Sox take a stand

The Red Sox held a little boycott this afternoon at their final spring training game of the year. Apparently, all the players are receiving a cash bonus for agreeing to play two games in Japan. They were told that the coaching staff would receive a similar bonus. Apparently, they found out yesterday that would not be the case. So, in order to get the coaching staff the money they were promised, they threatened to boycott today’s game. If the issue wasn’t resolved, they even threatened to boycott the trip to Japan. The Oakland A’s even agreed to join them in the boycott if it came to that. Finally, after a long delay, the game got underway after an agreement that satisfied the players. It was an impressive show of support by the players to the coaching staff. Naturally, the players weren’t really giving up much personally by skipping the game. It was just an exhibition. But, they knew it meant a lot more to MLB that they go to Japan. So, MLB had no choice but to agree to the demands. I especially liked that the Red Sox players arranged to sign autographs for the fans at the game if they didn’t play. They wanted to make sure that nobody, from the Blue Jays to the fans, was hurt by their stand. And, I think that was huge. They can mess around with major league baseball, they can cut out their batting practice, and they can do anything else. But, they showed that their heads were on straight when they didn’t forget the fans. Imagine if during the lockout all the players had shown up at games as planned, and just signed autographs for three hours? Things may have been different. Kudos to the Sox for remembering the fans