The union and Donald Fehr said ‘hell no!’ and Bud Selig simply said ‘ok, fine’. He could have - and should have - fought harder, but that would have required leadership and courage, two things he lacked. So Selig folded, though he knew exactly what was going on. The only defense of Selig is that he was just doing the bidding for the owners, but again, a leader would have stepped up to fight.
And baseball journalists similarly stuck their heads in the sand.