The LaROCHE Drama

true
never knew anyone either
in fact, only know of two...
the seafaring brit
and the rapping canadian

 

well said mousey
its one thing to have an occasional [and i mean occasional] visit
quite another when the kid is there every day
i mean the kid even has a locker
that's overboard
and i'm guessing it wasn't just an idea williams thought up on his own
pretty safe bet some of the players said something

 

offs
get the fuck over it already
the field and clubhouse is for players and team personnel only
no one is against an occasional visit from time to time
but the kid having his own locker is a bit much
and williams didn't ban the young laroche he just asked that the visits be less frequent
and why isn't the little fuck in school
fucken overly litigious society always looking to blame someone rather than accept accountability/responsibility
where's shaw?
let's countersue these ckunt fucks

LaRoche may file grievance against White Sox
by Andy McCullough | Los Angeles Times — 8 hours ago



Tony Clark left a message for Adam LaRoche on Wednesday. A day later, when Clark visited the Dodgers while making his rounds as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., he said he still had not heard back.

“As you might expect, Adam’s taking a deep breath amid everything that’s gone on,” Clark said at Camelback Ranch, where the Chicago White Sox are training adjacent to the Dodgers. “Adam’s got his space to do what he needs to do with his family for the time being.”

LaRoche, a power-hitting first baseman, informed the White Sox this week that he intended to retire with a year and $13 million left on his contract. It was a decision he made after being told by club President Kenny Williams that his 14-year-old son should appear less frequently in the clubhouse.

The fallout has resulted in fury among White Sox players and head-scratching outside the industry. Clark indicated the union may file a grievance on LaRoche’s behalf.

The White Sox welcomed Drake LaRoche when the team signed his father to a two-year, $26-million contract last winter. The team outfitted him with a uniform and gave him a locker inside the clubhouse. The teenager travels with his father during the season, receiving home-schooled lessons.

During meetings earlier this month, Williams informed LaRoche that Drake was still welcome in the room, but he could not attend camp on a daily basis.

“I just felt that it should not be every day, that’s all,” Williams told Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. “You tell me, where in this country can you bring your child to work every day?”

The situation incensed LaRoche’s teammates, according to reports. White Sox ace Chris Sale rebuked Williams in front of the team and told him not to appear in the clubhouse again, Yahoo Sports reported. The players also contemplated a boycott of a Cactus League game, ESPN’s Karl Ravech reported.

All clubs deal with this issue during the course of the season, as players bring their children into the clubhouse at times. But LaRoche presents a special case. He and his brother Andy, who spent parts of two seasons with the Dodgers, grew up around the game through their father, Dave, a veteran of 14 big league seasons.

Adam chose a similar path for his son, who operated as something a sidekick starting a few years ago while his father played for the Washington Nationals. He aided both the Nationals and then the White Sox as something of a clubhouse attendant apprentice.

Out of respect to LaRoche, a well-liked veteran of 12 big league seasons, several Dodgers declined to discuss the situation on the record. The players understood Williams’ point — that the White Sox would be setting a precedent that would be difficult to match if others asked for similar accommodations for their children. But the players also expressed admiration for LaRoche’s decision.

Clark suggested the coming days would shed more light.

“The question becomes when a player makes a decision to retire, that means one thing,” Clark said. “If there is a discipline involved, that means something different. We are 24 hours removed from everything that you are aware of. And I can suggest to you that we are likely aware of a little bit more, but aren’t in a position to suggest what tomorrow is going to look like, as a result of what happened yesterday.”

One avenue for a grievance would be the language of LaRoche’s contract. Williams has said the deal did not guarantee Drake’s constant presence with the team. But on Wednesday night, Chicago radio host David Kaplan reported that allowing Drake in the clubhouse was “a condition of LaRoche signing there.” The Twitter account for E3 Meat, a company owned by LaRoche, replied with a thumbs-up emoji and the message, “you are on to something.”

At the very least, the timing of the squabble invites questions. LaRoche disappointed in his first season for the White Sox, hitting .207 with 12 home runs. Williams chose to raise the issue of his son in March, rather than during the winter.

Another question is who determines the composition of a clubhouse: Should it be the responsibility of the employers or the players who inhabit the room? Clark suggested communication is critical in this area, with the implicit criticism of the White Sox’s handling of the matter obvious.

“I have found in all the years that I’ve played, that a level of respect and professionalism between the players and management often serves everyone best,” Clark said. “When that comes into question, it raises issues during the course of the season.”​

 

you could be right
but it's not like they banned the kid
just asked the visits to be less frequent
also sounds like laroche is a tool for walking away from $13 mil

 

Ex-major leaguers: Kids OK, but understand teams set policies
Jim Caple | ESPN Senior Writer — 22 minutes ago

In 1983, when Eduardo Perez was 13, he spent so much time at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium with his major league father, Tony Perez, that he even was in the Phillies' dugout during games. That helped shape his future big league career, especially the day he was flicking sunflower seeds in the dugout and accidentally hit Pete Rose with one.

Rose, naturally, was not pleased. "What the fuck are you doing?!" he snapped at Perez.

"I was stunned," Perez recalled. "It was my first year in the dugout and Pete told me, 'If you're going to sit here during the game, you have to watch every pitch and let me know what it was.' I'm 13 years old and he tells me this. So for the rest of the year during the games, I was sitting on the steps and studying every pitch. And then Pete would tell me, 'See what the pitcher does with his glove. When he turns his glove, it's going to be a curveball.'"

Such instruction helped Perez go on to become a major league player like his Hall of Fame father. Decades later, he still looks back fondly on those days.

"If you took away me being on the field and being away from my dad ... I wouldn't have known what to do," he said. "I wouldn't have been a major leaguer. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now."

Children in baseball clubhouses and on the diamonds became a subject of debate this week when Adam LaRoche gave up a $13 million contract to retire because the White Sox said his 14-year-old son, Drake, could not spend unlimited time around the team. In explaining the team policy, White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams said professions generally do not allow children to be at their parents' workplace every hour of every day -- if they are allowed in at all.

Perez said he sees the White Sox's point of view but sides with LaRoche. Others say children should be allowed around the team -- being with big league fathers is important because they are gone from home so much -- but also understand that clubs should be able to set policies regarding when and how.

"I feel that first and foremost, the club has the right to impose policy on kids in the clubhouse," said former major leaguer Aaron Boone, who recalls the "great blessing" of frequently going to the ballpark with his big league dad, Bob. "As a player, you're an employee. It's upon you to live and abide by the rules the organizations set in place."

Seattle Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. likewise enjoyed many days in spring training and Yankee Stadium with his father, Mel Sr., but understands that times have changed, from security issues to the business of the game.

"The timing of allowing the kids in is different now. And I get it," he said. "The pressure of winning, of getting the players ready -- there are so many more different distractions in trying to get your guys ready, I get it.

"Everyone has their different rules and standards and they see things differently and you have to respect that. The game is still the game, but it's more business now. And you have to do what the managers want and what he expects of you. They're the boss.''

Stottlemyre and Perez remember that when young they were not to be in the clubhouse after the game if the team lost, just after victories. And, Stottlemyre said, whatever happened in the clubhouse "stayed in the clubhouse."

Rules regarding children in the clubhouse and on the field can vary. Oakland manager Bob Melvin said he has no problem with kids in the clubhouse but not after batting practice ends. New Seattle manager Scott Servais says that having family around is important but agrees there need to be limits.

Boone recalled that he was allowed to ride his Big Wheel around the clubhouse as a kid (today he probably would be on a hoverboard while staring at a video game) but that he also had to obey certain rules of behavior.

"Different clubs had different rules, different levels of leniency,'' Boone said. "In the Phillies' clubhouse, my brother Bret and me got to do so much. We had our own unis, shared a locker, hit and shagged, had the run of the place. But with that came a responsibility that you had to know how to act. You had to know how to disappear.

"That was part of the deal, almost an unspoken thing. One of the reasons Dad took us to the ballpark all the time was we knew how to act, we knew how to be around that environment, that situation. We knew who not to bother, where not to be. And by all accounts, Adam's son was tremendous with that too."

Perez remembers the first time he was allowed to wear a uniform at a stadium. He expected the jersey to have Perez and his father's No. 24 on the back. Instead, it had, "BB" for bat boy. He was disappointed but quickly learned why and adapted to the new style. "Dad said, 'You can have a uniform now, but you're going to have to work. You'll be a ball boy, a bat boy, you'll go get gum for players.'''

Perez, who remains friends with Ken Griffey Jr. and Pete Rose Jr. since their days as young kids in the Reds clubhouse -- "I see us as a fraternity of major league sons who grew up together'' -- says that the child's age should play a part in clubhouse policy, that kids below the age of 10 or so need more restrictions for safety reasons. "Once you start getting into your teenage years, that's different. I would love to see teenagers out on the field,'' he said. "They're at an age when you want them around.''

Oakland outfielder Sam Fuld has three children, ages 6, 4 and 2, with another on the way. He says kids in the clubhouse can be a complicated issue, but he thinks it's important to let them in.

"One of the best parts of being a dad in baseball is being able to take your kids in the clubhouse,'' Fuld said. "When my playing days are over and I look back on my career, those will be some of the moments I'll remember best, and hopefully I'll have provided them with some memories of their dad as a ballplayer and not a washed-up old bum.''

And perhaps they'll become major leaguers too, as LaRoche did after being with his big league father, Dave. And maybe so will his son, Drake.

Or maybe Drake will convince his father to stay on with the White Sox and then give him his $13 million salary. As Boone joked, Drake could tell him, "I'll stay home and put the money in my bank account.''

 

It finally comes out: Several White Sox players complained about Drake LaRoche
by Craig Calcaterra | NBC Hardball Talk — 2 hours ago

When the Adam LaRoche news broke last week — which, from now on, we will refer to as DrakeGhazi — the claim was made that the process was set in motion by Ken Williams. Chris Sale and Adam Eaton unambiguously claimed in the media that no player on the White Sox’ roster had a problem with Drake LaRoche. Adam LaRoche said, in his statement, that his only issue was with Ken Williams, strongly implying the same. Even Ken Williams — at least publicly — said that limiting and/or barring Drake LaRoche’s access, which led to Adam LaRoche’s retirement, was his call.

As I said when this story came out, it didn’t add up. Sale and Eaton’s talk of the clubhouse being unified and Williams’ nodding about the “bonding” of the clubhouse over all of this didn’t make sense. Rather, I and many others surmised, this was likely a situation in which White Sox players — maybe several of them — complained to Ken Williams about Drake LaRoche’s presence and Ken Williams (a) was doing their bidding in limiting/barring Drake LaRoche’ and (b) took the heat for it so there was not a clubhouse rift. Occam’s Razor suggested that this was the more likely situation, no matter what the official line was.

Occam’s Razor did not fail us. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports:

. . . while the early evidence frames this as a Williams vs. LaRoche battle over clubhouse time for LaRoche’s son, multiple baseball officials with direct knowledge of the Adam LaRoche brouhaha told USA TODAY Sports a different tale.

Several players and staff members privately complained to White Sox management recently about the constant presence of LaRoche’s 14-year-old son, Drake, in the clubhouse.

While one may be tempted to say this doesn’t much matter now because LaRoche is gone, the fact is that the behavior of all of the parties in the past few days makes this a pretty big deal.

There was a heated team meeting about this on Tuesday. A meeting Chris Sale said presented a White Sox team entirely on the same page regarding the LaRoches. So much so that a boycott of Wednesday’s spring training game was considered. In the following days Sale accused Ken Williams of lying when he said that players or coaches complained and he hung up the LaRoches’ jerseys in his locker. The team kept Drake LaRoche’s nameplate up on his locker in his memory. Yesterday Adam Eaton talked about how Drake LaRoche was a team leader, for crying out loud.

Now Sale and Eaton — and, one presumes, some other players for whom they were speaking — know that what they initially believed was not true. They now know that there was not unanimous acceptance of Drake LaRoche. At the very best the Sale-Eaton contingent have to be embarrassed at how far out on the limb they got on this, portraying clubhouse ambivalence as clubhouse unity. More concerning, however, is that the Sale-Eaton contingent may now feel as though their teammates lied to them. Either by voicing disingenuous support for the LaRoches while they secretly complained or by keeping silent and allowing that impression to be created.

There will be some tempted to play the role of savvy cynic and say “eh, Sale and Eaton probably knew others complained and were just being dramatic.” I think that’s pretty unlikely. To say the things they said and to act in the manner they did — remember, they were talking about boycotting a game over this — while knowing that others in the clubhouse didn’t agree with them would itself be an act of clubhouse dissension. They’d be publicly rubbing their teammates’ noses in the matter and passive-aggressively calling them out. That’s not something players would do lightly or easily. No, I believe they took the stance that they did because they truly believed they were in an us (players) against him (Ken Williams) situation. I believe that they believed that no uniformed White Sox personnel had an issue with Drake LaRoche. Remember, when Ken Williams privately suggested that to Sale, Sale accused him of lying.

They have now found out they were wrong. Moreover, I presume that they will soon find out who, exactly, complained about Drake LaRoche. They will find out whose complaints set the ball in motion for the retirement of one of their favorite teammates and whose silence led them to, quite frankly, take some pretty ridiculous public positions on the matter. And then they’ll have to spend the next six and a half months working, traveling and living with them.

That ought to be fun.​