It was a swing and a miss at midnight for one of the country's top sports.Major League Baseball has hit its first work stoppage since the strike-shortened seasons of 1994 and 1995.A few hours after a lockout went into effect, fans were already asking when it was going to end. They know it is not a good look for a $10 billion industry.The off-season for MLB seems way off at the moment, leaving a holiday of uncertainty for Spring training."With the pandemic and all the crap that we've gone through the last year, the last thing we need is something like this to kind of dampen our hearts a little bit," said Tom Browning, who was on the shelf with a busted arm in the summer of 1994 when baseball struck out with fans by pulling the plug on the season.As he got his first look at Great American Ball Park this morning, Red Sox fan Bill Emrich recalled the impact of that strike.He was not aware of the lockout until we threw that curveball at him. "I'd like to come to Cincinnati, see my daughter and watch the Reds play," he told us after his wife, Kelly, took a picture with him and Kelsey in front of the Joe Nuxhall statue. "And maybe now that can't happen. So, I hope the lockout doesn't last long."As the Reds front office stated it doesn't mean games will be lost, but "as an organization, we are disappointed."After the loss of a pennant race and the World Series in the mid-nineties, fans were not happy campers."It took a long time for baseball to recover from that," said Doug Olberding, who teaches a course at Xavier University on American sports history.He's hoping history won't repeat itself in 2022."Ken Griffey, Jr. was on pace to beat Roger Maris' single-season home run record when the strike and the Reds were in first place and everything like that. So, there was a lot of anger," Olberding said.For Emrich, baseball's lockout presents a worrisome picture of a sport once known as America's pastime.He was a physical education teacher, K-6, back home in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. He remembers almost every kid back then knew how to play and understood the rules."Now it's the opposite," he said. "You get one or two who know how to play and the rest? They'll get up to bat and stand on home plate or have their hands the wrong way."Fans fear baseball is headed the wrong way again.Commissioner Rob Manfred was hopeful the lockout would jump-start negotiations.There are none scheduled so far. No contact is permitted between teams and their players. No trades or signings are allowed.The Reds are going forward with their promotions and marketing plans.They will continue to sell season tickets, banking on an eventual agreement that will let the season start on time.This past opening day was the dietary version. In 2022, fans want an overflowing home plate of what they're used to.Browning believes this time the repair should be different, that there is too much to lose."I think they got it early enough. I think, you know, cooler heads will prevail. They'll probably get together and say hey, you know, let's do somethin' cause I think economically it's in good shape," he said. Fans like Emrich sweat the long view."Lot of kids are playing lacrosse today instead of baseball," he said.