Red Sox Solidarity

Maggie says:
Spring is here, and baseball season is about to start in full. Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to be a Red Sox fan? I love Boston and Fenway Park and all the misery and history and (shocker!) recent celebrations that go along with that... But today I love being a Red Sox fan because of the solidarity of the players toward the team staff.

The Red Sox players just voted unanimously to boycott their season-opening trip to Japan because Major League Baseball backed out of their promise to pay a stipend to the team staff in addition to the players for the trip. The Sox refused to take the field today for their final spring training game in Florida, and announced that Japan was off until the staff gets their promised pay.

No other teams have taken such strong measures against MLB, by the way. Go Sox!

Update: Effective tactic - looks like MLB caved quickly. Nicely done.

Update 2: Looks like the deal was actually struck this way: MLB is going to pay half of the stipend that was originally promised to the staff, and the Red Sox players are splitting the other half so the staff gets the full amount.