Hold your horses. Put your plans to start drinking at 6 AM on hold. The Sox plane to Japan is sitting empty on the runway.

The team voted unanimously to boycott the trip to Tokyo, over some confusion over whether bonuses to the team's coaches and other off-field personnel were actually promised or not. Coaches were supposed to get an extra $40K(!), but when Terry Francona went to cross the T's and dot the I's, he learned that Oakland's coaches weren't getting any extra for making the trip. Then he found out nobody actually made provisions for the Sox staff, either.

"It's really [bleep]ed up," says David Ortiz. "We're all in agreement that we're not going to put up with this," expands Mike Lowell. The team's clubhouse is closed to reporters while they try to sort this out, and the scheduled game today against Toronto is in jeopardy. 12:12 UPDATE: No one's taking the field for today's exhibition game. ESPN's headline is "International Incident Brewing".

1:10 UPDATE: They will play today, but no word of progress on the larger issues. Oakland players are prepared to take the same position as the Sox in defense of their coaches.

1:26 UPDATE: Yahoo Sports says everything is under control, a deal has been made, they will fly out tonight, everybody keep your pants on.

Image from US State Department Factbook.