Multiple media sources are reporting that the Sox came close to skipping the Japan trip and their ST game today due to the fact that the coaches and other vital personnel were not being rewarded with the same $40,000 bonus the players were receiving.  As it is, the Sox's unanimous boycott forced the start time of the ESPN televised Sox-Jays game back an hour while team rep's negotiated with MLB officials.  What may initially appear to be an example of the rich getting richer and selfish men portraying the full extent of their greed, keep in mind that the $40K is considered a stipend for the trip, the people the team is looking out for with this action - the trainers, clubhouse attendants, etc. - make a tiny fraction of what the players do, and the fact that Major League Baseball and the commish's office have fallen short on many of the promises they made to the Sox prior to the trip being agreed upon. 

Said Curt Schilling, who was one of the players to negotiate the terms of the trip with the MLB (surprise, surprise), "We had an agreement.  Some of the promises have already been taken away, now this.  As far as the players are concerned, [withholding the coaches' bonuses] can't happen."

Mike Lowell:  "They [MLB] promised us the moon and the stars, and then when we committed, they started pulling back. It's not just the coaches, it's the staff, the trainers, a lot of people are affected by this."

Well, now both the MLB and Sox will get their respective wishes as the trip is back on track and every Sox employee going on the trip will receive a bonus; Oakland Athletics team members have subsequently said they will investigate the compensation being rewarded to their own supporting staff. 

Given the fact that this will end up being such a profitable venture for the MLB in the long run, I'm surprised they'd even let this become an issue by not guaranteeing bonuses for the coaches and other staff up front.  Even more surprising is the fact that it took right up until the final hour - as the Sox will depart from the States later today - to finally be rectified.  I doubt it's strictly a matter of the league being intentionally stingy, but it's definitely a huge oversight on the part of Bud Selig and other league officials.  Hopefully such issues are handled more appropriately in the future, as the MLB really dropped the ball on this one.

In other Sox news, the team announced their Opening Day roster.  I won't list everyone being sent because the MLB is allowing them to have 30 players on the trip (regular 25 man roster, 3 players that must be declared inactive, and 2 players that will only play in the exhibitions) so it would be boring and unnecessary...  What I will do is mention the guys whose status with the big league club will be uncertain when they have to get down to 25 men - SP Bartolo Colon (not making the trip, along with fellow SP Josh Beckett, but it's been announced he will open the season in AAA), RP David Aardsma, RP Bryan Corey (as reported by MLB Trade Rumors, both Corey and Aardsma are out of options so they will either have to be carried on the MLB roster, traded, or released), C Dusty Brown, SS Jed Lowrie, OF Brandon Moss, OF Bobby Kielty (might be in AAA until the Sox figure out what they're doing with Coco and Ellsbury).