This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1994 baseball strikeand the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. With that in mind, Sporting News is exploring what might have been, if only Major League Baseballs owners and players had been able to come to an agreement to avoid a work stoppage.Fergie Jekins, the first Canadian to make the Hall of Fame, pitched for the Phillies, Cubs, Rangers, and Red Sox in a career that ran from 1965-83. He is one of four pitchers in baseball history with at least 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks, along with Greg Maddux, Curt Schillingand Pedro Martinez.Martinezs first season as a starting pitcher was 1994, after the Dodgers traded him to the Montreal Expos for Delino DeShields. Thanks in part to Martinezs efforts, the Expos, at 74-40, had the best record in baseball when the strike happened. What if it hadnt?MORE: | Montreal might have won a World Series, Jenkins says. Felipe Alou had one heck of a ballclub. So, you look at Montreal, and what they had to go through, Chicago Bears Men Jersey its really unfortunate they dont have a franchise now. But if theyd have continued to play, I believe that under Felipe Alou, theyd probably have won a World Series.I believe (theyd still be in Montreal). If a team wins the World Series, why would you move the team out of the city where theyve played really well? We played at Parc Jarry when I was playing, and then they moved to Olympic Stadium, and under the tutelage of the coaches they had, with Felipe Alou, they had a team that could have been there for a long time.The Expos World Series victory has stabilizing effects in both the short and long term. The immediate windfall of being world champions provides Montreal with the financial wherewithal to re-sign Larry Walker, a slam dunk move for the Canadian star of Canadas third consecutive world championship team (Toronto won William Perry Jersey in 1992 and 1993). Once Vladimir Guerrero arrives for good in 1997, the Expos have a devastating lefty-righty combo in their lineup that makes them a powerhouse into the early 2000s.Taking their payroll from $19.1 million in 1994 to $23 million in 1995, instead of slashing it to $12.5 million, the Expos dont keep absolutely everyone John Wetteland still signs with the Yankees, for instance but they are able to retain core players and win five straight National League East titles.In 1997, the Expos draw a team record 2.4 million fans to Stade Olympique, and while everyone has a good time, everyone also knows the reality that a new ballpark is nece sary. A consortium of Quebec busine ses eager to reap the benefits of Expos mania buy the team and use their combined influence to push through a plan for a stadium in downtown Montreal.Financially capable of retaining their most important players and run by the best front office in baseball, the Expos juggernaut stymies the Atlanta Braves, who had looked at the beginning of the 1990s as if they might be able to enjoy a decade or more of dominance in the National League East. The trade of Andruw Jones, Kevin Millwood, and John Rocker for Greg Vaughn at the 1996 trade deadline helps Atlanta get the National League wild card, but bad contracts in free agency doom the Braves to mediocrity for years to come, while the Expos-Mets rivalry sets the tone for the National League East into the 2000s.By 2002, the bad contracts have been dumped Damien Williams Jersey around the league in unproductive trades, nobody is going to games at Turner Field, and television ratings for Braves games are in the toilet for a team on a shoestring budget whose best executives also have been plucked away by more succe sful teams. When Major League Baseball draws up a plan for contraction, it is the Braves and the Twins who are slated Isaiah Coulter Jersey for extinction. The ironic denouement of the worst-to-first 1991 World Series is not lost on anyone, but while there is much outrage about the Twins being put on the chopping block, the Braves impending demise gets little attention, except from some Washington entrepreneurs who see an opportunity to return baseball to the nations capital.Major League Baseball allows a move to happen, announcing at the same time that instead of contraction, a new round of expansion will take place by 2020 to get a team back in the Atlanta market, most likely in the suburbs of Cobb County. The other market getting a major league team will be Vancouver, where fans have been clamoring for their own club ever since the popularity of baseball all over Canada exploded with the Blue Jays and Expos succe s of the 1990s.As the Braves head to their fourth city, there is just one problem: the name of the team. The arrival of the Braves in Washington, already home of the Redskins, leads to a Washington Post feature about the origin of the Redskins name that back in Boston, they were originally called the Braves, but changed the name when they moved from Braves Field to Fenway Park, picking Redskins in order to keep the same logo and uniforms. The U.S. patent office refuses to i sue Washington Braves Khalil Herbert Jersey trademarks, so they become the Washington Nationals, and the Redskins trademarks are revoked. When the football team realizes the windfall from rebranding itself, the Washington Hogs are born, and by the end of the decade, Native American-related team nicknames are a thing of the past acro s sports in the United States.Speaking of Fenway Park, Martinez remaining with the Expos for the remainder of his career does not prevent the Red Sox from snapping their World Series drought, although not until 2007, because in his last flash of brilliance, it is Martinez who is the MVP of the 2004 Fall Cla sic for Montreal, bookending a dominant decade for the Expos and sending Walker out on top. He goes into the Hall of Fame in 2014, and on his induction weekend, it is announced that the greatest Canadian hitter of all time will be the first manager of the Vancouver Whales when they begin play in 2017.