Off-Day Modest Proposal

[Edgy MD]

What would be the downside if, 30 years later, MLB decided to declare Montreal the 1994 MLB champion?

[Cowtipper]

They should also name an official list of MLB All-Stars from 2020, even if no game was played. They did create an unofficial list, but Baseball Reference and the like don't recognize it.

[Gwreck]

Logically: MLB championships can only be won on the field. And — particularly in the pre-interleague days — how can we be sure they were the champions? There’s at least one (or more) AL team that would rightfully have a problem with that.

Politically/PR: just a bad thing all around to bring more attention to 1994.

[Edgy MD]

If the Yankees complain, that's a plus to me.

The All-Star proposal is a thought too.

I suppose it could create a bad precedent for future work stoppages. Teams who are leading at the point of a stoppage might presumptively declare themselves champions. if a championship-free team like the Mariners were in first place, their fans might start openly rooting for the strike to continue and end the season.

[MFS62]

There’s at least one (or more) AL team that would rightfully have a problem with that.

Yep, my friend the ChiSox fan was really pissed that the season ended. He felt the squad would have brought a championship to the Windy City.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

They should grant them a division title.

[Centerfield]

Interesting idea. Can this be monetized to put more money in the current owners’ pockets?

No? Then it won’t happen.

[stevejrogers]

They should also name an official list of MLB All-Stars from 2020, even if no game was played. They did create an unofficial list, but Baseball Reference and the like don't recognize it.

Who has?

The Sporting News made one in 1945 (or was it ‘44), picked by the skippers, and that unofficial pair of rosters IS on
Baseball-Reference

[Cowtipper]

On Wikipedia, it says MLB created an "unofficial" list of All-Stars for the 2020 season.

[Edgy MD]

I can think of a few ways to monetize it.

The more I think of it, I suspect most grumbling will be minimal. The Sox won a title in the interim, and the Yankees have won five. Some older Reds fans may want to re-litigate their team's exclusion from the 1981 post-season, but how animated can folks really get over a vacant 30-year-old title? You haven't been the champions all these years, and now you still aren't. Do you really want to deny a well earned honor to a fan base that has never won, and has been screwed six ways to Sunday ever since, with their team dismantled annually and ultimately abandoned by their ownership. When the team was moved, the fans were accused of deserting the team, as if they weren't deserted first.

It not only would be the first title for the Expos, it would be the first title for the French-speaking world, and in awarding the title to Montreal, it would be a great time to announce that MLB ball is returning to the city.

That's some fun upside.

[Chad ochoseis]

It's never too late to have an Expos-Sox 1994 World Series. Most of the key members of both teams are still with us.