The Sox are gonna get PAID, son. Paid for winning the World Series- to the tune of $308,236 per person, on top of their salaries.

The players' pool is a way to reward the players from the winning teams (and anyone else that the players vote to share their club's money with). During the regular season, before the playoffs began, the players from each team meet together behind closed doors to determine how many playoff shares they would get/give to players, staff and ballpark staff. This year, the Sox decided on 47 full shares, 14 partial shares and 11 cash awards. The players' pool is then collected from 60% of the gate receipts from the first three games of the ALDS and NLDS, 60% of the gate receipts from the first four games from the ALCS and NLCS, and 60% of the gate receipts from the first four games of the World Series. Major League Baseball announced the players' postseason pool today - $52.46 million total for all playoff teams, $18.89 million of that for the Red Sox - which works out to $308,236 per full share.

For guys like Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, that playoff share payout almost equals their entire yearly salary. Paps makes $425,500 per, Kevin makes $424,500 per, and Dustin makes $380,000 per (source: Cot's Baseball Contracts). And for some of the Sox front office and ballpark staff, even a partial share can amount to life-changing money for them:

"I know there have been times in the past when the shares meetings were probably not the most charitable events," said Red Sox right-hander Curt Schilling. "This is an incredibly giving group of guys. The shares meeting is kind of an extrapolation of how we feel about the family as a whole. It was important to be very inclusive this time around.

"You hope as veterans, you pass that along to the players. That's life-changing money for the clubhouse guys and the guys that work around the ballpark. That's money that will change their life forever and to be able to do that for people is a pretty powerful thing. That's a good thing."

The Sox aren't the only ones hiting paydirt- every single team in the playoffs gets a portion of that $52.46 million postseason players' pool, plus even the second place teams who missed the playoffs get in on the action. The players of each of the participating teams all got to decide how to divide up their club's money, which is broken down into a higher percentage based on how far each club advanced in the playoffs. Here's a look at the total players' postseason pool:

Boston Red Sox	$18,890,000	$308,236 per share
Colorado Rockies	$12,590,000	$233,505 per share
Arizona Diamondbacks	$6,300,000	$139,460 per share
Cleveland Indians	$6,300,000	$107,458 per share
Chicago Cubs	$1,600,000	$24,508 per share
Los Angeles Angels	$1,600,000	$31,594 per share
New York Yankees	$1,600,000	$26,304 per share
Philadelphia Phillies	$1,600,000	$28,058 per share
Detroit Tigers	$524,594	$10,611 per share
Milwaukee Brewers	$524,594	$11,404 per share
New York Mets	$524,594	$9,411 per share
Seattle Mariners	$524,594	$9,112 per share

The pool dropped from $55.60 million last year to $52.46 million this year, because Fenway Park is considerably smaller and therefore gate receipts were also less (e.g. Fenway can seat 35,692 at night, compared with 43,975 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis). But the Sox player shares were up - way up - from those in 2004. In 2004, a full World Series share was $223,619.79 (and the players in '04 voted for 58 full shares, 29 partial shares and eight cash rewards).

In the immortal words of the Pet Shop Boys:

I've got the brains



You've got the looks



You've got the brawn,



I've got the brains.... Let's make lots of MONEY