Getting rid of Fehr is a good start for baseball

One down and two to go.

It was good news for baseball fans when Donald Fehr announced a couple of weeks ago that he is retiring as head of the Major League Baseball players' union.

Fehr, along with commissioner Bud Selig and noted agent Scott Boras, are the primary culprits in severely damaging what was once called the National Pastime.

Of course, the greedy players and owners share the blame for the tainted record book, the controversy that is sure to plague Hall of Fame voting for years to come and the inflated salaries that sometimes have resulted in downright obscene ticket prices.

But make no mistake, without the perverted leadership of Fehr, Selig and Boras this would not have happened.

Fehr arrogantly and stubbornly refused to acknowledge the effects of performance-enhancing drugs. He was a hero to the players because he brought them undreamed of millions of dollars. Some may change their opinion if and when, as many predict, there is a sudden surge in the health problems of former players.

But right now you can be sure that, as a group, the players love him. And why not? The average salary during his tenure as executive director of the players union has gone from about $240,000 to nearly $3 million a year. The minimum salary for 2009 is $390,000.

Fehr has shown them the money and, until Congress stepped in, he was the man who prevented the indignity of them peeing in a cup.

Selig was the perfect foil. In their dealings, Bud was weak while Fehr was strong. First introducing it in the All-Star Game that nobody won, Bud Light mastered the art of shrugging his shoulders when it was time to make a tough decision. He cheered as players got bigger and stronger over night and started to smash records that had stood for decades.

Home runs went flying out of ballparks and money came flying into the pockets of the owners. Selig was loved by the people who voted him into the job and gave him contract extensions and unprecedented raises.

Last February, it was revealed that Selig was making $18 million after a 22 percent pay increase. In contrast, Roger Goodell, the decisive NFL commissioner, makes $11 million and took a voluntary 20 percent cut this year because of the slumping economy. Selig's silence on that subject is deafening.

Boras, a Hollywood-slick agent, may appear a strange link to baseball's drug problem. I first made a connection a couple of months ago when former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, in a phone interview from Japan, said:

"I think the ones that have gone unscathed (in the Steroids Era) are the players' agents. If you follow the money, they are the ones who profited the most, and they know what their clients are doing all the time."

Just this year, two of Boras' most prominent clients -- Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez -- have admitted to the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Boras' influence on Ramirez has been well documented. Last summer, when it became obvious that Boston was not going to pay Manny what he and Boras wanted, an odd thing happened. Manny refused to play some games and then went through the motions as a pinch-hitter, swinging wildly at pitches out of the strike zone.

The Red Sox got the message and Boras engineered a trade that put Ramirez in a Dodgers uniform. Manny suddenly came to life and helped Los Angeles make the playoffs.

Friday night, Ramirez returned to the Dodgers after a 50-game suspension for use of illegal drugs. He held a pregame press conference, and in the words of Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, Manny was "seated alongside the loathsome Scott Boras" while dodging questions.

Staying close to the money, I guess. Something Boras has in common with Fehr and Selig.

Quite a threesome and quite a mess they've made of the game.