Donald Fehr
| Donald Fehr | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Donald Martin Fehr July 18, 1948 Prairie Village, Kansas |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players' Association |
Donald Martin Fehr (born July 18, 1948) is the executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association. He became nationally prominent while serving as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1985 to 2009.
Fehr's parents are Irene Sylvia (née Gulko) and Louis Alvin Fehr, of German-Jewish descent. He was raised in Prairie Village, Kansas. He graduated from Indiana University and was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity. Fehr received his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
As a young lawyer, Fehr assisted the MLBPA in the Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally arbitration case (later known as the Seitz decision). In 1977, Marvin Miller hired Fehr as the Players Association general counsel.
In December 1985, Fehr was voted executive director of the MLBPA after having served as acting director since December 9, 1983. Fehr successfully challenged the owners' collusion, leading to the owners paying $280 million in damages to the players.
Fehr led the players union through the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike and subsequent World Series cancellation. He was instrumental in implementing the rejection of future admissions into the MLBPA by replacement players who planned to fill in during the strike of 1995. Fehr attended the 1995 New York Yankees' home opener against the Texas Rangers, which saw only 50,425 fans show up making it was the smallest opening day crowd at Yankee Stadium since 1990. Fehr's presence angering many fans who blamed him for ruining their team's postseason chances and what would have been Don Mattingly's postseason debut. Fans booed Fehr and yelled "You ruined the game!" in response to him having attended the last game played at Yankee Stadium before the strike, and booed as he left the stadium; one fan also held up a sign saying "$HAME ON YOU!", to which Fehr responded by flipping off the fan.
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