
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 15, 1994                   TAG: 9409150092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MITCHELL LANDSBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS NOTE: below
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BYE, BYE, BASEBALL; EVEN THE WHIMPER WAS UNFORGETTABLE

Major league baseball ended its 1994 season not with a homer, not with a strikeout, not with a catcher leaping triumphant into his pitcher's arms. No, the season died Wednesday with the whimper of a conference call and a fax.

Football, anyone?

On the 34th day of a strike by players, major-league owners canceled the remainder of the season, including the playoffs and World Series.

The last time the World Series was not played was 1904; the last time the regular season was cut short was in 1918, during World War I.

So into the record books will go an asterisk explaining that the 1994 season foundered on a dispute over the owners' insistence on a cap on player salaries. The final decision was made in a conference call of team owners led by Milwaukee's Bud Selig, acting commissioner of baseball.

``This is a sad day,'' Selig said in a fax announcing the shutdown. ``Nobody wanted this to happen, but the continuing player strike leaves us no choice but to take this action.''

What comes next for the national pastime is anybody's guess.

So farewell for now to Matt Williams of the San Francisco Giants, who could have been the baldest man ever to hit 62 home runs in a season. And the only one. He wasn't - our loss, and his.

Farewell to Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres - could he have batted .400? Not even Ted Williams knows.

Farewell to Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr., the two best sons of major-leaguers ever to play the game, who are losing more money each and every day of the non-season than most Americans earn in a year.

Farewell to the Cleveland Indians. Nice new ballpark. Nice team. Better luck next time.

Farewell to Seattle's leaky Kingdome - may it never spritz again.

Farewell to the Chicago White Sox's Frank Thomas, he of the thigh-thick forearms and triple-crown potential. It was quite a show while it lasted.

And farewell to Marge Schott, George Steinbrenner, Selig and the rest of the owners. They will be missed (by someone, somewhere, maybe).

Say this for the end of the 1994 baseball season: It was unforgettable. How many season finales can you say that about?

Only a few:

1905. Christy Mathewson strikes out the side in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series. The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Athletics and win the series.

1960. The best ever? It's the bottom of the ninth, in the seventh and final game of the World Series, when Bill Mazeroski of the Pirates steps to the plate at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. On a 1-0 pitch from the New York Yankees' Ralph Terry, a high fastball, he rockets the ball - up, up, over the left field fence and the head of Yogi Berra. We can imagine Yogi muttering, ``It's not over till it's - oh, hell, it's over.'' Pirates 10, Yankees 9!

1994. Uh, when does basketball season start?

by CNB