I’m not sure exactly what was going on with the Associate Press but their writer put together quite the tribute article for Donald Fehr, who announced on Monday that he was retiring as head of the MLB Player’s Association. As you’ve come to realize here at LBS, we cut through the ass-slapping, drink-toasting, and glowing remarks to expose the frauds. While many people — enlightened fans and media members included — like to point the finger at Bud Selig, or guys like Jose Canseco, the players at-large, or the owners, when it comes to the steroids problem in baseball, it is the lesser-known Donald Fehr who is the biggest enabler of all.
Yes it’s true that the owners signed the cheats to monstrous contracts and made money when fans turned up to watch home runs hit in record numbers, but that was only after 1994 when Fehr instructed his players to walk out of the 1994 season and skip one of the iconic events in American sports history — the World Series. That was after Fehr bent the owners over and stuck it to them with a labor deal so one-sided the owners had no leverage. While Selig is a total tool and a guy who should be in line for “retirement,” he had no ability to penetrate the strong union walls hoisted by Fehr. Egotistical businessmen will say Fehr did what was best for his constituents and served his union well. That’s not true — Fehr made them tons of money in the short term but cost them their reputations and credibility in the long run. He impeded the normalcy of the game and created the steroids scandal by blocking drug testing for several years when it was clear things were getting absurd. The money the players made was lost in one swift decline on Wall Street; their lasting legacies have been ruined by one word: steroids. And who’s to blame for it all? Donald Fehr.
Feel any sympathy for Raul Ibanez who says a blogger is to blame for diminishing his hot start to 2009 by saying it’s drug induced? Feel bad for Albert Pujols who cried to Sports Illustrated that he’s in the proverbial Catch-22 — the better he does the more suspicious people become, the worse it is for him? Of course not! You can’t feel bad for any of them because they were members of a union that opposed drug testing. Why? Because Donald Fehr wanted his players on the juice so that their salaries would grow along with their statistics so that when he finally stepped down, he’d receive a glowing tribute from the Associate Press that says the players received record salaries under his watch.
Donald Fehr was so misguided and misled during his run as the head of the Union. Instead of viewing his sole purpose as trying to get the players as much money as possible, he should have made concessions for the best interest of the game. Nobody, not even the players, are bigger than the game itself. Unfortunately it’s now 2009 and about 10 years too late for him to finally be giving some ground. Thank goodness the worst figure in baseball is finally gone. I only wish more people knew who it was so that their blame would be properly placed and so that they could prevent history from repeating itself in the future.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
One of the three worst figures, the othesr being Selig & George Steinbrenner, who when the owners would have their votes for some of the revenue sharing, he’d be the only NO vote. Why did Selig always cave in to him? They could take a vote tomorrow for FULL revenue sharing and it would pass easily…yet it’s not pushed. Why? Fehr is a slimebag lawyer type, Selig is a slimebag used car salesman type, Steinbrenner is a slimebag bully type. Hate em all.
FANTASTIC post. They keep airing this clip from Jose Canseco on Sirius radio where he basically says (paraphrasing) “If Manny and A-Rod are getting caught…how much bigger of a star can you bring down? I mean, who’s really to blame?” And its true–I don’t blame the players. I blame Fehr for condoning this, and protecting them, for far too long. T
You might add that we won’t know the full amount of damage which Fehr and his chief deputy, Gene Orza, have inflicted on baseball for ten or twenty years, when we see how many PED users are dropping dead or are incapacitated. Orza effectively will be out when Fehr is out, because he was the logical successor and is not getting the head job.
I have no sympathy for the players. They chose “union solidarity” over drug testing by following Fehr and Orza instead of going public with their views. if any of them had balls, they would have gone public and said that they support the union and its leadership on everything but drug testing, but not one of them had the guts.
If any of you had balls, you would stand up for things such as due process, privacy rights and innocent until proven guilty. Freedom ain’t free and democracy(collective bargaining) is messy.
Donald Fehr did a heck of job in maintaining a union during the age of Reagan. He raised salaries and resisted claims from owners who “never made any money”.
Don’t let the press of the hook. They knew what was going on and they choose not to investigate or report it. Everybody was happy and making money. No revisionist history please.
People have the right to be idiots until they mutually agree to stop. You don’t have to pay to watch. If you do, it’s just entertainment.
BTW Fehr and Marvin Miller should be in the Hall of Fame. It just shows what jerks the sportswriter are.
Hey Tucker,
Were you out there with OJ searching the golf courses of the world for the real killers? Do you really believe that Bonds, Sosa and Mac really got that big by lifting weights in the abbreviated offseason?
Would you like some Florida swampland or the Brooklyn Bridge? Maybe you would have believed Neville Chamberlain’s statement that there would be peace in his times after Munich.
Look at the health (or lack of) of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970’s, or check out Gene Upshaw, Lyle Alzado, Flojo, etc. How can you possibly believe that the hogwash about right to privacy outweighs health issues? Even Donald Fehr has backed off and said that it was probably a mistake.
Read the post Gene,
I’m not a strawman.
Never said anything about who did or did not use steriods or whether I believed they did or did not. My comment was about due process, the right to negotiate working conditions and freedom of choice. If you believe that owners or anyone for that matter, have the right to impose arbitrary working conditions whatever the rationale then you don’t believe in democracy. If the members of a union cannot agree on a course of action, then the Executive Director doesn’t have the right to impose a view. BTW has Fehr ever stated his views on PED’s publicly. For all we know he may have been against but that is not his job to advocate for one faction of the union over another.
The division in the ranks of ballplayers was supposedly (according to “Game of Shadows”), the reason Bonds started doping. He was a better ballplayer (true) but was pissed that McGuire and Sosa were getting all the love. I guess he showed them what PEDs could really do in the hands of a true “genius”. He would have hit 80 if they had pitched to him. LOL
For the record, I believe McGuire, Bonds, Sosa, Clemens, Caminetti et al used PEDS. It was their deal with the devil and their health. Steriod use by adults is not a public health issue. In athletics, it’s a competitive issue and that’s why there are rules and collective bargaining.
Also, don’t stop with the 70’s and steriods. Amphetamine use was rampant during the 60’s and 70’s. Nobody says too much about that.
BTW OJ did it. It was just an incompetent investigation and prosecution. If they had done their jobs, they wouldn’t have needed to embellish the facts and leaving the door open for Mr. Cochrane to walk through.
Tucker, innocent until proven guilty applies to your rights in the legal system. It does NOT apply to anyone’s personal opinions