Praise for Fowler

Padres owner Ron Fowler gets high praise for his work on the new baseball CBA:

“In the history of labor relations since 1989, my first year, no owner has devoted more time, made himself more available or had a bigger influence on the collective bargaining agreement than Ron Fowler.”

…

At least, considering the account of Fowler’s involvement as chairman of MLB’s labor committee, it must be recognized that he cannot possibly be the bumbler some Padres fans seem to think he is.

“We couldn’t have done the CBA without him,” said Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer. “He was our wise soul. He really brought a business perspective to the negotiations. He really supported us. He dug into the details. Having an owner that is willing to devote that much time is rare and invaluable.”

…

“I don’t think ever before a process started have you had it where (the head of the labor committee) actually sat down with owners, general managers and CFOs where he got a feel for what the issues were in Cleveland, in Chicago, in Kansas City, in Denver,” Monfort said. “Everybody got a chance to give their opinion. To Ron’s credit, he kept all those in mind. It would have been easy to say, ‘This was good for me.’ He never did. He never wavered on the fact he was doing this for 29 other owners and a lot of other people.”

Padres fans, of course, want this kind of commitment to bringing a winning team to San Diego. Bud Selig was a very involved owner when it came to labor contracts, which is one reason he wound up as commissioner. His Brewers didn’t make the playoffs very often, however.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2jck5ku