The owners decided they’d play the 1995 season with replacement players, much like the NFL had done during the football strike of ’87. Beyond being unpopular, the plan proved legally unworkable. The players finally agreed to return to the game at the end of March, truncating the 1995 season by eighteen games. When the sport resumed, attendance was down and TV ratings had fallen even farther. More significant, the social standing of baseball had diminished in unexpected ways.
