I am not privy to inside information, nor have I seen the actual written agreements involved, but 2 things strike me as confusing.
1) The $40,000 fee was negotiated by the player's union. This is not an organization known to include coaches and staff in it's negotiations. If anything, the union tends to show complete disregard for those 2 groups.
2) The amount in question is to be paid as an "appearance fee". I do not believe that MLB would intentionally negotiate a $40,000 "appearance fee" for anyone but players and a handful of coaches.
My gut tells me that the teams were responsible for telling the staff they would receive this money, possibly due to confusion about what was agreed to (which is pretty scary given the number of lawyers they have access to.)
The staff deserves to be paid and even deserves $40,000 if it was, in fact, promised to them. But I really feel that the amount is pretty excessive for what is expected of these people. I could understand covering expenses and even a small bonus. But when a small number of staff members are more than doubling their annual income just for making the trip, someone seriously screwed up.
I also agree with Bobby Valentine that even holding the games at the same time the Japanese Leagues are playing regular season games was an absolutely stupid thing for the Japanese Leagues to do, unless they really did want to emphasize the idea that the Japanese leagues are now nothing more than an informal minor league system for MLB.
|
