By MaureenMullen
CSNNE.com
FORT MYERS, Fla.The Red Sox got their first glimpse of Carl Crawford's speed Monday when he and Kevin Youkilis engineered a double steal in the first inning.
Well . . . hopefully, Crawford stealing bases will happen a lot, said manager Terry Francona.
It was a good day for Oscar Tejeda, who is hitting .500 (8-for-16) with two triples and six RBI this spring. He got the only hit off Jon Lester in the simulated game and went 1-for-2 with two runs scored, including the winning run, on Yamaico Navarros two-out ninth-inning single, to beat the Orioles.
The Red Sox have split-squad games Tuesday. They travel to Jupiter to play the Cardinals, with the Astros coming to City of Palms Park. Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard, Dennys Reyes, Matt Fox and Matt Albers are scheduled to pitch the home game. Stolmy Pimentel Brandon Duckworth, Jason Rice, Clevelan Santeliz, and Tony Pena are scheduled to pitch against the Cardinals. Regulars among the position players traveling to Jupiter are David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, and Darnell McDonald.
Before Mondays game, Red Sox players met with representatives of the Major League Baseball Players Association, including executive director Michael Weiner and former Sox first baseman Tony Clark, for about 90 minutes. The expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, which is set for Dec. 11, is a large portion of Weiners presentation to the players Most of my talk is about how bargaining works and what role players will have, how they stay informed, how they have input, Weiner said. We do some updates on union matters, but its mostly just explaining to them how bargaining works. This is a big year.
Revenue sharing is one of the major topics in the negotiation sessions with the owners, which are ahead of schedule, Weiner said.
Boston Red Sox
We spent as much time on bargaining revenue sharing in the last four rounds or last here rounds of bargaining as any issue,he said. From our perspective, its crucial because the industry of baseball is driven by local revenue unlike some of the other sports.
Theres not a particular issue that stands out . . . Theres a broad range of issues . . . I dont think theres a particular issue that will stand out over the others.
Other topics that could be part of the negotiations include the drug testing program, a potential world-wide draft, rules changes regarding the disabled list, and expanded playoffs.
Lester and Clay Buchholz have new charity wines, CabernAce and ChardonClay, respectively, from Longball Cellars. All money raised will benefit a charity. For Lesters vintage, proceeds will to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Buchholzs will go to the Jimmy Fund. For more information, visit charitywines.com.
Maureen Mullen is on Twitter athttp:twitter.commaureenamullen