Despite having the best overall record in baseball that season, Cincinnati does not make the playoffs under the split-season format. The walkout lasts only two days when commissioner Peter Ueberroth steps in and forces a compromise settlement. The lost games are made up through doubleheaders. The season starts late after an abbreviated spring training but is completed at a full 162 games. On September 14 with talks stalled, the remaining 1,400 games and scheduled playoffs and World Series are canceled.
Talks drag through the New Year with little progress despite federal mediation.
Players return under the terms of the old basic agreement. After extensive negotiations, Players and owners finally sign a new basic agreement in August. Over the last 29 years, baseball's basic labor agreement between the players and owners has expired eight times. Each time the game has endured a work stoppage - either a player's strike or an owner's lockout of the players. The bad news is that the current basic agreement expires Oct. 31.