Shortly after Donald Fehr left the MLBPA in June of last year, he took up an advisory role with the NHLPA. When I heard this news, I was somewhat concerned.
Being an avid fan of baseball, I consider Fehr a black mark on Major League Baseball. Don't get me wrong—he was a great union leader. The problem for me is that he did his job too well.
Fehr served as executive director for 26 years. He is largely responsible for raising the minimum salary for MLB players by $2.9 million over the course of his time with the union.
Not bad so far, right?
Keep in mind he also lead the Players Union through two labor stoppages. The first, in 1985, lasted only two days. The second, however, lasted 232 days and forced the cancellation of the entire postseason and World Series.
It gets better.
He also has a hand in preserving the status quo during the steroid era in baseball. Fehr and his union (I say his union because the players gave Fehr the power to do as he saw fit) turned a blind eye and threw up road blocks whenever presented with a drug testing policy.
All of these eve ...
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Article written by Derrick Finlay
Donald Fehr Could Spell Doom for NHL
July 18th, 2010 by Derrick Finlay Leave a reply »
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