Donald Fehr: The Anti-Fan
Donald Fehr... What a guy!
I look at this man, I hear him speak and I'm baptized in clarity--this is why my father would have disowned me if I became a lawyer. Seriously. He told me and my brothers, "You guys can do anything you want. But if any of you turn out to be bankers or lawyers, you're outta the will." I could be a piece-of-shit criminal and still be in the will; though probably not deeply involved in Thanksgivings and Christmases. ...
Throughout the course of the day, journalists and broadcasters have cast their opinons on Donald Fehr's performance.
The general consensus stands something along the lines of, "Fehr receives a high grade. He devoutly served his constituents. The only negative mark would be his being out of touch in terms of the steroid issue." Tom Verducci even says that, by the legally charged job description ("To serve the rights of the players to the best of his ability"), he was Too Good. Translation: He did a great job... with a teeny-tiny, minor, almost-not-even-there exception.
WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! Donald Fehr's short-sighted tunnel vision--his blinders--is what I'm pointing to when somebody asks, "What was the biggest factor that enabled steroids to spread like wild fire?"
Fehr, on an annual basis, ignored steroid use. Tom Verducci's book The Yankee Years (a great weekend read) described how, starting in 1998, Fehr (and the owners) ignored Rick Helling's pointing out steroid use in baseball. Had Fehr handled this as he should have (by acknowledging the claim and pushing the players to agree to instituting testing as to "nip it in the bud"), the game wouldn't be tainted. If Fehr had not turned a blind eye to steroids, there would not have been a BALCO, a Mitchell Report, or a Peter Gammons/A-Rod interview. Nobody would be wondering to the side if Albert Pujols is juicing; and everybody would be okay with the fact that Manny took his pills because his weenis is perpetually flaccid.
Verducci argued this afternoon on SI.com that Fehr's job was not to be a custodian to the game. Maybe not, but his job certainly wasn't to drag it through the mud via negligence.
So steroids was the only thing that Fehr missed? Fine then, isolate steroids from the following:
1.) Hey, who won the 1994 World Series? Right, the Players Strike cancelled the World Series leaving us with Henry Rowengardner & Chet Steadman on VHS to get us through the summer instead.
2.) MLB players' minimum salaries are less than NHL players' salaries. Yes, that's right. The league who airs games on Versus and who just had a franchise file for bankruptcy has a higher minimum salary for its players than Major League Baseball.
How do either of those lend themselves to Fehr's high grade performance?
In all fairness, there has been unprecedented labor peace (until 2011) between the players and owners. And there was the $280million dollar collusion lawsuit Fehr won on behalf of the players in 1982. But other than that?
Other than that, Fehr is nothing more than a cover-up artist and a con-man for the likes of disgruntled, greedy, and otherwise selfish players who command padded statistics over the integrity of the game. If Fehr is to receive a high grade on any aspect of his job, it should fall under the category of lawlessness and anarchy and serving the dishonest minority.
Donald Fehr failed miserably at his job. He receives an F.
June 24th, 2009 - 00:30
Will, you’re arguing a question of degree. Fact is – steroids saved baseball. Plain and simple. The game would have never recovered from that little snag it hit in 1994 had it not been for the home run race in ’98. Big Mac and Barry’s subsequent record breaking seasons didn’t hurt either. Pretty much nobody can disagree with the fact that homers brought fans back to baseball.
Fehr knew this. Selig knew this. The owners and the players knew this. Hell, after a while, even the media and the fans knew it and tht’s why WE ALL turned a blind eye to steroids in baseball. Now if you want to say that Fehr and Selig and the owners failed because they allowed a labor dispute to cancel a world series – which as you pointed out with your NHL comparison yielded weak results – then had no choice but to allow PEDs to run wild to save the sport, fine. But otherwise, your basically criticizing a guy for letting something go too far – rather than for allowing it to happen at all. The Player’s Association, the owners, Fehr, Selig all shit the bed in ’94. Everyone in the sport can share the blame for fucking up so hard that they had to cancel what has historically been the greatest spectacle in sports. Fans turned their back and it was a problem that wasn’t going to self correct. 1998 sparked a powder keg and reminded us that baseball was fun. We have steroids to thank for this. The fact that use wasn’t curbed after that summer is no one person’s fault. It spread like wildfire and was out of control. Steroids are bad, steroids are unfortunate. Whatever purity baseball had pre-strike is gone because of them.
But the real catalyst for the downfall of baseball was the strike. Brought on by owners’ greed and poor management skills by Selig who couldn’t leave the boys’ club behind when his job was to run a league, not represent the best interests of his owner buddies. While we’re on the topic, steroids are as much Selig’s fault as Fehr’s. Fehr’s job was to rep the players, not police them. As commish, it was Selig’s job to make sure the rules of his league were followed – and he was so wrapped up in selling tickets and making owners rich that he lost control of his league. No argument here that baseball is fucked, or that lawyers are total pieces of shit. But when you look at who is to blame for the downfall of America’s pastime – most, if not all the blame has to fall on the leadership.
June 24th, 2009 - 03:34
It wasn’t worth torching the integrity of baseball making all that money with Sosa, McGuire, and Bonds. Greed killed baseball just like the economy. What does anyone say about the sport of baseball anymore outside of the fate of their local team? Steroids. Tough topic for you Willie, the 94 season coulda been another one for your white sox.