Sonia Sotomayer

In baseball, strikes can be a good thing. If Daisuke Matsuzaka is actually throwing them over 7 shutout innings to bring the Red Sox to a 3 game winning streak with a 9-1 victory against the Blue Jays, then life is good.
But if strikes are accompanied by lockouts, then life isn't really that great.
For example, in 1995, now Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stood up for baseball by ending the strike between the owners and players, which had killed the 1994 World Series that could have saved the Montreal Expos a little over a decade later as well as Tony Gwynn's most serious chance at .400 and Matt Williams' chance for 62. It could have been a memorable season, but a move of political influence and the influence of the National Labor Relations Act that was too little too late killed the game for many fans.
As for me, I was too busy watching bands play in Cambridge, London, and Norwich while reading the NME and Melody Maker to feel the plight of the game.
Fortunately, stanzanol, winstrol, the clear, and the cream brought it back, but the media killed the superheros that they created a few years later, and now the game moves in ways to keep the 3 big East Coast teams in the World Series to keep the ratings from slipping with finales like the White Sox vs. the Astros (a World Series that even I watched 5 total live minutes of - at the most).
Baseball never learned from its demons after the 1981 season, but finally, after the mega strike, things have been amicable, but since 1972's strike that took out the first part of April, pro sports have been affected by nasty strikes.
Now, it's clear that the NFL hasn't learned from their 1982 season destroying strike and the status of football as America's game (though we at this site would deny that, but...). They're still locked out even if they're planning a pre-season game in London, which makes about no sense for anyone other than the military troops serving at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. But yeah...
And with leagues like the NBA losing huge chunks of 1998 and the NHL losing 310 days of 2004 and 2005, which took a 5th rate league (behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NASCAR) off of the major channels - even for the playoffs, there is no learning because the NFL still stands ready to have their 2011 season affected, and frankly, it won't affect us. It might a lot of real season and fantasy football fans, but it won't affect me.
But since sports are our games, we have to impact the players and management in a way that stands up for the continuity of our game.
And cross our fingers for good luck.