In a late game on the west coast, the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics were playing what turned out to be the final game of the 1994 season. Infielder Torey Lovullo, then with the Mariners, remembers it well. “We walked off the field and got in the clubhouse and everybody looked at one another and said, ‘What now?’”
By Arizona Republic
Baseball stadiums across America were quiet on Thursday, empty and eerie. Instead of Opening Day – normally reserved for big crowds and flyovers – baseball season officially entered a stoppage, a postponement aimed at helping contain a deadly virus.
In early spring baseball typically joins the NBA, NHL and college basketball in sports’ busiest point on the calendar. Instead, every stadium and arena is dark.
Every big four sport has dealt with shutdowns before, and although the parallels to what’s happening today aren’t perfect, there are common feelings of loss, of not knowing what to do, of not knowing when things will return to normal.
When sports should be happening but aren’t, fans and athletes alike share the sensation of an itch that cannot be scratched.
Here are some memories from few former athletes who were impacted by past work stoppages.
