by Ken Rosenthal

Even on steroids, Fehr was consistent with his mission. His sole interest was serving his members. He did not care about public relations. He did not care about his legacy. He wanted only to do right by the union.

Alas, he missed on steroids, missed about as badly as a person of his intellect could miss. His resistance was more nuanced, more understandable than it has been portrayed. From a legal perspective — and Fehr, first and foremost, is an attorney — it may even have been correct. Yet, from a practical standpoint, the union's position was indefensible, costing Fehr respect that he had richly earned.

Fehr and the rest of the union leadership genuinely believed — and believe — that drug testing was a violation of civil liberties. They did not trust the owners to administer a fair program. But in the end, they lost sight of the forest for the trees, lost the battle, lost the war — and continue to lose in ways they never imagined.

One player agent told me Monday that the steroids issue should not be viewed in a vacuum, but in the greater context of the relations between the players and owners. Yes, those relations are better than they were a decade ago, but old grudges die hard. Even now, some agents insist that the owners are conspiring to hold down free-agent salaries, recalling that the clubs were guilty of such collusion three times before.

On the other side, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said only a year ago, "Steroids is strictly a Don Fehr problem and creation." Reinsdorf's statement was an oversimplification, not to mention an abdication of his own responsibility as well as every other owner's and commissioner Bud Selig's. But surely, other owners share his view. Such is the undercurrent of fear and loathing that continues to exist between the two sides.

For the longest time, the players' distrust of the owners was reflected not just in their position on steroids, but their position on virtually every other issue as well. The union always seemed to be on the right side of the argument, never seemed to lose. Steroids ended the winning streak. For once, the union failed its membership.

If potential abuse by the owners was the players' biggest fear, the union could have devised its own testing long before the topic surfaced in collective-bargaining discussions. But no, union officials were preoccupied with privacy. They also expressed disdain for those who dared broach the subject, most famously when Gene Orza said in 2004, "I have no doubt that (steroids) are not worse than cigarettes."

The argument not only was ridiculous — most steroids are illegal without a prescription — but also dangerous. No one knew then, and no one knows now, how steroids will affect the long-term health of users.

Fehr, like many others, can't escape the steroids issue. (Dennis Cook / Associated Press)

Maybe Orza changed his mind after watching all those baseball-sponsored commercials and advertisements warning of the risks of such drugs. Evidently, they're worse than cigarettes.

Protecting players' privacy indeed was important, but Fehr's union did not even get that right, failing to destroy the records of 104 positive tests that took place in 2003 — tests that players took under the promise of confidentiality, only to have leaks reveal Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa as users, with others surely to follow.

Maybe it was not the union's responsibility to protect the players from themselves — some will cheat, just as they always have. But the union also did not protect the innocent, the players who refused to partake in the drug culture. The biggest earners carried the most weight. And many of the biggest earners were users.

Fehr, speaking on a conference call to reporters Monday, repeated what he has said consistently over the past several months — that he might have acted sooner if he had a better knowledge or understanding of the steroid problem, but that he is satisfied with the testing program that is now in place.

Well, that testing came about only under heavy pressure from Congress, not because the union suddenly saw the light. Even now, both the players' and owners' sides occasionally demonstrate a limited understanding of the problem. A press release noting Fehr's accomplishments said, "Over the last three seasons (2006-08) more than nine thousand tests have been conducted and only ten players were suspended for positive steroid tests." There was no mention of the substances that the tests do not detect, such as human growth hormone.

The sad part is that Fehr accomplished so much in more than 25 years as the union's executive director. He resisted a salary cap, unlike the unions of every other professional sport. He won the collusion cases, fought contraction — and finally, by the end of the current labor agreement in 2011, will have helped achieve 16 years of unprecedented labor peace.

It would be a remarkable legacy if not for one issue. The steroid issue. The issue that brought the entire sport shame.