As a young lawyer, Fehr assisted the MLBPA in the Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally arbitration case. 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 $280 million in damages to the players. Fehr led the players union through the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike and subsequent World Series cancellation. He was instrumental in implementing the rejection of future admissions into the MLBPA of replacement players who planned to fill in during the strike of 1995. Fehr attended the 1995 New York Yankees' home opener against the Texas Rangers, which saw only 50,425 fans show up making it was the smallest opening day crowd at Yankee Stadium since 1990. Fehr's presence angered many fans who blamed him for ruining their team's postseason chances and what would have been Don Mattingly's postseason debut. Fans booed Fehr and yelled "You ruined the game!" in response to him having attended the last game played at Yankee Stadium before the strike, and booed as he left the stadium; one fan also held up a sign saying "$HAME ON YOU!", to which Fehr responded by flipping off the fan. On June 22, 2009, Fehr announced his intention to step down as the MLBPA executive director position, recommending Michael Weiner as his successor. This was subject to the approval of the union's executive board and possible ratification by all players. He officially relinquished his job to Weiner in December 2009.
NHLPA
Shortly after leaving his position as Executive Director of the MLBPA, Fehr took up a position as an advisor to the NHL Players' Association. On December 18, 2010, Fehr was voted in by the NHLPA as their executive director. With the NHL locking out the players at midnight on September 15, 2012, Fehr became the only Executive Director of a players union to be directly involved in work stoppages in two sports. Six of the eight contract negotiations he has been involved in have resulted in work stoppages, including five consecutive negotiations between the MLBPA and Major League Baseball.
