Adam LaRoche and his son

It's funny to hear all these reporters and sports pundits now saying how weird and inappropriate it was after leaving a years long trail of stories about the awesomeness of the kid always being around.

 

Team presidents don't speak on behalf of players. They speak on behalf of what they consider the club's best interests.

 

The issue isn't just this one kid, its the precedent this sets. Once LaRoche can do this the team can't stop every player from bringing their kids all the time. Also, does the team assume liability for the kid if he gets hurt or has an incident? Why would the team be willing to take that responsibility? A sports team is a business, its focus should be on success at that business, not running a defacto daycare center/school.

 

Williams and the White Sox are right. I know LaRoche enjoys hanging around and being with his kid, and the kid obviously has fantastic stories to tell his mates at school, but even though it is baseball, it is work. It is a job. If everyone else decided to bring their kids, it's not like anyone could stop them.

 

There's a very long history of players bringing their kids to the clubhouse. Guys like Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds come to mind. Hundreds of others. One can suggest that it shouldn't be all the time and that there is some point at which it becomes excessive, but the clubhouse is the domain of the players and they should make the decisions about what goes on in there.

 

Male children of players are allowed in the clubhouse.

While his situation may have been unique, he wasn't breaking any rules.

Some of the comments seem to indicate that players should never bring their kids around.

 

If Jayson Werth could put up with it ...

 

Which comments? Certainly not Kenny Williams's comments. He was quite explicit that 50 percent of the time was fine, just not 100.

Everyone seems to be focusing on this idea that the kid's virgin ears and eyes are getting exposed to things he can't un-hear or un-see. I've probably been in an MLB clubhouse 150 times, and a minor-league clubhouse 100 or more times.

Here is what gets talked about:

• Sports
• Movies and TV
• Cars
• Restaurants
• Vacation spots
• Some more sports
• Fishin'
• Huntin'
• Hitting
• Pitching
• Bats and gloves
• Sports

It's not some drunk free-for-all where sexcapades are loudly boasted about and the TV is looping porn.

I don't think that the problem is necessarily that the players feel inhibited. It's just that this is their domain, and the kid's not part of the team - and, frankly, it probably makes LaRoche seem less like a dedicated member of the team and more like an interloper. I can recall getting irritated, and not being alone, when guys' girlfriends practically moved into the fraternity house. Or when my nother-in-law stays for more than a week. Your lifestyle changes a little, yes. But it's not because I can't walk around in my underwear or shout profanities. It's that, hey, this is my house.

 

Yep, today they are laser-focused on their NCAA brackets.

 

In fact, I fully expect that the culture of a Major League Baseball clubhouse is far less coarse than the culture of an eighth-grade one.

 

I remember Matt Williams' kids being around all the time when he played for the Diamondbacks. At least when school was out.