agreement. Eighty-six games postponed by the strike are not rescheduled. The season opens April 15. Result: Salary arbitration for players with more than two years of service.

1973

Feb. 8-25: Owners refuse to allow spring training to be held without a collective-bargaining agreement. No games are affected. Result: Three-year agreement that establishes salary arbitration for players with two or more years of major league service.

1976

March 1-17: Owners refuse to start spring training as scheduled on March 1 until a new agreement is reached. On March 17, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn orders training camps opened. Result: On July 12, players and owners reach a four-year agreement that establishes procedure for free agency. Players with at least six years of service may become free agents but then must wait five years before becoming a free agent again.

1980

April 1-8: Players strike final eight days of spring training, forcing cancellation of 92 exhibition games. Result: Players and owners reach a four-year agreement but allow the issue of free agency to be reopened the next season.

1981

June 12-July 31: Players stage first midseason strike in baseball history. The strike ends after 50 days and 712 canceled games. Result: Agreement extends existing contract one year through Dec. 31, 1984. Season restarts after All-Star game. First-half division winners play second-half winners in the first divisional playoffs.

1985

Aug. 6-7: After a two-day strike, players and owners reach a five-year agreement. Result: Salary arbitration eligibility is increased from two to three years. The 25 strike-affected games are made up.

1990

Feb. 15-March 18: Owners lock the players out of spring training. Result: Agreement is reached on a four-year contract. Season starts April 9, a week behind schedule. The 78 games postponed by the lockout are rescheduled.

1994-95

Aug. 12-March 31: Players go on strike Aug. 12, and the rest of the regular season, the playoffs and World Series are canceled Sept. 14. Players end the 232-day strike after a judge upholds a National Labor Relations Board claim of unfair labor practice by the owners and restores all terms and conditions of the expired bargaining contract. But a new deal, which includes a luxury tax, revenue sharing and the introduction of interleague play, isn’t ratified by the owners until Nov. 26, 1996.