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FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Fans at City of Palms Park were ready for Boston's final spring training game in Florida. The Red Sox weren't.
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In an extraordinary move, Boston players voted to boycott a nationally televised exhibition and Wednesday afternoon's flight to Japan for next week's season-opening series against Oakland, upset that coaches weren't going to receive the same $40,000 payments negotiated for players by their union.
A couple of hours later, all was resolved, and the Red Sox took the field one hour late for a 4-3 loss to Toronto before a crowd of 7,868.
Across the country in Phoenix, Athletics players also considered a boycott. They didn't take batting practice and held five team meetings before following Boston's lead and deciding to play. An Oakland split squad lost 6-1 to the Los Angeles Angels in front of 7,940 fans before leaving for Tokyo.
"The players just stepped up and they did what I think was right," Boston bench coach Brad Mills said.
Major League Baseball agreed to pay the managers, coaches and trainers on the trip $20,000 each from management's proceeds, a person familiar with the agreement said, speaking on condition of anonymity because details weren't announced. The Red Sox agreed to make up the difference to make the amount equal, and to pay some of the other team personnel making the trip, the person said.
"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."
It was unclear whether Oakland would make additional payments to its staff.
"We are going to handle the situation internally at this point," A's president Michael Crowley said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "We will ensure that our coaches are treated fairly."
Cancellation of the March 25-26 series at the Tokyo Dome would have been a publicity nightmare for Major League Baseball, which already has had enough bad news during an offseason dominated by performance-enhancing drugs.
"Everyone connected with the trip will be fairly compensated," baseball spokesman Rich Levin said.
Managers and coaches were included in the players' pool payments for baseball's two previous season-opening trips to Japan, when the New York Mets played the Chicago Cubs in 2000 and the Yankees played Tampa Bay in 2004. But this time, the agreement between MLB and the players association called only for payments to 30 players on each club, and left out the coaches.
"They're just as much a part of this team as anybody," said Oakland closer Huston Street, the team's player representative. "Playoff shares, coaches get an equal share. You look at previous Japan trips, coaches have gotten an equal share."
