Spring Must Be Here

Spring must be here. They've been getting ready for basebal in AZ & FL for over a month. But the true measure of spring has just passed. Yesterday the Oakland A's & Boston Red Sox were getting ready to leave for a special trip to Japan. They were each to play a few exhibition games against japanese teams, then open the season against each other with 2 games in Tokyo. When all of a sudden there was a snag. It seems that the players and the manager of each team will get a 40K stipend for the "inconvenience" of traveling to Japan. Imagain, having to fly to Japan on a chartered jet, stay in 5 star hotels and eat the very best food. All on your company's dime. So in addition to your salary (which for many of them is over 1 Million a year), you get $40K in pocket change for your onconvenience. Rough life, huh?

The sticking point became when many of the players found out the coaches who were to accompany them were not getting paid extra, as had been promised in the beginning. So the players voted to boycott the trip unless the coaches were paid.

I am at a loss. I am glad to see the players looking beyond themselves for a change. But given that all are getting their normal salaries, traveling 1st class, staying 1st class, what exactly do they need an extra $40K for?

Just my 2 cents.