pitch five no-hitters in his career. In 1989, Ryan at
the age of forty-two became the first pitcher to re-
cord five thousand career strikeouts. During the
1980’s, five pitchers reached their career three hun-
dredth victory.
Impact The 1980’s introduced regular-season
work stoppages to professional baseball. Combined
with the drug and gambling scandals of the decade,
the players strikes led fans to become disillusioned
with the sport colloquially referred to as “America’s
pastime.” However, the nation simultaneously main-
tained idealized and cynical attitudes toward the
sport, as demonstrated by the many popular movies—
The Natural(1984),Eight Men Out(1988),Bull Dur-
ham(1988), andField of Dreams(1989)—that either
romanticized the game, debunked its myths, or
sought to do both at once.
Further Reading
Koppett, Leonard.Koppett’s Concise Histor y of Major
League Baseball.Exp. ed. New York: Carroll &
Graf, 2004. Provides an overview and explanation
of significant events in baseball since the nine-
teenth century.
Miller, Marvin.A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside
Stor y of the Baseball Revolution.Chicago: Ivan R.
Dee, 2004. Analyzes the changes that occurred in
baseball as a result of player arbitration.
Reston, James.Collision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete
Rose and Bart Giamatti. Lincoln: University of Ne-
braska Press, 1997. Reviews the controversial deci-
sion to ban Pete Rose from baseball.
Solomon, Burt.The Baseball Timeline.New York: DK,
- Provides year-to-year accounts of baseball
events beginning with 1845.
Thorn, John.Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia
of Major League Baseball.7th ed. Kingston, N.Y.: To-
tal Sports, 2001. Includes extensive coverage on
Baseball
Tygiel, Jules.Past Time: Baseball as Histor y.New York:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Includes a chapter
on baseball fantasies in the 1980’s.
Voight, David Q.American Baseball. 3 vols. University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983.
In-depth three-volume history of baseball.
War, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns.Baseball: An Illus-
trated Histor y.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Text companion to the twenty-one-hour video
documentary on baseball by Ken Burns.
Alar Lipping
See also Baseball strike of 1981; Brett, George;
Hershiser, Orel; Jackson, Bo; Rose, Pete; Ryan,
Nolan; SkyDome; Sports; Ueberroth, Peter; Valen-
zuela, Fernando.Baseball strike of 1981.
The Event Fifty-day work stoppage by Major
League Baseball players during the regular
season
Date June 12 to July 31, 1981
The second strike in Major League Baseball’s histor y re-
sulted in the cancellation of more than one-third of the sea-
son. Resulting from a dispute over free-agent player move-
ment and rising salaries, the strike temporarily alienated
baseball fans, but attendance soon rebounded later in the
decade.
Major League Baseball’s Basic Agreement, a collec-
tive bargaining agreement between the team owners
and the Major League Baseball Players Association,
expired in 1980. Despite a one-year cooling-off pe-
riod, the players’ union, led by Marvin Miller, could
not concur with the owners on the terms of a new
agreement. Owners were determined to cap the
players’ escalating salaries and to limit free agency
by requiring that any team that lost a free-agent
player to another team receive significant compen-
sation. Miller and the players argued that teams were
still making profits despite their higher salaries and
that compensation requirements would inhibit
teams from bidding on free agents. When the own-
ers threatened to institute their own interpretation
of restricted free agency, the players walked out on
June 12.
During the fifty-day strike, the players lost approx-
imately $30 million in salaries but stayed relatively
united. The average player forfeited about $50,000.
Team owners had a $50 million strike insurance pol-
icy, but they still probably lost close to $70 million in
revenue. With the imminent prospect of a canceled
season, several owners and Commissioner Bowie
Kuhn panicked and renewed negotiations. An
agreement was announced July 31. Owners would
receive minor compensation for lost free agents, but
not enough significantly to inhibit free agency. The
rise in salaries continued unabated.
Play resumed on August 9 with the All-Star Game
in Cleveland, and the regular season began the fol-The Eighties in America Baseball strike of 1981 93