March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Boston Red Sox ended a threatened boycott of their season-opening trip to Japan after resolving a dispute with Major League Baseball about paying coaches and other staff members.

The defending World Series champions initially refused to play today's spring-training game against Toronto in Fort Myers, Florida, then took the field after a delay of more than an hour.

The Red Sox, who are flying to Japan today, didn't say how the dispute was settled.

``Everybody felt like we were put on the spot and we had to resolve it before we moved forward. Fortunately we did,'' Red Sox manager Terry Francona said in a televised interview with ESPN during today's 4-3 exhibition loss to the Blue Jays. ``It wasn't meant to be disrespectful to anybody. It was about trying to do what was right.''

Baseball spokesmen Pat Courtney and Rich Levin didn't immediately return telephone or e-mail messages seeking comment.

Boston is scheduled to open baseball's regular season in Japan with two games against Oakland on March 25-26.

Red Sox players are each receiving a $40,000 appearance fee and voted unanimously today to boycott the trip after learning that the team's coaches, training staff and equipment managers weren't going to be compensated.

``We found out some surprising revelations yesterday and tried to get to the bottom of it and had no luck,'' said Francona, who added he had a couple conversations with baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. ``It kind of filtered into today. It wasn't about being greedy, it was about being unified.''

Boston's Leverage

Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said the players were told during the offseason that coaches and staff would be paid for the trip to Japan. He said the players didn't find out otherwise until this morning and agreed that threatening to sit out the spring-training game on ESPN was their leverage in the dispute.

``We wanted to impress upon the fact that our coaches don't make money like the players do,'' said Lowell, who signed a three-year, $37.5 million contract after being voted the Most Valuable Player of last season's World Series win over Colorado.

``If it was something that was agreed upon, we want them to hold up their end of the bargain,'' Lowell added in a dugout interview with ESPN. ``We know as players that we could pay the coaches and it could come out of our pocket, but we just wanted what was said and agreed upon to happen.''

The Red Sox and Athletics are scheduled to play two exhibition games against Japanese teams March 22-23 before starting the regular season.

Daisuke Returns

Daisuke Matsuzaka is Boston's scheduled starting pitcher in his native Japan for the March 25 game, the earliest opener in the sport's history. The Red Sox are then scheduled to return to the U.S. and play three exhibition games in Los Angeles before continuing their regular-season schedule on April 1 with two games in Oakland and then three in Toronto.

Boston's home opener is April 8 against Detroit. Lowell said now that the dispute has been resolved, the players can focus on the trip itself, including the 18-hour flight to Tokyo.

``I have three iPods loaded up, a laptop, I was able to get some old Nintendo games, we've got a cribbage board and we're going to have a poker tournament,'' Lowell said. ``And then for the next 11 hours, I don't know what I'm going to do.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 19, 2008 16:35 EDT