And There Was Much Rejoicing…
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 10:50
One of the twin titans of baseball power, reviled by fans everywhere, is finally retiring.
Donald Fehr will step down. (Sing to the tune of “Casey at the Bat”.)
Fehr announced on Monday that he will leave his position as the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association no later than next March–a position he has held since December 1983. Fehr has already given his recommendation that Michael Weiner, the union’s general counsel, be named his successor.
Fehr has been demonized by fans for the 1994 players’ strike and the stratospheric rise in players’ salaries which, when coupled with the lack of a salary cap, has resulted in the extreme financial inequities between the baseball haves and have-nots. More recently, his resistance to performance-enhancing drug testing has earned him the ire of all but those players using steroids.
Baseball fans love Donald Fehr as much as they do MLB Commissioner Bud Selig–which is to say not at all.
The big question is, what will Fehr’s retirement mean for the game? Could things possibly change? Will Weiner be willing to take those steps necessary to better the game that Fehr would not?
Although Weiner is the #3 man at the MLBPA, there is still reason to hope. He was one of the primary negotiators of the 2002 and 2006 labor contracts, relatively peaceful negotiations that did not result in work stoppages.
Will such a non-antagonistic approach continue with Weiner as union head? The current agreement ends in December 2011. And what about drug testing? As more and more pressure is exerted by outside forces (both the public at large and the federal government), will Weiner consent to more testing? Fehr was resistant to the end. Honestly, I can’t see this transition being bad for baseball as a whole. But will it be better, or more of the same?
We can only hope.
Fehr being Fehr, watch him pull a Brett Favre and come out of retirement.
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