From this thread. Just bringing this comment to a place where I can comment.
Now, now. That was a long time ago, and he did save baseball from the disastrous strike. Him and Sammy. Mostly him.
The notion they “Saved baseball” from the strike is just untrue. Baseball was fine, and was growing before the 1998 homer fest.
Per game attendance plummeted in 1995, after the strike (and with some doubt the season would begin at all) but immediately began recovering:
1993 (Year before strike): 29,762
1994 (Strike year): 31,176
1995 (Post strike): 25,089
1996: 26,721
1997: 27,867
1998 (Home run record year): 28,675
1999: 29,274
The attendance gains in 1998 and 1999 are exactly proportional to the attendance gains in 1996 and 1997. Those gains continued, more or less, until 2007, which was the all time high of 33,924 fans per game; it fell a bit after that due to the Great Recession, and remains plateaued at approximately 30000-31000 or so. In terms of year over year attendance the largest gain since the strike was between 1995 and 1996 - not in 1998. There is absolutely no evidence at all the home run chase had a measurable effect on MLB attendance growth.
I know that seems like a very odd thing, but the numbers are right there. And if you think through this, it actually makes sense. Only so many games involved Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, after all. Their teams did see significant attendance increases; the Cubs drew 433,000 more fans, the Cardinals 541,000 more. (The Cubs were also in a pennant race, and made the playoffs for the first time in nine years, and that increases attendance, too.) But spread out over the entire majors that’s not THAT many, and team differences seem to be based on things other than one guy. In fact the largest increase was actually in Anaheim, which of course couldn’t have had anything to do with the McGwire/Sosa race. And one of the largest attendance collapses was the Chicago White Sox, which suggests some of the enhanced Cubs attendance was just vulturing fans in the same market.
It’s neat to think baseball was saved by heroic home run feats. It wasn’t. Baseball was very successful already and continued to be; it was never in trouble. Even the year after the strike, when attendance slipped, it was still quite high; the per game attendance in 1995 was higher than any other year in the history of the major leagues prior to 1988.
In Anaheim, the increase is due to the compete remodel of the old Anaheim stadium to baseball only. It went from the old multipurpose stadium that used to host the Angels and Rams to the current stadium of today.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Were there any new cable or other TV contracts that happened after the strike or 1998 that would have led to the perception that McSosa “saved” baseball, since there would be more eyes on the sport overall?
Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game record in 1995. That was a genuine feel-good moment for baseball.
1995 was also the first year for the expanded playoffs (wild card) which meant more late-season playoff opportunities.
Interleague play began in 1997.
Two expansion teams were added in 1998, and Milwaukee shifted from the NL to the AL.
And THEN McGwire and Sosa had their chase.
The answers are very much what I expected, and actually agree with. Facts and all. Don’t know about TV ratings, though. Because, I remember the national despondency, and so many people, even some I knew, statistically insignificant, who would never-go-to-a-stadium-again, and remember how the Markster seemed to make it all go away. Until we found out. The quoted comment was about steroids. Mark used steroids. He’s now being eclipsed; eclipsed, get it?, by mightier warriors than him. Did it ever really matter?