They're not going to take it

Big doings in the Sox land today, big, rebellious, stand-up doings!

Apparently, MLB had promised the coaches and training staff the same $40,000 that the players were promised to make the trip to Japan on Wednesday afternoon. When push came to shove though, it seems as though the powers that be would only pony up $20,000 for anyone that wasn't a player. Needless to say, that didn't sit to well with the Sox players, who called a players-only meeting this morning to discuss the issue.

The result was the mandate that the players would not take the field in this afternoon's exhibition game in Toronto, nor board the plane to Japan until the staff was taken care of. Since today's game was on ESPN, this could have potentially been very ugly for MLB in the wake of the steroid scandal.

But you knew MLB was going to cave, right? It only took an hour of the Sox stalling before the organization came to an agreement with MLB, each side agreeing to pay $20,000 to make the $40,000 total. From The Globe:

"It's not just the coaches, it's the staff, the trainers, a lot of people are affected by this," said Lowell. "I'm so super proud of this team. 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.

"It was a misunderstanding of what agreement was reached between MLB and the MLBPA," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said. "We said we would step up and make sure a second pool was created and would seek contributions from all parties."

To see the players step up like this to protect their own is phenomenal, and it makes me proud to be a fan. While I am not at all surprised to see that MLB would try to pull a fast one, it's reassuring to know that the organization will not stand for it.

Speaking of organizations doing good, I'm going to take a second to tip my hat to the Yankees for their exhibition game at Virginia Tech yesterday. I've spoken to a couple of my good friends that go there and attended the game yesterday, and they really appreciated the gesture. It seems like it was a good chance to get some up-close looks and autographs from the players, and it was a nice tribute to those we lost last April. Though it goes against the grain for me (and my cynical side wants to say it was just a huge publicity stunt), I think it was a nice thing for the Yankees to do.

To finish up, in News of Players Who Clearly Wish They Were Still Red Sox: Johnny Damon (man who broke my mother's heart) has been watching the battle for center field between Jacoby and Coco closely. When asked by the Herald what his take was he replied: “I still think I’m a pretty tough person to replace.”

Whatever you have to tell yourself, sweetheart.