NEW YORK -- Ten years ago, they packed up the bats and balls and went home for the winter, wiping out the World Series and alienating millions.

In 1994, Marlins fans didn't like the impending strike. Afterward, many stayed away. AP

When Seattle's Randy Johnson struck out Oakland's Ernie Young at 9:45 p.m. PDT on Aug. 11, 1994, baseball players walked off for what turned into the longest work stoppage in the history of major North American professional sports leagues, a 7½-month marathon of acrimony that wandered through hotel meeting rooms, the federal courts and even the White House.

It canceled the World Series for the first time in 90 years,

cost players millions of dollars and management about $1 billion.

Games didn't resume until the following April 25, 3½ weeks after an injunction was issued restoring the rules of the expired labor

contract.

Matt Williams' opportunity to break Roger Maris' home run record ended the night of the strike -- he had 43, and he never had another chance to approach the mark. For Bob Welch, Lloyd McClendon, and Kevin McReynolds and 16 others, the night of the strike marked the final games of their big league careers.

"It was tough. There was a lot of anger everywhere,

particularly amongst our fans," baseball commissioner Bud Selig

recalled last week. "It was the eighth work stoppage, so it had

been building up for a long time. The sport came to a crashing

halt."

Attendance plunged 20 percent the following year, from a record average of 31,612 in 1994 to 25,260. Only this season, when crowds are averaging 30,513, has attendance approached its pre-strike

level.