Fehr hires a special assistant to represent the Major League Baseball Players’ Association and he sees Rick Helling to be the best man for the post. Helling’s professional career was spent with the Texas Rangers. His career was not particularly outstanding, he scored innings alright but he was not at par with baseball stars like Mike McGwire. What qualified Helling to be hired by Fehr was his active participation in the players union. As a matter of fact he was the one who had the foresight to warn the MLB of the possible damage steroids can do to the league. Joe Torre wrote about it in his book “The Yankee Years”
From the Los Angeles Times:
“There is this problem with steroids,” Helling told them. “It’s happening. It’s real. And it’s so prevalent that guys who aren’t doing it are feeling pressure to do it because they’re falling behind. It’s not a level playing field. We’ve got to figure out a way to address it.
“It’s a bigger deal than people think. It’s noticeable enough that it’s creating an uneven playing field. What really bothers me is that it’s gotten so out of hand that guys are feeling pressure to do it. It’s one thing to be a cheater, to be somebody who doesn’t care whether it’s right or wrong. But it’s another thing when other guys feel like they have to do it just to keep up. And that’s what’s happening. And I don’t feel like this is the right way to go.”
Rick Helling was the only person in the MLB who had the courage to stand up and say that steroids is going to hurt baseball and it has got to stop. However, Fehr said that he couldn’t recall Helling saying that in any of the union meetings.
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