Turning Pages
June 1, 2020
A rebroadcast of the interview with Jeff Katz about his book Split Season: 1981.
The never-before-told story of the momentous season torn in half by the bitter players strike.
1981 was a watershed moment in American sports, when players turned an oligarchy of owners into a game where they had a real voice. Midway through the season, a game-changing strike ripped baseball apart, the first time a season had ever been stopped in the middle because of a strike. Marvin Miller and the MLB Players Association squared off against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and the owners in a fight to protect players rights to free agency and defend America’s pastime.