Donald Fehr, a fierce labor negotiator who built the Major League Baseball Players Assn. into the most powerful union in professional sports but whose legacy is clouded by the fallout from baseball's steroid era, announced Monday that he is stepping down after 25 years.
After adding to the success that his predecessor Marvin Miller had in negotiating one-sided labor contracts with the fractious group of MLB owners, Fehr more notably has been dragged alongside Commissioner Bud Selig to a string of congressional hearings into steroids throughout much of the last two decades.
Fehr, who turns 61 next month, said he didn't have the appetite to fight through another round of negotiations with baseball's management. The current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2011.
"Once I reached the decision that I didn't want to chair the next round of negotiations, there's a clock that relates to the bargaining," Fehr said in a conference call with reporters. "And it was important to step down, have the players consider what to do next, name new leadership and have that individual develop the negotiating strategy with the involvement of all the players. And that takes a while.
"I don't know if it's fair to say I've lost my taste for it. It's fair to say I've done it for a very long time. My conclusion is it's better for me to see what else I can do . . . . I think it will be good for everybody."
Michael Weiner, general counsel for the union, has received Fehr's recommendation as a successor, pending approval of the union's members. Gene Orza, Fehr's longtime No. 2 man, seemed to have been in line to replace Fehr, but Weiner is more likely to provide a new direction. The change is targeted to come March 31, 2010, but could happen sooner.
Fehr has run the union since 1983, the first two years as acting director. During his tenure, he presided over what became the darkest chapter of baseball's labor history, when negotiations for a new working agreement broke down and led to a 7 1/2 -month lockout that wiped out part of the 1994 regular season as well as the playoffs and World Series.
Fehr said his most satisfying moment as executive director came after the worst moment -- the labor pact ended the strike.
"Simply because that one came after the most turmoil, the most stress, the most difficulty," he said.
There hasn't been a work stoppage in baseball since.
