Baseball union chief Don Fehr is stepping down

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.

He also has won economic success for members: The average salary rose from $289,000 in 1983 to an estimated $3.26 million this season.

That success, however, is seen by many to have contributed to the anything-goes mentality of baseball when the union opposed random drug testing long after it had become a reality in other sports.

Fehr and Orza most recently have been in the news because the union failed to expeditiously order that samples from a confidential round of drug testing in 2003 be destroyed. Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa have been identified as steroid users from those samples, which have been preserved because of a court order sought by federal officials.

Former commissioner Fay Vincent said Fehr protected players at a cost to the game’s credibility.

“He was wrong to see things in terms of civil liberties for the players and not in terms of the overall interests of baseball,” Vincent said. “But I don’t want to harp on that as it is just one aspect of an outstanding career.”

Fehr said he understands the criticism that links him to the widespread use of steroids. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro are among the players linked to steroids.

“If we -- I -- had known or understood what the circumstances were a little better, then perhaps we would have moved sooner,” Fehr said.

The union, which has been livid about leaks from a list of 104 players who proved positive in the 2003 round of testing, has sued unsuccessfully to get the list out of the hands of federal prosecutors. It is pursuing the case through the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Fehr saw this as a good time to make a transition not only because of the collective bargaining issue but because the union may face a challenge from owners over the amateur draft, as many owners would like to see the size of bonuses paid to amateurs capped, as has been done in other sports.

Fehr in many ways has been an extension of Miller, the pioneer who always seemed a step ahead of owners during the union’s infancy. But Fehr showed a flexibility that had been missing in previous labor negotiations when he reached agreements without work stoppages in 2002 and 2006.

Miller was at times critical of Fehr’s leadership -- he recently said he never would have approved any testing for steroids -- but is praising him now.

“Overall, on balance, I think he’s done a fine job,” Miller told ESPN.com. “It’s still one of the most solid unions you’re going to find anywhere.”

Selig also praised Fehr.

“Don has represented his constituency with passion, loyalty and great diligence,” Selig said in a statement. “Although we have had our differences, I have always respected his role. . . . We hope to continue to build upon the game’s prosperity as we work with the new leadership of the players association.”

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Times staff writer Kevin Baxter contributed to this report.

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