Baseball Notebook | Red Sox, Athletics, MLB resolve pay dispute

Just when everyone was packing and preparing for opening day in Tokyo, the Boston Red Sox put the whole trip on hold. At least for a couple of hours.

In an extraordinary move, Boston players voted to boycott a nationally televised exhibition game 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 few hours later, all was resolved, and the Red Sox took the field 64 minutes late for a 4-3 loss to Toronto before a crowd of 7,868 in Fort Myers, Fla.

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.

"It was definitely an experience of a lifetime, and it ended in a good way," Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis 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."

Youkilis stressed the players felt strongly about not going to Japan without a resolution.

"The players just stepped up and they did what I think was right," Boston bench coach Brad Mills said.

It was unclear whether Oakland would make additional payments to its staff.

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.

Garciaparra breaks hand,

might miss opening day

PHOENIX — Nomar Garciaparra has a broken bone in his right hand, and the Los Angeles Dodgers' third baseman might not be ready for opening day.

Garciaparra had an MRI on Wednesday in Los Angeles that revealed a microfracture. The Dodgers do not consider the injury to be as serious as a complete fracture of a bone, and expect to know more once the 34-year-old is examined Thursday by the team's medical staff in Arizona.

A two-time AL batting champion, Garciaparra was hit by a pitch March 7 and has had pain in his hand ever since, making it difficult to swing a bat. He's had two X-rays and two MRIs, neither of which showed any structural damage in the area where he was struck.

Notes

• Chicago's Kerry Wood missed a one-inning relief appearance because of lower back spasms, putting the competition for the Cubs' closer job on hold.

• New York Yankee Joba Chamberlain will begin the season as a setup man, the role that he flourished in last year. Manager Joe Girardi revealed the team's decision after a closed-door meeting with Chamberlain.

The first-year manager steered away from saying Chamberlain will be a starter sometime this season, as has been the Yankees' plan.

"I'm not saying this year," Girardi said. "I'm saying in the future. I don't want to be locked into anything."