The flag was raised -- why not salary?

He is still working on the same three-year contract he signed when the Sox offered him the managing job after the 2003 season. And the $550,000 salary he is making this season (it goes up to $600,000 in 2006), while clearly not an assembly-line wage, places Francona in the lowest echelon among big-league managers. He received an extra couple hundred thousand as his share for winning the World Series, but neither he nor his coaches have been given a raise.

The Yankees' Joe Torre, who is paid in the $6 million range, is baseball's highest-paid manager, and should be, for what he has done (and because of who his Boss is). Dusty Baker of the Cubs is in the $4 million class, and Tampa Bay's Lou Piniella is right behind (he's due a raise to $4.8 million next year, which means Piniella makes more than any of his players). Tony La Russa, who signed a contract extension after his Cardinals were beaten by the Sox last October, is in the high $2 million range, according to an industry source.

Art Howe, the now-unemployed Mets manager, was working on a four-year, $9.4 million deal. Eric Wedge, in his first job with the Cleveland Indians, recently had his original deal torn up, one that called for him to make $800,000 next season and more than $1 million the next two years. And on and on the list goes (new Mets manager Willie Randolph reportedly started at a higher salary, $650,000, than the World Series winner) until you reach Francona, even though he has won in one of the game's most demanding markets.

''Most guys start in the $400,000-$600,000 range," the industry source said, ''with [Pittsburgh's] Lloyd McClendon the low man when he signed for $300,000. Guys on their second contract are usually in the $650,000-$700,000 range. More than half the managers are making less than $700,000."