{"id":12031,"date":"2016-03-18T09:47:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T13:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12031"},"modified":"2016-03-18T09:47:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T13:47:20","slug":"adam-laroche-ken-williams-and-an-ugly-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12031","title":{"rendered":"Adam LaRoche, Ken Williams and an ugly situation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5522\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/LaRocheAdam-unk-via-bleacherreport.com_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5522\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5522\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5522\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/LaRocheAdam-unk-via-bleacherreport.com_-300x234.jpg\" alt=\"LaRoche in happier times. Photo: Rob Carr\/Getty Images\" width=\"300\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/LaRocheAdam-unk-via-bleacherreport.com_-300x234.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/LaRocheAdam-unk-via-bleacherreport.com_.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5522\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaRoche in happier times. Photo: Rob Carr\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By now I think we&#8217;ve all seen the <strong>Adam LaRoche<\/strong> story.\u00a0 Short version: Chicago president <strong>Kenny Williams<\/strong> asked LaRoche to not have his kid at the clubhouse every day and LaRoche retired instead of agreeing to Williams&#8217; terms.<\/p>\n<p>Is there more to this story?\u00a0 Oooh yeah.\u00a0 Read this <a href=\"http:\/\/deadspin.com\/who-had-a-problem-with-adam-laroches-kid-1765501446\">deadspin.com piece<\/a>, which has a ton of tweets from MLB reporters <strong>Jeff Passan<\/strong> and <strong>Ken Rosenthal<\/strong> (basically two of the most respected and connected guys covering the game today, in case you doubt a story at deadspin).\u00a0 My take-aways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>LaRoche had it IN HIS CONTRACT that he could bring his kid to the ballpark every day.<\/li>\n<li>The kid had his own frigging locker and (as he did in Washington) did &#8220;clubhouse attendant&#8221; stuff to earn his keep.<\/li>\n<li>The players supported LaRoche, except for some apparent unnamed anonymous players who <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.nbcsports.com\/2016\/03\/17\/something-about-the-adam-laroche-thing-still-doesnt-make-sense\/\">allegedly complained to Williams <\/a>as reported in this link.<\/li>\n<li>Except that those un-named players apparently were too afraid to voice their opinion as the team threatened to boycott games the next day.<\/li>\n<li>The players, the GM and the Manager all disagreed with the decision.<\/li>\n<li>As is noted in the deadspin piece, reports from the meeting the players had with the President were perhaps the most angry I&#8217;ve ever read of a team being with its management.\u00a0 Its not every day where a player like <strong>Chris Sale <\/strong>tells his boss&#8217; boss&#8217; boss\u00a0 to &#8220;get the f*ck out of the clubhouse and don&#8217;t come back.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My take?<\/p>\n<p>I think Williams continued a sh*tty tradition of tone-deaf management out of the Chicago White Sox, whose owner <strong>Jerry Reinsdorf<\/strong> was the leading voice in pushing for limiting amateur bonuses in the last CBA in order to save a buck.\u00a0 LaRoche hit .217 last year and was owed $13M this year: if LaRoche hit .290 with 30 homers last year do you still think Williams would have done what he did?<\/p>\n<p>You may say (as others like noted &#8220;get off my lawn&#8221; dinosaur <strong>Bob Nightengale<\/strong>) something like &#8220;who else gets to take their kid to work every day?&#8221;\u00a0 And you&#8217;d be right &#8230; except that nobody reading this works for a major league baseball club.\u00a0 How often have you heard players say that &#8220;its different&#8221; being in a clubhouse than being in an office?\u00a0 Do you agree?\u00a0 I do; this isn&#8217;t a normal work place. MLB teams already HAVE kids around every day; they&#8217;re called bat boys.\u00a0 So what&#8217;s the real difference here?\u00a0\u00a0 Its ok for a bat boy to be with the team for 6 straight months but not ok for a player&#8217;s son?\u00a0 These aren&#8217;t &#8220;workers&#8221; as much as they&#8217;re &#8220;entertainers&#8221; and the concept of a &#8220;workplace&#8221; isn&#8217;t exactly the same.\u00a0 The Nats built a day care center so their wives and kids could come to the games, and that&#8217;s good business.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, there&#8217;s this: these guys constantly talk about being &#8220;a family&#8221; when talking about the team chemistry.\u00a0 That&#8217;s because they basically spend 10-12 hours a day for 7 straight months together.\u00a0 Working together, living together, showering together, traveling together and eating together.\u00a0\u00a0 Is it that big of a stretch to hear about people&#8217;s kids being at the games?\u00a0 How many times have you read about kids being at ball parks in your life?\u00a0 A hundred?\u00a0 More?<\/p>\n<p>The timing of this is also ridiculous; leave out for a moment that LaRoche&#8217;s contract stated he could bring his kid to the clubhouse (the kid had his OWN LOCKER!) and leaving out the point that LaRoche is a union guy (can you say player grievance coming?).\u00a0 Why would Williams choose to have this fight 4 weeks into spring training?\u00a0 If it was really that big of a deal, why not address it in the off-season?\u00a0 I mean, can you imagine being a White Sox fan right now?\u00a0 How does this situation make the White Sox better, in any conceivable way, for the season that starts in two weeks?\u00a0 Now you have a near player mutiny, a popular veteran quitting out of principle, and you probably have more than a few players demanding to be traded.\u00a0 Great way to prepare for the season!<\/p>\n<p>If I&#8217;m the owner of the White Sox I fire Williams today and beg LaRoche to come back; its the only way he has a shot of salvaging the 2016 season.\u00a0 I mean, the goal of the game is to win, and for me the only way to &#8220;fix&#8221; the massive clubhouse issue they&#8217;ve needlessly introduced is to get rid of the guy who caused it. \u00a0 Of course, maybe he doesn&#8217;t give a sh*t;\u00a0 his season tickets are sold and he&#8217;s raking in Chicago RSN money irrespective of whether his team wins 90 games or loses 90.\u00a0 Welcome to modern baseball ownership, where tanking is a-OK, nobody has to show their books and billionaire owners keep making more and more money every year.<\/p>\n<p>Good times ahead on the South Side!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By now I think we&#8217;ve all seen the Adam LaRoche story.\u00a0 Short version: Chicago president Kenny Williams asked LaRoche to not have his kid at the clubhouse every day and LaRoche retired instead of agreeing to Williams&#8217; terms. Is there more to this story?\u00a0 Oooh yeah.\u00a0 Read this deadspin.com piece, which has a ton of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[184,1164,1169,442,502,312,2247],"class_list":["post-12031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","tag-adam-laroche","tag-bob-nightengale","tag-chris-sale","tag-jeff-passan","tag-jerry-reinsdorf","tag-ken-rosenthal","tag-kenny-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12031"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12035,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12031\/revisions\/12035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}