Adam LaRoche retires

[BlackSox13]

This is a great article. Well done Haugh!

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...319-column.html

[Kalapse]

Do you suppose Eaton has any idea how badly he embarrassed both himself and the locker room this morning? Does he have even a shred of self awareness?

[Dick Allen]

Serious question....what does Drake do now? Has no classes to attend

He goes to school in the winter. I assume he will go back.

 

Another fallacy, that he does no schoolwork

[DrunkBomber]

I'll just leave this here...

This is incredible lol

[ChiSox59]

Here's my take.

 

First, the Nightengale story -- which indicates the paper talked with players and perhaps coaches who said they had an issue with Drake's non-stop presence -- indicates that KW wasn't making it up about there being an issue within the clubhouse about this. That suggests that Eaton's and Sale's complaints notwithstanding, that the Sox brass was responding to its players.

 

Second, the "promise" to LaRoche to allow his kid with the team was certainly kept for 2015. But since it wasn't in his contract, and since both his performance was horrible and players and perhaps coaches complained to management about the situation, then management was perfectly within its rights to ask LaRoche to "dial it back." Indeed, what would it have said about Sox management if they ignored the complaints and put the wishes of arguably the WORST player on the team last year ahead of their concerns? Seems to me like the Sox made a reasonable request for LaRoche to amend his position. The fact he didn't take it was HIS CHOICE. Sox didn't ask him to, or force him to resign.

 

So, on both of these scores, it seems to me the Sox were well within their rights, and really had no choice but to ask LaRoche to accommodate his arrangement to mesh with his current teammates and coaches. LaRoche was also free to quit, which he did. There really aren't any villains if you look at it that way.

 

Where things went bad was during the clubhouse meeting. At this point, certain hotheads on the team decided to get their noses out of joint over KW asking LaRoche to "dial it back." To me, these hotheads are the ONLY people who caused this issue to blow up the way it did. (KW did also blow up at one point after LaRoche completely ignored his request, but this was not unlike any company manager getting pissed when his employees openly flout one of his requests.)

 

Did they think KW was lying to them about some players and/or coaches coming to KW to say they had a problem? If so, then how did Nightengale's newspaper receive the exact same info from these players, who have to speak annonymously?

 

And, are they so out of touch with their teammates that they claim the team was 100% united behind LaRoche when it is obvious from the above that they weren't? (Not to make this a racial issue, but it's quite interesting that we've heard from a lot of the white players, but almost nothing from any of the Latin players.)

 

Moreover, do you really want to go to the mat against the wishes of your colleagues over the presence of a 14-year-old kid in the clubhouse, who has nothing to do with your job, or the success of the team? Isn't this completely disrespectful of your teammates?

 

Sale, Eaton, et al are defending an absurd requirement that Adam LaRoche chose to lay down for his continued presence on a baseball team, when if he looked in the mirror and at his own performance, he should have realized that he couldn't meet even replacement level standards of play any more and should retire out of dignity and respect for his team.

 

The idea that KW should "resign" from the Sox over this is utterly absurd. Seems to me that Sox management have been the ONLY ones in this saga who put the interests of the team first.

 

Someone gets it! Great post!

 

[Dick Allen]

If they want to spend it then they better be sure he won't come back.

He can't come back for at least 60 days of the regular season, and the White Sox would have to agree with it.

[supernuke]

All this over a supposed verbal agreement. All to often I have seen people walk away from a verbal agreement thinking they have agreed to very different things than what the other party believes. Get it in writing.

 

 

[rowand's rowdies]

I doubt the interpreters have even bothered to tell the Latin players any of this nonsense. They couldn't even fathom how ridiculous this is.

 

Some of them defected from their own country to have a shot to play this game at this level and many have family back in where rich people's family members are sometimes kidnapped for ransom. How can they even sympathize at all with LaRoache?

 

This story just needs to go away. Eaton and Sale need to stop fanning the flames. The truth will come out in time.

[Whisox05]

This is pretty funny

 

I couldn't help myself https://t.co/0r7c2Ft8YD

https://twitter.com/everything_sox/status/711275604419588096

[caulfield12]

 

 

Still waiting for someone to explain exactly what KW should have done differently after being directly disobeyed by an employee on at least two occasions?

 

Told the kid he needs to stay in Ventura or Hahn's offices?

 

Asked to go to mediation or arbitration with LaRoche over the original scope of the verbal agreement made with Hahn/Ventura?

 

In any real workplace in the world where employees aren't making millions of dollars, LaRoche would have been fired for insubordination...probably lawyered up and sued...but, the end result would have been the same.

 

[caulfield12]

Adam, you're an idiot. But thanks for retiring...it should be easier for us pitchers to get a win without your dumb a$$ striking out 3 times a game. Buy your kid a kite.

 

$25 donation to LaRoche Family Recovery Fund

 

 

https://twitter.com/search?f=images&ver...ks&src=typd

 

Is that for real from Danks?

[Reddy]

Adam, you're an idiot. But thanks for retiring...it should be easier for us pitchers to get a win without your dumb a$$ striking out 3 times a game. Buy your kid a kite.

 

$25 donation to LaRoche Family Recovery Fund

 

 

https://twitter.com/search?f=images&ver...ks&src=typd

 

Is that for real from Danks?

 

No. it's from a fake gofundme that was set up. I posted it on the previous page

[LDF]

Still waiting for someone to explain exactly what KW should have done differently after being directly disobeyed by an employee on at least two occasions?

 

Told the kid he needs to stay in Ventura or Hahn's offices?

 

Asked to go to mediation or arbitration with LaRoche over the original scope of the verbal agreement made with Hahn/Ventura?

 

In any real workplace in the world where employees aren't making millions of dollars, LaRoche would have been fired for insubordination...probably lawyered up and sued...but, the end result would have been the same.

 

waited for practice to be over, appch AL or have AL come to the office and be calm and explain your self, maybe have a legal rep from the sox org in there with kw to present the sox org side of the problem

 

then do not else.

[LDF]

I have a difficult believing KW just decided out of the clear blue to scale back Drake's presence in the club house and on the field without something being said to him first.

 

Eaton is one to talk about KW " throwing it out there". He's been throwing plenty of stuff "out there" on Twitter. He's parading Twitter like a politician trolling for votes.

 

Good to see Eaton and his big mouth are so focused on the upcoming season.

 

nice. i like that.

[Hatchetman]

Most obviously this should have been handled by the MANAGER, not the MANAGER's bosses' boss.

[caulfield12]

And if Ventura didn't have any success with LaRoche only for KW/Reinsdorf later to come in and lay down the law, then what would have happened to the clubhouse?

 

Does anyone really believe (throwing out all of Sale's personal comments for a moment) that Adam LaRoche would have "dialed it back" 50% for Ventura?

 

In reality, Reinsdorf and KW knew that it would have been a disaster for Ventura's authority/respect in the clubhouse...and clearly the new/er players didn't feel comfortable approaching LaRoche since they weren't part of the team last year.

[LDF]

Only if he un-retires. There may be a small portion of it that they'd have to pay to cover the time he was present in ST, not sure exactly how those are structured, whether there is money included for ST or just for the 162 game season.

 

While retired he receives no payment for the time he's gone. Were he to un-retire the White Sox would be on the hook for that deal again and he would be required to show up and meet his part of the contract - should he try to unretire while not showing up or something like that the White Sox could fine him for his absences and failure to meet his contract.

 

if he AL files the necessary paperwork, and it is distributed to the proper chain of command, including the union. now comes the other side. if the sox accept it, with a proper legal procedure, including and not withstanding a legal response of acceptance and if they add any legal indemnity clause the will waive any loss of of anything including salary or termination of existing contract.

 

that is the best i can remember.

[Balta1701]

Most obviously this should have been handled by the MANAGER, not the MANAGER's bosses' boss.

It seems fairly clear that the new arrivals in the locker room felt the need to go to the highest authority other than the owner. Either they thought manager was either ok with this and their opinions would not be listened to or that the manager would not have the authority to say something about it. Perhaps they even did go to the manager first with no reaction.

[Balta1701]

And if Ventura didn't have any success with LaRoche only for KW/Reinsdorf later to come in and lay down the law, then what would have happened to the clubhouse?

 

Does anyone really believe (throwing out all of Sale's personal comments for a moment) that Adam LaRoche would have "dialed it back" 50% for Ventura?

 

In reality, Reinsdorf and KW knew that it would have been a disaster for Ventura's authority/respect in the clubhouse...and clearly the new/er players didn't feel comfortable approaching LaRoche since they weren't part of the team last year.

If Robin Ventura can't establish rules in his own locker room then that says worse things about this manager than I would ever have dreamed of writing.

[caulfield12]

waited for practice to be over, appch AL or have AL come to the office and be calm and explain your self, maybe have a legal rep from the sox org in there with kw to present the sox org side of the problem

 

then do not else.

 

 

As soon as you do that, in LaRoche's mind, you're creating a "hostile working environment" or breaking the verbal contract...in the end, the way things played out, he probably would have refused to go to the meeting...or said the only meetings he's going to are those called by Ventura/Hahn, since those two supposedly had no problems with LaRoche and Drake.

 

So then you're back to square 1 or the only resolution is coming from Reinsdorf and that's still going to lead to the same set of problems.

 

We're expecting KW to change his spots here, and he's consistently been the same person ever since assuming the GM role roughly 15 years ago. LaRoche should have known that ignoring KW was going to lead to an even bigger confrontation eventually.

[caulfield12]

It seems fairly clear that the new arrivals in the locker room felt the need to go to the highest authority other than the owner. Either they thought manager was either ok with this and their opinions would not be listened to or that the manager would not have the authority to say something about it. Perhaps they even did go to the manager first with no reaction.

 

 

One would think Hahn would have been the next step...since those players like Rollins all should have had a relationship developed with him to an extent in the month prior, while they were negotiating their contracts.

 

Either Hahn acted in concert with Ventura (unlikely), the players assumed that talking to Hahn after Ventura wasn't going to get them anywhere since those two were of like minds (possible, but unlikely), or they simply felt they had to speak with someone who wasn't directly involved in the running of the clubhouse on a day-to-day basis and express their legitimate concerns about LaRoche and his son to someone in a position of authority to either do something about it directly or run it up the pole to Reinsdorf.

 

 

[Condor13]

Avila and Navarro both said they have no idea why anyone would have a problem with Drake and they didn't think any of the players said anything. Looks like that's now 4 players that don't believe it was any player and just KW leaking to the media that it's was the players, coaches, and or the owners.

[LDF]

As soon as you do that, in LaRoche's mind, you're creating a "hostile working environment" or breaking the verbal contract...in the end, the way things played out, he probably would have refused to go to the meeting...or said the only meetings he's going to are those called by Ventura/Hahn, since those two supposedly had no problems with LaRoche and Drake.

 

So then you're back to square 1 or the only resolution is coming from Reinsdorf and that's still going to lead to the same set of problems.

 

We're expecting KW to change his spots here, and he's consistently been the same person ever since assuming the GM role roughly 15 years ago. LaRoche should have known that ignoring KW was going to lead to an even bigger confrontation eventually.

 

a refusal to attend a mtg that is called by the sox org, regardless if you like that person or not, and is the highest ranking official outside the owner, then is it called insubordination.

 

any others who jumped in was and is doing so for their own agenda.

 

this is spelled out, it is black and white. he either complies or he doesn't. sale and eaton has jumped in, in a problem that does not involve them or it does involve them. then they recourse was to allow this to go thru the proper channel via the legal rep, the union reps.

[fathom]

Avila and Navarro both said they have no idea why anyone would have a problem with Drake and they didn't think any of the players said anything. Looks like that's now 4 players that don't believe it was any player and just KW leaking to the media that it's was the players, coaches, and or the owners.

 

No one is going to admit that they did to the media. Btw, David Schuster on the Score said today he talked to people he know who work for the Sox and said there were complaints.

[fathom]

With what we know, isn't it safe to assume LaRoche told KW he would adhere to the initial request and then failed to do so?