Sports Writers Fix 6.23.09 [J. Mark English]

Subject: Donald Fehr (the outgoing MLB Union boss)

• Richard Justice with SportsJustice: "It was just after dawn on clear, cool Manhattan morning in 1990 when I first heard Donald Fehr speak of retirement...Baseball's average salary rose from $289,000 to $2.9 million during Fehr's 26 years atop the Major League Players Association. In terms of benefits, health care and pension, no union ever took better care of its people....Every player owes Donald Fehr half his 2009 salary. At least. Baseball players have had it so good for so long that they've forgotten what it was once like."

• Gregg Doyel with CBS Sports: "When union boss Donald Fehr leaves the players association in March, he will take with him the last link to the worst person to happen to baseball...He ruined the economics of baseball. Not just the competition on the field, although he did ruin that. Fehr took over in 1983 -- and for kicks, look at the teams who won the World Series in the previous decade. From 1971-80, seven of the 10 champions came from so-called small markets: Oakland (three), Cincinnati (two) and Pittsburgh (two). The other champions were the Yankees (twice) and Phillies...Now then, look at the past 13 years of Fehr's reign. In those 13 years, there were just two small-market champions: Florida and Arizona."

Subject: US Open (Golf) -

• Steve Politi with NJ.com: "Three years ago, the last time he almost won the U.S. Open, a pale-faced and glassy-eyed Phil Mickelson stepped behind the podium and summed up his defeat in five words...'I am such an idiot.'...Monday, after the record fifth time that he finished second in a tournament that has tortured him more than any other player, Mickelson needed three fewer words to sum up the experience...And this time, he was smiling...'Oh well.'...Mickelson came here with his wife, Amy, just days away from beginning her treatment to fight breast cancer. He was unsure if he'd be able to focus on the tournament with that on his mind."

• Jerry Sullivan with The Buffalo News: "Golf can be a maddening and frustrating game. You don’t have to be a PGA Tour veteran to understand. Sometimes, it reaches the point where you can’t take it anymore. You feel like tossing the clubs in the closet and walking away....Lucas Glover knows the feeling. About a year ago, he and golf were ready for a trial separation. Glover had been one of the rising young stars on the Tour. He had won more than $2 million in 2005 and ’06. In ’07, Jack Nicklaus had chosen him for the Presidents Cup team. It looked like his career was taking off...Once he got away, Glover realized he had been too hard on himself. It was OK to have high standards. But he was letting misfortune get the better of him. That’s no way to succeed in golf, where the best players put failure quickly behind them....Late last fall, Glover went back to work. He worked on his bunker play, putting and patience. And when he rejoined the Tour in January, he felt fresher than ever. Glover, 29, had one major goal, to do better in majors. If he was one of the promising young guys on Tour, he needed to prove it on the biggest stage."