Should They Stay Or Should They Go?
So the list of Red Sox players making the trip to Japan might look like this:
Or, it might well look like this:
Spurred on by Mike Lowell, the Sox players met this morning and unanimously agreed to boycott today’s exhibition game aganst Toronto in Ft. Myers and the entire Japan trip if the coaching and training staff are not paid their promised compensation for making the Japan trip.
“It’s wrong, it’s wrong,” said Curt Schilling. “It was part of the basic agreement when we talked about it last year. The coaching staff was part of the conversation, we all heard it.“It’s not really surprising because the coaches and staff are people generally who have always been overlooked and undervalued.”
The A’s also voted, in a meeting just a short while ago, to join the boycott and skip the Japan trip.
Jason Varitek spoke from the dugout in Ft. Myers – where the entire Red Sox team is chilling on the bench, refusing to take the field – confirming Mike Lowell’s report that the team will not play until the issue is resolved. Both Jason and Curt Schilling also made reference to multiple other things that were promised to the club in compensation for the Japan trip that have “fallen by the wayside” (in Jason’s words). What kinds of things? Per Curt:
Different personal things that were supposed to happen from an accommodations standpoint. Little things that tend to make trips like this easier. It’s been more than one thing.
As Remy and Orsillo just pointed out – the teams who have made the trip to Japan before (Yankees, Rays, etc.) have always had their staff financially compensated.
Frankly, I think this move by MLB is horseshit. Plain and simple. It deserves no more eloquent description than that.
I say good for the team and them sticking together for the coaches. On ESPN they said that the total for all the coaches for both the Sox and A’s would be a little over the minimum for a rookie. In a game where people are making into and beyond the 20 mil mark, that sort of money is nothing. Hell, to be frank the coaches should be getting it anyway; they are one of the key components on why teams even run and should be recognized for it.
But that is all beyond the point. If MLB agreed to do something and now refuses to, well, like you said that is all B.S. Again I say good for the team and taking a stand. I hope the A’s do the same thing and let the MLB know that this sort of thing isn’t going to fly with anyone.
I love this team. Supposedly MLB also had originally said that families would be able to travel with them and then reneged on that, and I’m sure there is a bunch of other shit too, cause it’s MLB.
Every fan there should be extremely proud of the team for doing what they are doing.
Agreed with both of you.
The coaches aren’t poor or anything- they make about 200 grand a year (on average) — but nobody’s arguing that. Nobody’s playing a violin for them and their poverty- that’s not what this is about. This is about team unity and about MLB being sneaky snakes and cheap bastards.
The coaches were specifically promised they’d be compensated for the trip, just like every single other member of the Red Sox (and just like the Yanks and Rays were before them)… and then MLB backed out on the promise. And didn’t even bother to tell the team! Tito heard it from the A’s! HORSESHIT.
They are oh the field stretching…thats a good sign.
Looks like it’s resolved. I don’t know why but it seems like MLB just LOVES to crap on Tito one way or another. It’s just flat out bull. I’m proud of the team for standing up to MLB and threatening the boycott though. It’s really not the money that’s the issue. It’s the principle of the matter. Some people don’t understand this though.
I think something else that was an issue was they backed out on letting families join them for the trip…something to that ilk.
it’s not resolved – the Sox just agreed to play the game. but they still haven’t agreed to get on the plane.
this trip is an MLB promotion, plain and simple. MLB will make a ton of money off of the advertising. And for the players it’s just a pain – they’ll get nothing out of it (besides the money), it’ll be 19 hours of muscle cramps on a plane there and back, they’ll be thrown by the time differences and their internal clocks will be off for about a week after. and it could cost them regular season games. and it’s really just for MLB advertising. so it pisses me off to hear people say “Manny makes 20 million – why can’t he cough it up?” thats not the point – the point is that the MLB should be paying every single person losing sleep on this trip if they are using them for a promotion, plain and simple.
has the MLBPA gotten involved yet? where does Theo stand on this? so far we haven’t heard anything from the front office.
well, Lowell’s parents were Cuban exiles. so, its easy to see where he gets that fighting spirit from!
No- it’s resolved. They’re going.
I’ll put up a post on that soon… I already added the video of Schil and Tek discussing the issue.
I love this team. They’re all looking out for everyone else.