Baseball has one of the best fan experience in sports, and 20 years ago today that was taken away from the people that love it the most. Sidney Crosby Jersey . Strikes and lockouts have not been a rarity in the professional sports world, but there is one that many will not forget. The 1994 Major League Baseball Players strike, which led the sport to lose its entire postseason due to a labour dispute, the first time that happened in a North American sports league. One of the main disputes that caused the Players to walk off the job was that the Owners wanted to install a salary cap, while the players opposed the idea. That disagreement plus a few others, led to a 232-day strike, cancelling not only the remainder of the regular season but also the postseason. The Montreal Expos were arguably the team that suffered the most; they had the best record in baseball, 74-40, despite having the second lowest payroll. They were six games ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the National League East Division when the season came to a halt. Success in strike years was not something new for the Expos, the only time the team punched their ticket to the playoffs was in 1981, during the last significant players strike. Following the resumption of the sport, the Expos moved a lot of their star players, which lead to an even bigger erosion of the fan base. Montreal was not the only market hit hard by the stoppage, many fans around the league decided to opt out of games when the players returned to the field. Attendance was at an all-time low, dropping 20% from the previous season. In 1994, prior to the strike, the average attendance was 31,256 in 1,600 games, while in 2,016 regular season games of the 1995 season they drew an average of 25,008 fans. Interest in the game was slow to return until the 1998 season when Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire started hitting home runs at record paces. The two sluggers may be the reason the love for baseball returned, their chase for the all-time single season home-run record grabbed the attention of former and current die-hard fans as well as casual viewers. The two players were looking to surpass New York Yankee Roger Maris record of 61 homers which he hit during the 1961 season. Both men had a competitive drive, but their personalities and newly formed friendship also helped them grab peoples attention. Maris single season record fell that year as Mark McGwire finished with 70 home runs and Sammy Sosa ended the season with 66 round trippers and though those marks have since been cast into doubt, there is no question about the lasting effect their work that season had on restoring fans of the game. Its been 20 years since the strike, how long did it take you to forgive baseball and come back? As always its Your! Call. Matt Hunwick Jersey . Once again, the third baseman delivered in a big spot. Ramirez kept up his torrid hitting with a two-run homer to help back Wily Peraltas solid start, and the Brewers extended their winning streak to seven with a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night. Paul Coffey Jersey . Villar connected off Joe Saunders (11-14), sending a drive well over the left-field fence for his first career homer. The Astros scored six times in the first three innings to chase Saunders. http://www.penguinsauthenticofficial.com/bryan-trottier-jersey/ . "Rob brings a wealth of coaching experience, having worked both in Canada and overseas in player development," Canada Soccer technical director Tony Fonseca said in a release. CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tony Stewart does not consider the Daytona 500 a disaster, despite the engine problems that spoiled his return to racing from a broken right leg. The three-time NASCAR champion wound up 35th in the season-opening race, but he logged enough laps during Speedweeks that he feels good going into the upcoming stretch of seven consecutive races. Stewart missed the final 15 races last year after breaking his leg in two places during a sprint car crash in Iowa. His first time back in a race car was Feb. 14, the day before he competed -- and was crashed out of -- the exhibition Sprint Unlimited. He also raced in the Budweiser Duel before the 500, giving him 672 miles of racing in three events. Stewart goes to Sundays race at Phoenix International Raceway "a lot more confident than I was before we got to Daytona." "I think having all the races that we ran, and actually getting in a crash, while not a great thing, allowed me to sort of test my leg and it felt good," Stewart said in a Stewart-Haas Racing team release. "There have been some little things that have felt a little different, but for the most part, its felt like an old pair of tennis shoes that youre just comfortable with. I think the whole time in Daytona exceeded my expectations of what I hoped it would be like." But the 500 itself was a letdown for SHR. Stewart had the engine issue and Danica Patrick was involved in a crash and finished 40th. It left only Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, the two newcomers to the organization, in contention for a solid finish and both had difficulties at the endd. Justin Schultz Jersey. Busch wound up 21st and Harvick was involved in the final accident of the race and finished a team-best 13th. Stewart said Sundays race at Phoenix will be a better indicator of where the team is than Daytona, one of only four restrictor-plate races on the schedule. "Daytona and Talladega have always just been two different forms of racing," Stewart said, referring to the necessary teamwork and drafting. "What happens at Phoenix and the races after that has to be done on your own. You cant help each other at Phoenix. You just have to go race." He likes his chances at Phoenix, where he has one win, eight top-fives and 12 top-10s in 23 career starts. Hes completed all but 14 of 7,257 laps on the 1-mile oval. But PIR is also the place that pushed Stewart into becoming a full-time race car driver in 1993. Still working eight-hour days at $5-an-hour at a machine shop in Columbus, Ind., Stewart headed West to run USAC Silver Crown season-opening Copper World Classic. He qualified second to Davey Hamilton, then led 31 of 50 laps before finishing second to Mike Bliss. Stewart earned $3,500 that day -- a payout that convinced him running the Silver Crown, Sprint and Midget races across the nation that year sounded a lot better than returning to the machine shop. He never looked back, learning how to adapt in every kind of car he drove out of "fear that Im going to have to get a real job if Im not successful. "To think that it all kind of started at Phoenix, I guess you could say its the place where my career came full-circle," he said. Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys 2019 Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '