It was long, it was contentious, at times it seemed it would never end, but after 99 days the lockout is over and baseball is back. Shortly after 3:00 p.m. EST yesterday afternoon, the union announced they had voted to approve the owners’ CBA proposal, with the owners voting unanimously to ratify the new deal roughly three hours later.
This brought to end the second-longest work stoppage in the game’s history, one which saw 43 days pass before owners opened negotiations with the union. It was a three-plus month battle characterized by players’ offers being met with owner intransigence.