Red Sox Players Stand Up!

Kudos to Red Sox players for standing up for the coaches.

For those who don't know what happened, the Red Sox are due to travel to Japan for their opening day game against the Oakland Raiders. In the agreement with MLB officials, the players and coaches were to be paid a $40,000 stipend for the travel expenses and other expenses. Terry Francona, the Red Sox manager, found out a couple of days ago that the coaches would NOT be receiving these stipends as promised. When the Red Sox players found out this morning, they met and voted to not take the field today against Toronto or board the plane tonight for Japan unless the coaches received the stipend. A deal was worked out and they took the field an hour after the scheduled start time.

Some people will argue that the players are just whining, that they already make millions of dollars and they're crying over $40k. This is true, the players do often make a great deal of money. The coaches, however, DO NOT. For some of the coaches, the $40,000 amounts to 40% of their salary for the year. This is a big deal. If your company required you to travel for business, they give you a travel expense. This is the coaches travel expense.

The players did the right thing in sticking up for their coaches, and they should be applauded.