His annoying little sidekick goes back to school and he fades into obscurity like his little brother hopefully.
Yes. LaDouche. It was NEVER in his contract, ever. It was discussed and like every supposed oral contract, a misunderstanding developed. This is LaDouche's way of using his son and retirement to recoup part of the $13 M he walked away from. If I had a dollar for every "misunderstood" oral contract, I'd freakin own the White Sox.
locker rooms, clubhouses and the field are for players and team personnel only kid wants to sit in a major league clubhouse then he needs to earn it like everyone else fucken entitled little fuck
Whatever you feel about this, one thing is clear. You can stick a fork in the White Sox before opening day.
Normally I would agree, except if they tell him one thing at one time and do something else, that is fucked up
true, but things change what if it had been an mlb mandate, would laroche still have walked? if laroche wanted to be pissed about it, that's one thing but to act like a baby and take his ball and go home is another and who did the act hurt most? the white sox, who rid themselves of a .207 hitting $13MM liability? or laroche, now $13MM poorer? it's one thing to stand up for your principles/beliefs et al but if someone is on the hook to give you $13MM... talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face
White Sox owner says no one to blame in LaRoche saga by Mark Townsend | Big League Stew — 2 hours ago Six days and several remarkable twists after we first learned that White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams requested that Adam LaRoche's young son Drake spend less time around the clubhouse — a decision that ultimately led Adam to walk away from baseball — team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is asking for closure to the saga. In a statement released Sunday, Reinsdorf noted that he's met with all parties involved in the drama, including LaRoche himself, and has concluded that no one person was to blame. It was more of a miscommunication and misunderstanding, though one that could have been handled better. I have taken the past few days to personally meet with everyone involved, including Adam LaRoche, members of our front office, uniformed staff and some of our active players. I continue to have nothing but the greatest regard for Adam -- in fact, my respect for him has grown during this process -- and I applaud his desire to spend more time with his family. I continue to have complete faith in the skills and abilities of the leadership group of our baseball operations department in Ken Williams, Rick Hahn and Robin Ventura. I also appreciate the passion and commitment to one another shown by our players, Robin, our coaching staff and our front office. As with many things in life, much of this was a result of miscommunication and misunderstanding rather than this being a case of anyone not telling the truth. I do not believe there is anyone to directly blame in this situation. While there is no doubt this might have been handled differently, the fact remains that this is an internal matter that we have discussed and now resolved. Per my request, White Sox employees will no longer discuss this matter publicly. I felt it was appropriate to release this statement to close the issue for everyone in the organization -- from the front office to the players in the clubhouse -- so we can focus on Opening Day and winning baseball games for our fans. I am fully confident this matter will soon be behind us and that we will grow even stronger and more united as a team and as an organization. It almost feels like this drama has been going on all spring, if not all winter. It's packed that much of a punch, because it's stirred so many emotions within baseball players and fans, and especially parents. Issues concerning family are always like that though, because it's a delicate subject to approach. That's especially true within the unique landscape of professional sports and the circumstances they create, but it seems as though this specific scenario was handled anything but delicately. Perhaps that's because we've never really seen an issue like this before. How does an executive in Williams' position decide when enough is enough? How does he balance allowing a father to spend extra time with his son with maintaining a professional atmosphere, where well-paid players are preparing to play an often over-scrutinized game? It's supposed to be fun, yes. It would be great if the atmosphere could always be laid back, but sometimes focus and preparation have to come first. And sometimes new guidelines have to be set, regardless of past feelings or agreements. When Reinsdorf says there's no one to blame, he's not wrong. When he suggests it's time to move on, he's absolutely right. But hopefully lessons can be taken from this saga. Lessons that ensure such matters are discussed and handled more professionally in the future, while giving those involved more time to digest and think before they react.
Haven't voiced an opinion on this one yet, but I see it both ways. If he was told point blank that the kid had the run of the clubhouse then his beef is legit. If the team didn't set boundaries in the beginning, then they failed. If there were limits set and Laroche overstepped them then he's being a dick. You're scenario about if MLB had mandated it is moot. Of course if it had been a league mandate he'd have no choice but to abide by it. But it wasn't, so it comes down to "he said/she said", with nothing contractual to define it. As far as his principles, I applaud him. If he truly feels that strongly and can walk away from the money doing what he believes is right then good for him. In the back of my mind I wonder though, was it a 'I'll make them come beg me' move? I tend to doubt it. Like I said though, the ChiSox are done. This is going to divide the clubhouse and put a muzzle on players. Sale has probably already been reprimanded for personal attacks on management. In the end, I don't see how anyone walks away from this without some sort of scar. The kid may have the deepest one, thinking years from now, that he cost his dad his last summer in the sun.
hear what you're saying unlike reinsdorf -- who believes no one is at fault -- i feel the exact opposite there is plenty of blame to go around and [more than likely] all sides are culpable first off, i don't care what agreements were originally in place as stated, things change and if other players voiced a problem with it, as is being reported [and tbh, expected] then something needed to be done maybe williams should have told laroche about the players but that would have created even more dissension in the locker room i applaud williams if he was wiling to be the bad guy and not put this on the players laroche could have handled this 100 different ways the way he chose was not only imprudent, it was also the least lucrative i'm all for principles, walking away for someone obligated to hand you $13MM is plain stupid especially when you're barely above the mendoza line
But LaDouche isn't just walking away. By making it into a so called contract dispute, he's trying to extract some money using his son's situation to do it. What angers me about this is that LaDouche is being hailed as some kind of family values guy? But what kind of father thinks a big league clubhouse is the appropriate environment for a 14 year old who should be in school? If I had an employee who had a legitimate reason to bring his kid to work, I would make that accommodation. But decorum and reason and logic would dictate that I wouldn't bring the kid into team meetings, internal conferences, and conference calls. If someone says "sure, that's okay", I wouldn't then assume I could abuse that accommodation and let the kid have a locker room, a jersey, etc. It's like giving the kid a business card, office and phone line. And if I then asked the guy to curtail those activities, I would be within my rights. There is no written obligation for me to provide this kind of privilege, and a rich, spoiled 14 year old is not a protected class the last time I checked. And if this under achieving idiot then left in a huff and threatened some kind of action, I'd laugh it off so hard knowing it wouldn't get past summary judgment. All the terms of LaDouche's employment was in his WRITTEN contract, and unless there's a child in the clubhouse clause, his oral conversations would not be admissible. On top of that, he leaves his team, and makes Sales look like an idiot, essentially leading him to make statements about his employer that was dead wrong and making it sound like the whole team was on his side. Where is LaDouche now? I would not be surprised in the least if those who complained about Drake were minority players who probably wouldn't have a snowballs chance in hell to get their kids anywhere near the clubhouse, and wouldn't have a buddy like Sales backing them up. Anyway, this is Millenial privilege run amuck. LaDouche is a shmucks for taking a privilege and trying to turn it into some kind of moral right. He's a freakin privileged a-hole, and he's breeding another one in his kid by saying if you don't get privileges you really don't deserve, you should quit. Nice message dude.
No, you came in defending the guy based on wrong facts. If you want to argue facts fine. You just blindly took that douche's side.
No, you are really taking it way too personally. Him retiring because he can't have his son with him at all times doesn't make him a douche. It's not even that big of a deal. Also, FYI, there are no such things as "wrong facts," that is an oxymoron
It makes him a douche if in the process of acting like a privileged a-hole, he blows up the team in the process. And for what? His own privilege sense of entitlement? He's a douche. The same idiocy that makes everyone think they deserve everything all the time.
Although I don't know everything from this, I think Kenny Williams deserves some praise. Seems like some players and staff complained to him about it and he was willing to bite the bullet and he took some heat from the players and what not. Instead of pointing fingers and naming names, he made it about him and tried to absorb all the blow. Now, it still blew up cause of Sale/eaton but imagine if Williams named players and really divided that clubhouse? Just my two cents
Williams is the one person who has been a man and a professional in this whole situation. From what I can tell, not only has he not named names but he hasn't even come out and said anyone complained - that's awesome. I'm actually dumbfounded that LaRoche, Sale, Eaton, and 90% of the media didn't assume that there were members of the clubhouse complaining... can these guys take a hint? If Williams just wanted to be a dick he would have been a dick last season, or in the offseason. It was incredibly obvious that he addressed it when he did because people in the locker room asked him to. As far as the players who went to Williams to complain, I think the reaction from the clubhouse vindicates their reason to go to upper management instead of dealing with it directly (assuming they didn't try, who knows they might have mentioned something to LaRoche before going to Williams).
