Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Can this buzz-less MLB season avoid joining worst of Selig Era?

OK, first of all, we have a month’s worth of Pop Quiz questions on which we must catch up.

1. From Bob Buscavage of Moriches: In a 1993 episode of “Seinfeld,” Kramer tells the gang that he accidentally punched a Yankees legend at fantasy camp. Name the legend.

2. From Bob Buscavage again: Name the entertainer who owned a share of the Seattle Mariners.

3. From Andy Romanic of Freeport: Name the future Hall of Fame manager who has a small role in the 1950 film “The Jackie Robinson Story.”

4. From Don Renne of Whitehouse Station, NJ: Legendary Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen incorporated a sponsor’s name when he invented a phrase for Yankees home runs. What was the phrase?


In Thursday’s Post, I wrote up five Major League Baseball storylines to monitor in the second half. I’ve been thinking a great deal about number five on that list: “The search for buzz.”

I fully stipulate I’m coming at this from a New York-centric point of view, but this has been an awfully lame baseball season so far, hasn’t it? The Yankees and Mets both have swerved from no better than good on the spectrum to awful.

Here in the New York sports universe, the baseball season has been overshadowed by the Knicks’ hiring of Phil Jackson, Jackson’s search for a new head coach, the Rangers’ Stanley Cup run, Jason Kidd’s shocking departure from the Nets, the World Cup, LeBron James’ free agency and Carmelo Anthony’s free agency. MLB should consider it fortunate that the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest already occurred, or else that too would be a threat now that the coast has seemingly cleared.

But even looking at it from a national perspective, has any component of this season really grabbed people’s attention? The A’s, because of their past October disappointments, will become a great story only if they advance to the World Series. Masahiro Tanaka was a great story before he got hurt. Jose Abreu could become one, but not quite yet.

It has been eons since we produced a Friday Five. As we kick off the second half, what better time to list the low standards to which this 2014 baseball season will be held? Let’s look at the five worst seasons since 1992, when Bud Selig took over as the game’s commissioner.

How do we measure lameness? Simple: Was the season forgettable? Or even worse, do we recall that season only for negative associations?

Here we go:

1. 1994

Bud Selig during the 1994 strike.AP

This one is a no-brainer. The only season since 1904 that concluded without a World Series or a postseason of any kind. The bitter labor battle ended in shocking fashion on Sept. 14, when Selig — still “acting commissioner” at that juncture, as his actual title was “chairman of the Executive Council” — canceled the Fall Classic, setting the game back many years and arguably killing the Montreal Expos, whose owners and fans never recovered from that superb ’94 club missing its opportunity to shine in October.

While the game took a gargantuan hit, you could argue it was a necessary step in curing what ailed baseball. After all, the owners and players have pounded out three collective bargaining agreements without a missed day of work since that mess finally got cleaned up in 1995 and 1996. And the industry has benefited from the increased revenue-sharing small markets desired back then.

2. 1997

All you need to know about this year is when the Marlins and Indians advanced to the World Series, NBC bigwig Don Ohlmeyer publicly wished for one of the teams to sweep in four games so the network’s Thursday night “Must-See TV” prime-time programming wouldn’t be disrupted in lieu of Game 5. The Marlins and Indians responded by conspiring (well, I can’t prove this) to produce one of the most dreadful seven-game Series in recent memory.

That Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga reacted to his club’s first title by holding an offseason fire sale of his players greatly sullied the accomplishments of his team and further tarnished the legacy of the 1997 season.

3. 2005

The White Sox celebrate winning the 2005 World Series.AP

In 2004, I remember interviewing then-White Sox closer Billy Koch, who described his team as the “red-headed stepchild” of Chicago. For sure, if the Cubs ever win the World Series for the first time since 1908, it will be celebrated and cherished in perpetuity.

When the White Sox captured their first title since 1917, however, it didn’t grasp the general public. Too bad. They swept Andy Pettitte’s and Roger Clemens’ Astros in a four-game World Series, yet every game was a nailbiter. The problem with a four-game World Series, though, is that most people just remember how quickly it went, no matter how well-contested it was.

4. 2002

This was when the illegal PED party train started to derail, thanks to Tom Verducci’s interview with Ken Caminiti in Sports Illustrated. The story produced important changes in the way both players and owners looked at these drugs. In the short term, though, there was just much depression and questioning over how much of what we had seen in the last decade-plus was impacted by these substances. Tangentially, much of this year also was defined by the negotiations for a new CBA, with players setting a strike date and coming within hours of following through on it. The players agreed to a 2003 “survey test” for illegal PEDs, which got the ball rolling on more serious measures and also wound up snaring players. That definitely wasn’t supposed to happen.

That the Angels powered their way through October for their first and (still, for now) only World Series title in an exciting seven-game set salvaged the season a little. Unfortunately, the player we remember most of that series is no one from the Angels, but rather Barry Bonds, who put the finishing touches on a monster month. Whether he received help from illegal substances, we’ll likely never confirm and we definitely shouldn’t care.

5. 1995

Cal Ripken gets honored after breaking Lou Gehrig’s record.AP

This season, which began with replacement players in spring training – that garbage thankfully never reached the regular season – initiated the healing process with the game’s customers. It helped greatly that Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak. It didn’t hurt, either, that the Yankees qualified for their first playoffs since 1981 and then were upset by a fantastic Mariners team, whose success wound up saving baseball in the great city of Seattle.

So why does this make the list? Because for statistical purists, this season stank to high heaven. Due to the labor discord taking so long to resolve – again, we can’t stress how ugly the replacement-player stuff was – the campaign had to be shortened to 144 games, making it stand out eternally in a bad way and creating two straight years of incomplete seasons.


Here are your Pop Quiz answers:

1. Mickey Mantle
2. Danny Kaye
3. Dick Williams
4. A “Ballantine Blast”

If you have a tidbit that correlates baseball with popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.