It’s tempting to say good riddance to a guy that killed the Mets over his career with the thousands of teams he played with. And that’s what I thought when I heard that Adam LaRoche pulled a Cuddyer and retired with $13 million left on his deal. But now that the details are out about LaRoche retiring because the Sox had an issue with his son in the locker room, I gotta say I’m on LaRoche’s side.
There were three main themes that I saw written out there on the interwebs. First was: “well, rules is rules.” LaRoche has had his kid, who his home schooled, around him at the ballparks for a while now without issue. And when he first went to the White Sox, he asked Robin Ventura if having his kid around was an issue, Ventura gave LaRoche his blessing. So it wasn’t an issue of being a team rule. Because if it was a team rule from the beginning, LaRoche would have either dealt with it then, or just not signed with the White Sox. But this wasn’t the case. This was Ken Williams trying to see if there were things that he could tighten up to make things better this season.
Williams said offseason discussions with GM Rick Hahn and manager Robin Ventura was ‘let’s check all the columns with regards to our preparation, our focus, to everything, and give ourselves the best chance to win.”
Fair enough. But if I’m Adam LaRoche I’m thinking “wait a minute, we go 76-86 and my kid is the problem? Blame me and my .207 average. But don’t blame my kid.” This was never, ever a problem before. And now that LaRoche is hitting .207 the kid is at fault? I can’t blame LaRoche for feeling a little upset, because it certainly comes off as petty and vindictive even if Ken Williams didn’t mean it that way (which I don’t think he did.)
Second was “well nobody else gets to have their kid at work every day.” Yeah, and nobody with a regular job without travel has to leave their kid for weeks at a time, and work 12-13 hour days when they’re at home. And the ones that do travel certainly realize that business trips with briefcases and suits are boring places to bring their children to. Two different animals.
Third, and this one gets me the most: “You make millions of dollars … deal with it.” Money can do a lot of things. Here’s what it can’t do: eliminate simple emotions and feelings and make you inhuman. LaRoche wants to spend summers with his kid. Who can blame him when every other season it’s been okay? But here is what we need to realize with LaRoche: He didn’t whine and cry to the media about Williams trying to dial back being with his kid. Then, I could understand people being upset. He just quit. He left $13 million on the table too. That’s what money can do … give you these kind of options. And I think what people are really mad about … if they think about it … that they aren’t in the position where they can do the same thing. They don’t have the options that 12 year vets have. I’m sure there is rarely an argument in a 9-to-5 job about a child being in the office too much. But if you haven’t thought about quitting your job when you get stuck with lousy hours, boring duties, layoffs, and young kids jumping you in the pecking order, then you’re lying to yourself. All Adam LaRoche did was live out both of our dreams. First: playing baseball. Second: telling his boss to take his job and shove it. We wish we could do one of those let alone both.
Good for you, Adam. Good for you.
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