A dark day, 15 years removed

As Zach Levine points out, today marks the 15th anniversary of the MLB strike that cancelled the 1994 World Series. I was 14 that year, and I had been nagging my mom for years to attend an Opening Day at the Astrodome. '94 was the first (and last) time it ever happened, and of the countless games I've been to over the years, that one still stands out above all the rest - the Astros fell behind the greatest Montreal Expos team ever, 5-3 in the 12th, only for Ken Caminiti to cap a game-winning rally in the bottom of the inning, and Houston won 6-5.

Fast forward to the strike in August of that year, and then the announcement a few weeks later that the postseason was cancelled; I remember feeling cheated that the season I watched get started would never get to finish. Houston ended the year a half game out of first place, and Jeff Bagwell was never as good before or since. I remember thinking that Montreal fans must have felt cheated even more.

I've always been a die-hard baseball fan, but the August '94 strike sandwiched in between the Houston Rockets' June '94 & '95 NBA titles marked the only time when another sport stole first place in my heart. The city of Houston had never had a major sports championship before (or since), so it was a perfect storm of circumstances. It took Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, and the Astros' three consecutive Central Division titles in '97-'99 to bring me all the way back to baseball.

15 years later and the Astros are coming off another heartbreaking loss, but I'll be grateful that there's another game tonight. I hope 1994 is a mistake that baseball never repeats.