Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Take Me Out of the Ballgame
By Keith Allison on Flickr – Originally posted to Flickr as “Adam LaRoche“, CC BY-SA 2.0.
In addition to being a politics geek, I’m a sports nut. I love most professional sports, and I’m fortunate to have a freelance gig working on NFL radio broadcasts each fall. I love sports news and talk, so I’ve been the kind of guy who gets home, turns on ESPN, and watches Pardon the Interruption, followed by an hour or an hour-and-a-half of SportsCenter before getting onto political news.
Not so much anymore. ESPN has taken a hard turn leftward in recent years, to the point that it is just as unwatchable and biased as the mainstream news networks. Sports legends like Curt Schilling and Mike Ditka have been demoted after criticizing President Obama (who watches the network religiously). The network has promoted the Black Lives Matter movement and, last week, ESPN hired Spike Lee to do a film about racial unrest on the campus of the University of Missouri. While I still love watching live sporting events, I am less and less knowledgeable about sports news than I once was.
The other day, Cam Edwards, on his daily show [NB: The show I happen to produce, Cam and Company] mentioned an amazing story about Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche that I had not heard before. The kind of sports story that I definitely would have heard before.
Let’s start the story in the middle, with a tweet Adam LaRoche posted on March 15th:
Thank u Lord for the game of baseball and for giving me way more than I ever deserved!#FamilyFirst
— Adam LaRoche (@e3laroche) March 15, 2016
#FamilyFirst being an understatement.
Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche said he planned to retire and walk away from a $13 million salary after being told by the team president to cut down the time his son spent in the clubhouse.
Team president Kenny Williams confirmed Wednesday that he twice asked LaRoche in the last week to “dial it back” with 14-year-old son, Drake.
LaRoche abruptly said Tuesday at spring training that he planned to leave the game. White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said at the time it was a “personal decision” and that LaRoche was asked to reconsider.
Williams said LaRoche’s son was a “quality young kid” and wasn’t a distraction. But Williams indicated he didn’t want anything to deter the team’s focus.
Ponder that for a second. Adam LaRoche walked away — walked away — from $13 million dollars, just in order to ensure that he spent more time with his son than on a baseball diamond, away from his home half the year. Not being a father myself, it’s hard for me to relate, but I don’t know if I could walk away like he did. It says a lot about LaRoche as a man, and more importantly, as a father.
This is also an important story, because fathers today get a pretty bad rap. If pop culture is a reflection of the times in which we live, television fathers have gone from strong dads like Ward Cleaver and Ben Cartwright, to ridiculous buffoons like Al Bundy and Peter Griffin. The nuclear family is seen as less and less important by more and more people every day. America is seeing staggering rates of babies born to unwed mothers:
The black community’s 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.
With an overall rate of 41 percent, it’s apparent that fatherhood is not cherished as the institution it once was. Now, I am not naive enough to think that we’re going to go back to the time of Leave it to Beaver and fathers taking sons to baseball games in three-piece suits. I’m also not saying there aren’t tons of quality fathers out there. Adam LaRoche is a reminder, however, that many more boys need to be taught how to be much better men, and amazing fathers. LaRoche is of course an extreme example, but a shining one, nonetheless.
Sports are filled with plenty of bad actors, terrible stories, and fallen role models, from Ray Lewis, to Floyd Mayweather, to Lance Armstrong, to Hope Solo. People like Adam LaRoche are needles –calm down, Lance Armstrong, not those kind of needles — in the sports haystack, that both the sports and non-sports worlds could use a lot more of.
Published in Culture, Marriage, Sports
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the Sox to tell an employee to not bring his kid to work all the time. It’s the office. Time for focus on work. No matter how well behaved the kid is, he is a distraction from the job. I don’t expect my boss to let me bring my son/dog/wife to work every day just so I can spend time with them.
More generally, ESPN has gotten so lefty and PC. Every chat show has a woman on the panel in a obvious display of tokenism and identity politics box-checking. I am not saying women aren’t qualified, but they suddenly seem qualified to appear on top level shows? Women sports journalists on those shows have less experience because the pick the young ones. The women athletes have a different experience than the male ones because the speed and strength are not the same in women’s sports. These women are more qualified than all the other male applicants? No sports fan says “we really need a woman’s perspective on the new rule.” I saw one segment on a show that was all about Chris Rock hosting the Oscars which was all about race. Another segment was devoted to one player’s tweets criticizing another player. Who cares? Can’t we keep a sports channel about sports? I don’t turn on the Weather Channel to hear sports or politics.
Sons in the clubhouse are as old as the game itself. That’s why you have the Boones, the Bells, and the Griffeys.
LaRoche claims the White Sox violated the terms of an agreement about his son. If it’s actually in his contract you bet the MLBPA will be interested.
This is not the same situation that Dusty Baker had when he was managing the Giants and JT Snow had to rescue 4-year-old Darren Baker from being involved in a home plate collision in the World Series. After that MLB instituted a rule that bat boys had to be 14 or older.
Drake LaRoche is old enough to be employed by baseball but not just to be around his father? Pardon my cynicism but maybe the Sox were looking to dump the old man without paying the rest of the contract.
As for ESPN, I plead the Fifth.
BS.
Do You think if LaRoche was told on His first day of professional baseball that His kid would be allowed around only 50% of the time that He’d quit? Hell no. He’s doing this because He can; as noted earlier by how much He’s made already.
Father of the Year LaRoche: “Hay, Son, here’s a Life lesson for Ya ‘If Yer employer ever tells You what to do, and You disagree with it, quit.'”
Your argument falls apart on the issue that professional sports is unlike any other business. If you’re an accountant no one will drop $300 or more to come over and watch you crunch numbers for an evening.
Nobody ever bought a licensed jersey with their favorite teacher’s name on the back.
The players are the product. The power they yield is reflected in their clubhouse perks and in their paychecks.
As opposed to the lesson “Whatever your employer does, be gutless and put up with it.” Or “Even if you’re financially secure and can easily afford to spend more time with your family, kowtow to your employer so you can make even more money.”
Good story! He may have had good reasons to walk away aside from his son (decline, doesn’t need the money, etc), but I like that he didn’t let his son become a bargaining chip. Twenty years from now, his son will know that he loved him more than baseball.
ESPN is part of the Disney machine. I personally don’t care for the all SEC network all the time, and Disney who has added an eighth dwarf named Sleazy. I had to laugh when one of the commentators did a scathing piece on ND athletes and academics. This coming from a network that covers the SEC whose schools offer degrees in Recreational Science, or Hospitality Management for athletes.
I gave up ESPN at least 5 years ago, and Sports Illustrated in the early 90s. MLB channel (and GameDay Audio) gives me my baseball fix, WEEI-Boston gives me my sports talk fix, Golf Channel gives me, well, y’know, and the internet gives me everything else that ESPN used to give me. I don’t miss them in the least.