Sonia + baseball = Supreme Court

A couple of weeks ago, I floated the name Sonia Stomayor as one to remember when discussions are held about who will replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. What I did not know then, but know now, is that, as the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time, Judge Stomayor "joined forever the ranks of Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams" by issuing a ruling on March 31, 1995, that ended an ongoing baseball strike.

She ruled in favor of the players and against the owners in that suit saying the strike had “placed the entire concept of collective bargaining on trial.”

The 232-day strike which lasted from Aug. 12, 1994, to April 2, 1995, cancelled 948 games including the entire 1994 playoffs and World Series, the first time the Series had not been played since 1904. It marked the first time any major sport had lost its postseason because of a labor dispute.

When the strike began, the Texas Rangers were in first place in the woeful American League West in spite of a record that was 10 games under .500. Two last place teams in other divisions had better records than the Rangers.