The Real Villain

By John McMullen
The Phanatic Magazine

In 1991 the Unites States took the bold step of making steroids illegal to possess or sell without a doctor's prescription.

Whether you agree with that or not is inconsequential, steroids are illegal and contrary to popular belief, then commissioner Fay Vincent, did outlaw them from baseball.

It was a meaningless proclamation, however. You see, back then the MLBPA refused to even talk about drugs, never mind negotiate about them in collective bargaining. Things like cocaine weren't even addressed in baseball's CBA, never mind steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.

So saying baseball encouraged the use of steroids by not outlawing them is a specious argument, unless you also want to say the lords of baseball advocated smack and dope.

Of course, the architect of the players' plausible deniability in this story is the same guy who has been doing it for 30 years -- the real villain in the steroid conspiracy -- MLBPA executive director Donald Fehr.

As a young lawyer, Fehr assisted the MLBPA in the Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally arbitration case (later known as the Seitz decision). Then, in 1977, Marvin Miller hired Fehr as the Players Association general counsel.

But, Fehr really made his bones in the players' eyes during the late '80s. In 1986, he was voted executive director of the MLBPA after successfully challenging the so-called owners' collusion, leading to baseball paying $280 million in damages to the players.

Since then he has been at the center of every single baseball work stoppage, including the 1994 strike and subsequent World Series cancellation.

Fehr has drubbed the owners at every turn while turning the MLBPA into one of the most powerful unions in the country. He has blocked any meaningful drug testing in the game and continues to do so.

His behavior has advocated the use of dozens of illegal drugs and turned the game into a seedy enterprise filled with needles, junkies and cheats.

So when you are locking the Hall of Fame's door for players like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, do me a favor and chain it shut for the biggest enabler and drug pusher in sports...Donald Fehr.