1972 Major League Baseball strike

Baseball resumed when the owners and players agreed on a $500,000 increase in pension fund payments. Owners agreed to add salary arbitration to the Collective Bargaining Agreement.[1] The 86 games that were missed over the 13-day period were never played because the league refused to pay the players for the time they were on strike. As a result, the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres each played only 153 games, nine fewer than normal. Most other teams lost anywhere from six to eight games. They also lost $5,000,000.

One major effect of the uneven schedule was that the Detroit Tigers played one more game than the Boston Red Sox, which enabled Detroit (with a record of 86–70) to win the American League East by ½ game over Boston (with a record of 85–70). Detroit won the division on the next-to-last day of the season when they beat Boston, 3–1, at Tiger Stadium.[2]