The Red Sox managed to get some male bonding in, the fans in Florida finally got a game, and Bud Selig got two baseball teams on planes to Japan.

Everyone won in Wednesday's mini-drama in Fort Myers, including the concession stands that got another hour to sell beer and cotton candy while the players engaged in a high-stakes showdown with Major League Baseball.

Oh, and don't forget that little extra something that will be in the paychecks of coaches and others for having to take a working vacation overseas.

Apparently the charter flights, luxury hotels and free meals aren't enough compensation for being away from home. But, hey, if the multimillionaire players they do their bidding for can get extra money for the trip, why not throw something in the pot for the little people who make it all happen?

This could only happen in baseball, where economics defy reality and everything comes with a price tag. Think the Miami Dolphins or New York Giants weren't going to go to London last year unless the National Football League did something about the lousy exchange rates?

There's some confusion as to who is at fault in this dustup, and whether the players were really the heroes they seemed to be making themselves out to be. Coaches have shared in the riches before - much as they do with postseason money - but players who negotiated their own terms for the trip a few months back weren't all that concerned about the little guys at that point.

Boston manager Terry Francona apparently assumed the same thing, telling his coaches they would be getting $40,000 to make the trip. When he found out at the last minute that the Oakland A's coaches weren't getting a penny and he had to tell his coaches it didn't look good for them, either, things got interesting.

Now, I certainly don't begrudge anyone the right to be paid $40,000 for what is essentially a business trip, though there are a lot of fans of both the Red Sox and A's who don't make that much working an entire year at home. But taking a stand for a group of guys who make six-figure incomes to begin with is hardly the kind of thing they give away Nobel Prizes for so let's not get carried away.

They did end up delaying a spring training game, which didn't matter much unless you were a fan who went to the City of Palms Park intent on seeing Daisuke Matsuzaka in his final spring training outing. Rather than risk warming up Dice-K's arm two times, the Red Sox sent him off to pitch a game against some minor leaguers.

Actually, it couldn't have worked out better for the Red Sox. The team had to agree to sweeten the pot, but it was chump change compared to what they pay players. For their money they got a team that, if not unified before, certainly bonded together at just the right time as they begin the defense of their World Series title.

"Our players feel very united, and I think they proved that today,'' Francona said.

Check back with them in about 19 days or so and see if they still feel that way. That's how long the Red Sox are going to be on the road, and you've got to wonder if the same geniuses in charge of handing out extra money were in charge of planning this brutal trip.

The players were reluctant to open the season in Japan to begin with, and who could blame them. By the time they open at home April 8, they will have played 12 games in three countries, seven of which count in the real standings. Almost as bad, they'll be in Los Angeles playing exhibition games - including one on a field with a giant net just 195 feet away in left field - after already playing two regular-season games.

All of this because Major League Baseball hopes to sell a few more subscriptions to mlb.com, and maybe a few more Dice-K jerseys in Japan. Baseball is so enamored of the idea of branding itself in Japan that for the third time, two teams are traveling halfway around the world to start the season early.

That should make Boston fans nervous, considering the Yankees did the same thing in 2004 and played the first month of the season as though they were still jet lagged. Several players, including pitchers Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown, complained the trip hurt their early season.

As for the rest of us, we're just trying to figure out when opening day is anymore. It used to be a Monday in Cincinnati, then became a Sunday night wherever ESPN could get the best ratings.

Now it's 6:05 a.m. EDT on a Tuesday in Tokyo.

It's bad enough that baseball doesn't care about the youth of America by putting on postseason games when they are already in bed. But now they're opening the season before they get up in the morning.

It's all part of a chase for every last dollar, one that has stripped the game of almost any tradition once held dear. Greedy players and even greedier owners can't seem to control themselves.

Maybe it's only right that the coaches get their share.

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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org