Donald Fehr, MLB Union Boss, to Retire
Donald Fehr, the executive director of the MLBPA (Major League Baseball Players Association), has announced he will retire next March. Fehr is as polarizing figure as it gets, making him a great topic of conversation.
As head of baseball’s union for the past 26 years, Fehr always put the needs of his players ahead of the best interest of the game of baseball. Many people despise Fehr for this, but as a union leader, the players have benefited greatly, with the average salary increasing 11.2 times in his tenure. Inflation would only boost one’s salary by about 2.5 times over the same time period, so Fehr can be thanked (or vilified) for escalating salaries beyond compare. Love or hate him, Fehr saw how much money the owners were making and made sure the buck was passed.
Stubbornness and steroids are the other two hallmarks always to be associated with Donald Fehr. Fehr successfully charged owners with collusion in the 1980s, suggesting they violated a collective bargaining agreement, but he is most well known for his unwillingness to bend in contract negotiations which led to a 7 1/2 month strike which included the canceling of the 1994 World Series. Owners were to blame as well, and while many baseball fans claim to have given up on the sport, attendance in the last decade has been better than ever.
Steroids during Fehr’s reign has been a positive and negative. The testing that began in 2002 for the first time ever was seen as a good thing for the sport, but the fact that it took so long when the usage was becoming more and more obvious has become a black eye for baseball.
Fehr will be replaced by Michael Weiner, who has been with the MLBPA since 1988. With drug testing and suspensions already in place, it is likely that Weiner’s destiny will lie in the way he handles future contract negotiations. The current collective bargaining agreement ends after the 2011 season, and a successful pact without a strike will land him plenty of fans.
Read on:
ESPN.com – Fehr leaving post after quarter-century
Bloomberg.com – Don Fehr Retires as Executive Director of MLB Union
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