Donald Fehr is the Antichrist of Baseball. Because he wanted to show everybody that he was as tough as Marvin Miller, he refused to negotiate, or even be reasonable during the 1994 Strike. That torched the season & the playoffs, thus wrecking the Indians' chance to turn all those bad years into a magic, back-from-the-dead year. 1995 was nice, but it was more like a Coronation, than a Comeback. Of course, the horrific fallout from the Strike led to the geniuses in the Union, and the Owners, to encourage the Big Boys to get bigger, and score lots of high publicity runs. Sorry, Pat, but Fehr cared about only two things: His own status as One Tough Dude, and getting the maximum amount of Baseball's revenue pouring into his minions' pockets. He deserves no respect.
I don't know, Matthews. (By the way, your kid is on the juice, too, in case you didn't notice.) Fehr's obligation was to the players. It wasn't to the fans. When Albert Belle got that contract with the Orioles, he was the highest paid player in history. In *history.* Now, in a large part because of Fehr's work, stiffs like Travis Hafner are now paid what Belle was just for saying, "Hello, would you like to feel my Louisville Slugger?"
And yet, fans still buy tickets, and baseball still has a TV contract, and baseball even has its own TV network.
So is Fehr really to blame for anything? After the 1994 strike, everybody said that was the nail in the coffin, that baseball was officially dead, and nobody would ever would buy a ticket again. Oh, really?
Donald Fehr is the Antichrist of Baseball. Because he wanted to show everybody that he was as tough as Marvin Miller, he refused to negotiate, or even be reasonable during the 1994 Strike. That torched the season & the playoffs, thus wrecking the Indians' chance to turn all those bad years into a magic, back-from-the-dead year. 1995 was nice, but it was more like a Coronation, than a Comeback. Of course, the horrific fallout from the Strike led to the geniuses in the Union, and the Owners, to encourage the Big Boys to get bigger, and score lots of high publicity runs. Sorry, Pat, but Fehr cared about only two things: His own status as One Tough Dude, and getting the maximum amount of Baseball's revenue pouring into his minions' pockets. He deserves no respect.
I don't know, Matthews. (By the way, your kid is on the juice, too, in case you didn't notice.) Fehr's obligation was to the players. It wasn't to the fans. When Albert Belle got that contract with the Orioles, he was the highest paid player in history. In *history.* Now, in a large part because of Fehr's work, stiffs like Travis Hafner are now paid what Belle was just for saying, "Hello, would you like to feel my Louisville Slugger?"
And yet, fans still buy tickets, and baseball still has a TV contract, and baseball even has its own TV network.
So is Fehr really to blame for anything? After the 1994 strike, everybody said that was the nail in the coffin, that baseball was officially dead, and nobody would ever would buy a ticket again. Oh, really?
I couldn't have said it any better than Clay. I personally blame Fehr for everything that's bad and wrong about baseball. He has destroyed the game.