Weiner elected head of baseball players’ union

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Talk about a landslide: The Major League Baseball Players Assn. announced this morning that players had voted in favor of Michael Weiner as their new leader -- by a margin of 1,055 to 4.

Donald Fehr, the union’s executive director since 1983, said in June that he planned to retire. Weiner, the union’s general counsel, was recommended by an executive committee of players and put to a vote of all the players.

‘I congratulate Michael on securing this extraordinary vote of confidence,’ Fehr said in a news release.

The union and owners are expected to start talks on a new collective bargaining agreement next year. The current agreement expires in 2011.

-- Bill Shaikin