Fehr's Whiff on Steroids Tarnishes Great Legacy

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2009 3:05 PM CDT
Fehr's Whiff on Steroids Tarnishes Great Legacy
Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Donald Fehr.   (AP Photo)

If not for one pesky scandal, “Don Fehr might rightly be hailed as one of the greatest leaders in the history of American labor,” Ken Rosenthal writes for Fox Sports of the retiring baseball players union boss. “Alas, he missed on steroids, missed about as badly as a person of his intellect could miss.” Fehr also failed in his most important job: protecting his players.

Fehr’s early resistance to testing is at least understandable, and perhaps legally correct. “Yet, from a practical standpoint,” Rosenthal writes, “the union’s position was indefensible, costing Fehr respect that he had richly earned.” And one cannot forget that it was the union’s own confidential test results that outed Alex Rodriguez, among others. “It would be a remarkable legacy if not for one issue,” Rosenthal writes. “The issue that brought the entire sport shame.” (More Donald Fehr stories.)

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