After Don announced his retirement, Marvin Miller, the union leader who preceded him, observed that Don has always had a unique set of challenges. He had to gain consensus with a group of players who now had a lot more to lose economically in the event of a strike, some of whom were industries unto themselves. In Marvin’s time, all the players knew what it was like to play without a union. They understood how it felt being "owned" by a team and having no medical or retirement benefits. When Don took over, few if any players could remember such conditions. Don helped them understand and appreciate how they came to have such advantages, what exactly was at stake, and how this was a movement that would benefit future generations, not only themselves. To accomplish this while keeping everyone on the same page was, according to Miller, "one of Don’s greatest strengths."

It is easy to make Don Fehr a target representing everything that frustrates us. Anyone perceived as the guy who fought for the rights of millionaires — especially millionaires who get to play baseball for a living — will never get a warm welcome. Yet our entire nation across the economic spectrum has been the beneficiary of his work and the work of the organization he headed for many decades, most often for the better.