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Since When Does Eleven Equal Fourteen?

© Harold Friend

The media have been harping on the fact (sic) that the Atlanta Braves are on the verge of winning their fourteenth (read that as eleventh) consecutive division title. Why should the media report baseball news any differently from the way they report hard news? Why should the media exempt Americans from psychological operations when reporting baseball?

Listen up folks. The Montreal Expos won the 1994 National League Eastern Division title. Tony Gwynn batted .394 to win the batting title, Matt Williams led the league with 43 home runs, Jeff Bagwell was the RBI leader with 116, and Greg Maddox's 1.56 was the best ERA. It's okay to list individual champions but revealing division champions is too sensitive because it triggers unpleasant memories.

One of the most respected reference sources is www.baseball-almanac.com. When listing the Atlanta Braves' division titles, there is NO title listed for 1994. Do you know WHY there is NO title listed for 1994? Because Atlanta DIDN'T win any title in 1994. That's why there is no title listed. The Expos won the title but didn't go to the playoffs because there WEREN'T any playoffs, a fact that the media would like fans to forget.

What would major league baseball and the media like the fans to forget? Don't tell me that even YOU have forgotten. Of course we all remember that there was a player's strike following the games of August 12, 1994. That was it for the season. That was it for the playoffs (euphemistically referred to as the League Division Series and the League Championship Series, but a playoff series by any other name is a playoff series) and of greater significance, the World Series.

For the first time since 1869, there was no national professional baseball champion. Did the media ever mention that fact? Baseball became the first major sport in history to lose its championship games to a labor dispute, an ignominious record that recently was matched by the National Hockey League. The public was not too pleased.

The Braves won the National League WEST title in 1991, 1992, and 1993. They have won the National East title every season since 1995. They finished second in the East in 1994. Despite war being peace, freedom being slavery, and ignorance being strength, the Braves didn't win the 1994 National League Eastern Division Championship.

On a delayed 1995 opening day, three men, with shirts that stated "Greed," jumped onto the Shea Stadium field and tossed $1 bills at the players. A plane flying over Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium dragged a sign with the following message: "Players and Owners---To Hell With You." Play at Pittsburgh was held up for almost twenty minutes when fans threw objects onto the playing field. The voice of the fan.

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