Do you remember where you were Sept. 14, 1994, the night the World Series was canceled?
New York-based Rob Manfred, a lead negotiator for the owners, does.
“I was actually in Pittsburgh, I think for a wedding,” Manfred said. “I learned on a conference call it was going to be canceled.”
Kansas City-based Steve Fehr, a chief negotiator for the players union, remembers the night, though not fondly.
“My wife and I were at holy-day services, Rosh Hashanah,” Fehr said. “We went out to dinner afterward. Not a pleasant evening for me.”
Fifteen-and-a-half years later, both sides view the death of the 1994 World Series as the responsibility of the other side.
“We didn’t cancel anything,” Manfred said. “We had no ability to play anything. The players were on strike. The commissioner has been unfairly blamed for that. We didn’t have the option. We had no players.”
Fehr has a much different take.
“I, of course, will never forget when I was called to go to New York right before the (strike) deadline,” Fehr said of Aug. 11, 1994, three years to the day before my hole-in-one. “The Royals won 14 in a row. David Cone and Kevin Appier were pitching extremely well. I fantasized I would go to New York, there would be a settlement, the Royals would make the playoffs and make a deep run to the World Series. When I got to New York, it seemed as though there was no interest in a settlement. From our viewpoint, the owners had little or no interest in bargaining.”
Now, when they aren’t disagreeing on how to slice up the pie, Fehr and Manfred enjoy each other’s company. Manfred will be Fehr’s guest Monday at the Oklahoma-Kansas basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse.
That’s if they’re still speaking to each other after putting on an open-to-the-public program from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at KU School of Law, Green Hall, Room 104. They will take questions from the audience. The two men entertained an audience there three years ago with a similar program. Fehr promised if Manfred came back, he’d treat him to a game.
Thanks in part to both men, there hasn’t been a Major League Baseball work stoppage since the mother of all sports labor disputes wiped out the ’94 World Series that would have been won by the Expos. Or White Sox. Or Yankees. Or Royals. Or Reds. Or …
“I think we have a much better relationship than we’ve ever had and certainly way better than we had at that point in time,” Manfred said of the players and owners.
Fehr agreed, with an it’s-all-relative qualifier.
“It is probably the best it’s ever been, certainly in the nearly 30 years I’ve worked in baseball,” said Fehr, a season-ticket holder for the Royals and KU football, basketball and women’s basketball. “But that’s sort of like saying this is Baylor’s best basketball team.”
Spoken like the true KU fan that he is.
Manfred said of Fehr: “Steve, from my perspective, has always been a voice of reason and an advocate for compromise and clear thinking.”
The things people will say to get a good seat in Allen Fieldhouse.
