February 8th, 1995.

Standing on the corner,
Suitcase in my hand.
Waiting for this baseball strike to end,
Pleaded the legions of angry baseball fans.

After Clinton fails to end the baseball strike, Massachusetts Senator Edward
M. Kennedy makes a pitch of his own to end the six-month old player strike.

What started in mid-August was now entering mid-February. This baseball strike was almost as long as baseball season. With President Clinton stymied after the failure of his imposed February 6 deadline, Ted Kennedy offered a pitch of his own.

No, not the Ted Kennedy who pitched for the Chicago Cubs and retired in 1886. The other Ted Kennedy. The guy who lowered the voting age to 18. Who passed Title IX for college sports. Who passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Lion of the Senate who worked with members of both parties to pass monumental legislation over and over again. On February 8th, 1995, Edward M. Kennedy proposed yet another piece of signature legislation to his long list of accomplishments: The Major League Baseball Restoration Act (S. 376)

The MLBRA was no joke. It called for a three person panel with vast power. Perhaps most important, it could call for public testimony under penalty of perjury. This is significant because shortly before the strike, one very prominent man in baseball made a statement regarding the financial status of the Texas Rangers and other baseball clubs.

"I have a very strong sense," forecast George W. Bush,  "that if the players go out, the owners won't come back."

The owners might leave and take their productivity elsewhere. Ayn Rand would be proud. It's odd that George W. Bush would threaten to leave baseball when in fact, he was already leaving baseball to run for Governor of Texas. But Bush added a dire warning to show that he wasn't the only one headed for the door.

 George W. Bush leaves baseball to enter a career in politics.

"There are enough clubs losing money" he said. "And hemorrhaging."

It's one thing to say that an organization with profits in the billions was losing money to a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. It's quite another to say something like that under oath with the possibility of criminal prosecution for making false statements.

The Bill attracted one Co-Sponsor in Barbara Milkuski of Maryland. Milkuski had strong reason from her constituents to pass this bill. On January 13, 1995, Major League Baseball had already approved the use of replacement players on account that no deal had been reached. Cal Ripken's consecutive games streak was now in serious jeopardy. Ripken had openly stated that he wouldn't return to baseball without a contract, and his consecutive games number stood at 2,009. The strike had already robbed him of 50 games in 1994, now it threatened his career.

One of John F. Kennedy's most famous accomplishments was averting both a potential steel strike and a major price increase in the cost of steel. It was a double play! If something as major as the cost of U.S. steel could be resolved through executive action, it would seem that ending something as trivial a major league baseball work stoppage should have been a home run--or as easy as drinking a glass of milk.

Stuck at home instead of spring training,
drinking milk is a great way to pass the time.