ESPN.com

 

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Boston Red Sox refused to take the field for their final spring training game in Florida on Wednesday and threatened to boycott their flight to Japan for their season openers unless their coaches and other staff are paid for the trip.

 

Fans filled the stadium, the national anthems were sung and the Boston and Toronto Blue Jays lineups were announced, but the game did not begin at its 12:07 p.m. scheduled start.

 

Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said the sport's lawyers were dealing with the situation.

 

"We're trying to work it out," he said.

 

Mike Lowell told The Boston Globe the team voted unanimously not to take the field for their final spring game or to board the plane later Wednesday for Japan.

 

Manager Terry Francona and his players were upset after learning staff members are not going to get a $40,000 stipend. The Boston Herald reported players insisted part of their agreement to make the trip included the fee -- for them and the coaches.

 

"I did not have an off-day yesterday. I had the phone glued to my ear because I was promised some answers and I haven't even received a phone call," Francona said Wednesday. "So I'm a little bit stuck. What I want to do this morning is get excited to play a baseball game and what I ended up doing is apologizing to the coaches and being humiliated."

 

The World Series champions are scheduled to begin their season against Oakland on March 25 and 26 in Tokyo.

 

The Red Sox clubhouse was closed to reporters because of the dispute.

 

"We had an agreement," Curt Schilling, one of a handful of Red Sox players who talked with Major League Baseball on ground rules for the trip, told ESPN's Claire Smith.

 

"Some of the promises have already been taken away, now this," Schilling said. "As far as the players are concerned, [withholding the coaches' bonuses] can't happen."

 

''When we voted to go to Japan, that was not a unanimous vote,'' Lowell told the Globe, "but we did what our team wanted us to do for Major League Baseball. They promised us the moon and the stars, and then when we committed, they started pulling back. It's not just the coaches, it's the staff, the trainers, a lot of people are affected by this.

 

"I'm so super proud of this team," Lowell said, according to The Globe. "When we put it to a vote it was unanimous. We're all in agreement that we're not going to put up with this.''

 

That the players would consider such action "is really appreciated, to say the least," Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan told Smith. "It means as much as the money itself.

 

"While we're very fortunate, a lot of people don't realize what we do. It's nice to get recognition from the players."

 

Shortly before the scheduled game, Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia stretched for a few minutes on the outfield grass before returning to the clubhouse. Blue Jay players took batting practice as usual, but the Red Sox did not.

 

Daisuke Matsuzaka, who had been scheduled to pitch, left the stadium to pitch at a game against Minnesota's Triple A affiliate. He is scheduled to be the Opening Day starter in Tokyo against Oakland.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

john henry being a cheap bastard and not living up to promises he makes? noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

 

i just cant ever imagine that happening

 

:guillotine

$40,000 for what exactly?

Issue settled, MLB agreed to give the coaches the 40k. Sox/Jays game is now underway and they will go to Japan.

$40,000 for what exactly?

 

For the staff members.

 

Trainers, Assistants, Attendants, etc.

 

I guess to cover for hotel, food, and air fare.

40,000 for a week is a little rediculous.

40,000 for a week is a little rediculous.

Ridiculous or not, they were supposed to get it and then it was taken away from them.

Thats good that it got settled.

Wow, that is way too much spending money for just a few days; even in Japan. I think whoever initially agreed to that amount is either stupid, insane or both.

 

 

Also, this strong-arm tactic the players pulled, and its apparent success are cause for concern; even if justified (a promise is a promise). 1994 may be a distant memory to these people; but to many fans, including this one, the sour taste still lingers.

$40,000 for what exactly?

 

For the staff members.

 

Trainers, Assistants, Attendants, etc.

 

I guess to cover for hotel, food, and air fare.

 

Food, airfare and hotel where already covered. This was a 40,000 appearance bonus

Wow, that is way too much spending money for just a few days; even in Japan. I think whoever initially agreed to that amount is either stupid, insane or both.

 

 

Also, this strong-arm tactic the players pulled, and its apparent success are cause for concern; even if justified (a promise is a promise). 1994 may be a distant memory to these people; but to many fans, including this one, the sour taste still lingers.

 

There is a difference. They were standing up for something that was a legitimate raw deal for someone else, not just themselves.

$40,000 for what exactly?

 

For the staff members.

 

Trainers, Assistants, Attendants, etc.

 

I guess to cover for hotel, food, and air fare.

 

Food, airfare and hotel where already covered. This was a 40,000 appearance bonus

 

That's more like what I figured. If they weren't covered for air fare, hotel, etc, I'd have been shocked.

I have no problem with pro baseball players making a sh*tload of coin, but 40K for assistants and attendants for a weekend is fricking ridiculous.

Good article on the Herald today which talks about this situation. I agree with the author; this even makes the Yankees look good.

 

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/n...,3894377.column

 

$40,000 bonus for free trip to Japan? That's rich

 

Wallace Matthews

March 20, 2008

 

Imagine if you will, my friends, the following scenario: Your boss tells you he or she needs you to do your job, the job he is paying you good money to do, in Japan, for a week.

 

You will be flying first-class, on a private, chartered jet to be used only by you and your colleagues. It will be an eight-mile-high, 18-hour, open-bar, free-movies, fully-reclining-seats party in the sky. Your bags will be packed for you by lackeys. You won't have to worry about wrestling with endless security lines, rude airline employees or nasty TSA agents. You can even bring your shampoo in your carry-on.

 

You will arrive five days before you have to play a game that matters, just to chill out and get your bearings. You will stay in a luxury hotel and receive the kind of treatment usually reserved for heads of state or rock stars. When you return, you will be given a few days off to recuperate.

 

Best of all, you will never have to put a hand in your pocket because all your expenses will be paid by the company.

 

You say, "Sounds great, boss. Now throw in 40 grand and we got a deal."

 

Think about that before you start anointing the Red Sox as some kind of working-class heroes for their "job action" yesterday in defense of their coaching staff, who turned out to be in on the junket, but not in on the bribe.

 

Because there really is no other way to look at what baseball and the Red Sox "negotiated" as fair compensation for doing what the defending world champions, and their coaching staff, were already being paid to do: Play baseball. As bribery.

 

Certainly it is wrong to stiff the coaches if you've already agreed to pay the players. If you're bribing 30 players, why not bribe a half-dozen coaches as well?

 

But that's not the point. The fact that the Red Sox even have to be paid "appearance money" in order to appear to do their jobs takes away any of the "heroism" a lot of the team's shills and fanboys are sure to heap upon them. Today, this is certain to be spun as a noble move on the part of millionaires standing up for thousandaires, a rare example of the pampered coming to the defense of the exploited.

 

It is nothing of the sort. It was a stickup when it was agreed to, and it remains a stickup today.

 

Contrast their grubby little move yesterday - threatening to stiff their faithful out of the final exhibition game of the spring in protest - with the Yankees' display of generosity and class on the campus of Virginia Tech on Tuesday, and it leaves you with one question: Just exactly which one is the Evil Empire, anyway?

 

If a free junket to Japan was worth $40,000 a man to the Red Sox, a side trip to Virginia Tech, with all the inconvenience and emotional strain it must have caused the players, should have been worth, oh, I don't know, $1,000 each? Of course, the Yankees made that trip for free, because it was the right thing to do. From George Steinbrenner, who wrote a $1 million check last spring, to Derek Jeter, who always seems to say and do the right thing in his role as team captain, the Pride of the Yankees was on display Tuesday.

 

Yesterday, it was followed by the Shame of the Red Sox.

 

For the record, Manny Ramirez is making $17 million a year, J.D. Drew $14 million, David Ortiz and Curt Schilling $13 million each, Jason Varitek $11 million, Mike Lowell $9 million, etc., etc. If those guys are so concerned about the plight of their coaches, any one of them could have handed over his $40,000. Or, started a collection among the players, say 10 grand each, for a fund to be split equally among the staff.

 

But to threaten not to perform a duty you are contractually obligated and monetarily compensated to perform is not heroism and it is not admirable. Pure and simple, it is a shakedown.

 

It doesn't even matter whether the players demanded the extra money to make the trip, or if MLB offered it as a pre-emptive strike. Both sides know the way the game is played these days: You want a player to go the extra mile for you? Pay him.

 

Want him to go the extra 6,711 miles for you? Pay him $40,000. Or else.

Great article and true.

$40,000 bonus for free trip to Japan? That's rich

 

Wallace Matthews

March 20, 2008

 

... But to threaten not to perform a duty you are contractually obligated and monetarily compensated to perform is not heroism and it is not admirable. Pure and simple, it is a shakedown.

The players weren't the ones who attempted to violate the terms of the deal.

 

Damn right it was admirable.