Sox furious over loss of Stipend, tattle to press…
Fig Jam
The Boston Red Sox threatened to boycott their trip to Japan because they were mad their coaches weren’t going to receive a $40,000.00 stipend or “appearance fee” for making the trip. To make sure we’re clear on this, the coaches were still going to be getting paid their salaries for this adventure, just not an additional 40k (for meals I’m sure) on an otherwise free trip to Japan. So they weren’t being asked to make the trip unpaid, they were just being asked to do their jobs, for which they are already ridiculously overpaid.
Once again I am amazed at the lack of perspective from the super rich. I guess it stems from the fact that there won’t be any repercussions, but I would have thought at least one person in the Boston clubhouse would have thought, ‘you know, the average American is in dire financial straights most of the year, and here we are with amazing jobs and ridiculous wealth…. Maybe we should handle this matter over a 40k ”appearace fee” (or, a good salary FOR A YEAR in a blue collar America) internally.’
Sadly, that person does not exist in Major League Baseball, and the Sox came out firing on this issue (naturally Curt Schilling led the charge), threatening to boycott a spring training game and skip the trip to Japan alltogether. Way to be men about it. “What!!! you aren’t paying us these bribes to play in Japan? But you promised??? That’s it, I’m telling.”
Red Sox manager Terry Francona was in fine form, stating, “I did not have an off day yesterday. I had the phone glued to my ear because I was promised some answers and I haven’t even received a phone call. So I’m a little bit stuck. What I want to do this morning is get excited to play a baseball game and what I ended up doing is apologizing to the coaches and being humiliated.”
You poor guy. You aren’t excited to play baseball? You didn’t have an off day yesterday? That sucks, me neither. Tell you what, get excited about my job today and I’ll see if I can’t get excited to be paid to manage a baseball game (I expect to make a grand total of 3 decisions throughout the course of the ‘exhibition’ game: 1. Start the players that started yesterday; 2. When the starting pitcher gets to 100 pitches, pull him; 3. If we get into the 9th with a lead, put the closer in. All other decisions shall be made by the hitting coach, or pitching coach, or bench coach, or other superfluous coach who happens to be in the dugout).
Also, I can’t tell why the phone was glued to your ear if you didn’t receive a call. Did you literally glue a phone to your ear? You idiot, don’t do that.
Fortunately I see that the issue has been resolved this morning after nothing more than a 1 hour delay for the Spring Training game. Whew….
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Well, yeah, but otherwise that cash goes straight into the MLB coffers. The players are already unhappy to have to play a game approximately 12 time zones away – this is their way of saying “don’t schedule us for this B.S. anymore.”
Still, it reminds me of Tim’s “We should all wear the happy apple.”
Axe-ually, many of the staff members that get this stipend have average salaries. Like, real world average. I think you’d be pissed if you didn’t get a $40,000 stipend you thought you had coming.
Gotta love athletes. If there’s a bigger collection of shallow thinking, out of touch douchebags, it’s that group. So these multi-millionaires whine because they’re being forcing to fly on a first class charter jet to a wonderful, exotic destination, where they’ll eat four star meals and be driven around the city….all for free.
Of course, these morons won’t even see any of Tokyo, because I’m sure they’ll be in their hotel rooms playing video games and wolfing down McDonald’s hamburgers.
Here’s an idea. Big Papi and all the others. Reach into your wallets and dig out the extra couple thousand that your precious coaches can’t seem to do without. I’m sure that’s just walking around money for this group.
Idiots.
a.) the bonuses were promised to the coaches beforehand, and b.) forty thousand may not be much to be Ramirez or Ortiz, but it’s less than that to the guys who own the team.
actually the coaches make 200k a year minimum.
Francona said that $40K amounts to 40% of some coaches yearly salary. I wouldn’t want to give that up either.
This “appearance fee” was to be paid by MLB right? So if the Red Sox organization was so incensed about the injustice on some of the coaching staff, it could have stepped up and made sure they were compensated. Again, the $ was just a bonus on top of the salaries that are already being paid.
Don’t think it’s fair, go get a job at a auto plant in Michigan, or a as a mortgage broker. See what your options amount to at that point. Anyways, don’t give me the “poor underpaid coaches” bs. The players or organization could make sure these guys are fairly compensated, but they are too busy organizing boycotts and whining to the media. They just didn’t want to make the trip and decided to use this slight as their vehicle to try and get out of it.
I thought this was more about the players taking a stand for the trainers, equipment managers, etcetera? They will be in Japan 20 days without their family and wanted to make sure those guys got some extra dough that originally the MLB agreed to pay them for the trip… I don’t think it was just about the players…
Why should the players have to open their wallets for the coaches, and not the MLB, who it sounds like initially promised it? They shouldn’t. They’re standing up for the coaches who don’t make as much, because if the coaches aren’t going the MLB says “fuck you, we don’t care”, but if the players say that, the MLB has a problem.
Plus, how does what they make matter? They were promised $40k and the MLB reneged on it. I get paid more than ppl who work at McDonald’s, but if my boss hoses me on a bonus I was promised, I’m still going to be pissed. and start updating my resume and/or quit. And the owners make a lot more money than the players, not to mention the coaches. So it’s not like this is coaches stealing from your average blue-collar American.