The Slanch Report

It’s not often that multimillionaires think of others, (hello, Mr. Google, my bank account would like to meet you…) but I for one am glad at the action of the Red Sox right now.

Unhapy that MLB was going against their promise of paying the coaches the same appearance fee as was promised the players, the Red Sox are refusing to play their spring training game against the Blue Jays right now.

For many of the coaches the $40,000 appearance fee they were originally promised represents two-thirds of their salary.

While the game is being delayed because of this dispute, the Sox players are all out on the field signing autographs for the fans who are awaiting the game, just one more example of how well they are handling this whole situation.

(more after the jump)

To make it clear, this is NOT just about the Red Sox, the reason this issue came up is because Terry Francona had spoken with A’s manager Bob Geren and found out that the A’s coaches were not receiving the money that had been promised to the Red Sox coaches, and seeing the unfairness there, Francona went back and checked on it. That’s when MLB said that the Sox coaches weren’t getting anything either. This despite their agreement made when the trip was finalized in November that the exact opposite was the case.

This issue will be resolved, MLB has way too much to lose but not getting it done, especially since the Sox say they will not fly to Japan without this being solved.

I love baseball but this to me, is another example of MLB getting it wrong. Just like their recent decision to try and squeeze some extra bucks out of the Cape Summer League, it seems MLB, fresh off record profits are more concerned with making 1 dollar now than making 30 down the road.

Shit, Bud Selig made $14million last year, and over his time as commissioner he has allowed steroids and drugs to permeate every level of the game, casting a terrible shadow over the entire game and its history. Now anytime we look at any player from the last 20 years it is impossible to not have questions about how they accumulated their stats. Bud has overseen an All-Star game that has lost its luster and has become a slow, boring game, and has ended in a tie. IN BASEBALL!

This, to me, is just one more example of MLB not getting it. Hire me, I get it! Let me liaise Bud.

C’mon MLB, do the right thing, stop looking like boorish little boys who don’t know how to play well with others. As Jayson Stark already mentioned, MLB is probably going to spend significantly more than what it would cost to pay these coaches on Bud Selig’s traveling expenses to Japan. So do this now, before it becomes a much bigger issue and MLB suffers another black eye.