Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 29: Strike one!

Saturday, April 1, 1972 saw a first in the history of Major League Baseball: all games were cancelled by a strike, which lasted just under two weeks. It ended on April 13, after owners agreed to increase payments into the players' pension fund by $500,000 (which was real money at the time) and add salary arbitration to the collective bargaining agreement.

While the strike started during exhibition season, it did run into the regular season and caused the cancellation of a number of games. They weren't replayed as owners refused to pay players for games they missed due to the strike. This resulted in teams not playing the same number of games, which fit right into the Curse of the Bambino, as the Detroit Tigers won the AL East by a half-game over the Boston Red Sox, who had played one fewer game than the Tigers.

This was only the first of many labor stoppages, from a lockout the following year that only delayed spring training to the 2021-22 lockout that delayed the start of the 2022 season.