Major League Baseball’s first general strike began on April Fools’ Day in 1972. It lasted just under two weeks, encompassing 86 games that were never rescheduled. Ultimately, team owners increased the players’ pension fund by $500,000, and players gained the right to salary arbitration. The strike was no joke: TIME reported that it “cost the owners at least $5,000,000, mostly in lost ticket sales and broadcasting fees; the players dropped about $1,000,000 in salaries.”
