Donald Fehr to Step Down

[Goodfellas]

Head of the players' union Donald Fehr is planning to step down, SI.com has confirmed.

Michael Weiner will take over as the chief of the union. The reasons aren't immediately clear.

Weiner has served as general counsel (the union's third-ranking executive). He leaps over Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer. The union has come under fire in recent years for stonewalling MLB over steroid testing, with Orza enduring much of the criticism. Weiner is better liked by the central office at MLB, so this could be a positive for future negotiations (maybe).

Fehr, 60, has held the position since December of 1985. Players' salaries have skyrocketed during his tenure. In 1990, Fehr took on the owners and successfully negotiated the $280 million settlement of baseball's free agency collusion cases. He guided the players' union through the 1994-95 strike.

ESPN.com first reported Fehr would step down.

[Goodfellas]

Could the retirement announcement of longtime baseball union leader Donald Fehr be related to fallout from Sammy Sosa (http://www.fannation.com/tags/show_tag/7565)'s leaked positive test for performance-enhancing drugs? Veteran Cub players say they don't know of any internal pressure similar to the public criticism Fehr took from ESPN analyst John Kruk and others over leaked information from a list of 104 positive tests from 2003 that was supposed to remain anonymous. The list was never supposed to be compiled because names were required to be kept separate from test samples during that round of ''survey'' testing.
Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1634808,CST-SPT-csep23.article)

[bringingthehuge]

Could the retirement announcement of longtime baseball union leader Donald Fehr be related to fallout from Sammy Sosa (http://www.fannation.com/tags/show_tag/7565)'s leaked positive test for performance-enhancing drugs? Veteran Cub players say they don't know of any internal pressure similar to the public criticism Fehr took from ESPN analyst John Kruk and others over leaked information from a list of 104 positive tests from 2003 that was supposed to remain anonymous. The list was never supposed to be compiled because names were required to be kept separate from test samples during that round of ''survey'' testing.
Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1634808,CST-SPT-csep23.article)
That makes sense

[Goodfellas]

All the names will come out. They will be putting the hot dog vendor guy in the hall of fame 10-20 years from now cause of the "Steroid" era.