Bread and Roses.

A potential work stoppage has now been avoided and they are on their way to Chicago to connect to Tokyo as I type this but I just had to say that I am so freakin proud of this team. The misunderstanding may have been largely on their part but they saw an injustice and stood up for the little guy.

Professional athletes have a reputation for being egotistical and self-involved. Ridiculously inflated salaries lead to the perception that they are money-grubbing; charitable work is viewed cynically. Athletes are always looking out for number one. And that's fine-that's what we expect of them. They put themselves in injury's way for our entertainment and MLB (in this case) makes an enormous sum of money off the risk they take; they should get a piece of that pie.

Today this group proved themselves to be better than the stereotype. Led by Varitek, Lowell, Schill, Youk, and Casey they collectively said: No. There is a certain standard of treatment that is acceptable and we will not stand by and allow you to treat people at a level beneath it if we can do something to prevent it. I won't say that it restores one's faith in humanity because that would be an overstatement but it was still very cool to see.

You say that this or that player seems like a good guy, when really you mean that he plays the game well, for the most part gets along with his teammates, and doesn't have a mistress in every city that the team visits. They're low standard we have for athletes.

Generally, professional athletes aren't the smartest creatures you'll ever meet. We imagine that they have trouble thinking about anyone other than themselves, what they're agent has told them, or about the state of the world at large. After all, they live in a fantasy world; one that they created when they were eight-years-old.

These guys proved themselves to be better than that morally. They also proved that they're smarter than the average bear. Morally because they thought about someone besides themselves and cared enough about that someone to take a stand for them, even though there might have been personal repercussions. Intellectually because they realized that the situation with the coaches wasn't a good one and that by taking a stand they could affect a change.

It makes me glad. It makes me happy that these are my boys and my team.

Also, I've got to say that I'd only half-remembered that Schilling was still on this team. See what happens when you forget about Schill? He leads a revolution in honor of the peons of the clubhouse.