2002 Major League Baseball

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The 2002 Major League Baseball season was the third season in which the two major leagues, the National League and the American League, were consolidated into a single entity under the authority of the Commissioner, Bud Selig.

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Events[edit]

Following the 2001 World Series, Major League Baseball announced plans to contract two teams, the Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos. However, these plans were thwarted by a lawsuit filed in Minnesota. Because by then MLB had approved Montreal owner Jeffrey Loria's purchase of the Florida Marlins, it found itself as the owner of a lame-duck franchise. Plans were drawn hastily to appoint Tony Tavares as team President, Omar Minaya as General Manager and Frank Robinson as Manager. All three were previously MLB employees.

Much to the embarrassment of MLB who pretended the two franchises were in hopeless condition, both proved to be quite competitive in 2002, with the Twins winning a division title and the Expos finishing above .500 in second place in its division. In another low point for Commissioner Selig, the 2002 All-Star Game, played in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI on July 7th, was declared a tie when the two teams ran out of pitchers after 11 innings.

One very positive event was that the owners and Major League Baseball Players Association came to the brink of a strike before a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was agreed on August 30th, the day when play was scheduled to stop if there was no agreement. This agreement marked the start of a new, more collaborative era of collective bargaining in baseball after more than two decades of bitter conflict.

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