Thank you, McFarland, for providing this book for review consideration in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished The Year Without A World Series: Major League Baseball And The Road To The 1994 Players’ Strike, by Robert C. Cottrell.

This was an excellent look at the 1994-95 baseball strike. Just like all of the other work stoppages in baseball history, it was caused by the owners. This book did a great job looking at the issues and events that led to the strike, along with the attempts by the players (with the owners having no real interest) in trying to end to it. It wasn’t until Sonia Sotomayor, then a federal district court judge, ruled in the players’ favor in their NLRB grievance that the owners were not bargaining in good faith and issued an injunction that the strike came to an end. Even that, the players had a lot of fear that the owners would just turn it into a lockout, but they chose not to.

In addition to the coverage of the strike, the book also provides a very good look at the history of baseball labor relations going to back to the 19th century, as well as a month by month look at what was happening on the field during the shortened season.

I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on September 16, 2024.