Report: Adam LaRoche chose to retire because son wasn’t welcome

White Sox DH Adam LaRoche chose to retire after team president Ken Williams told him his son was no longer welcome in the clubhouse, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports.

White Sox DH Adam LaRoche chose to retire after team president Ken Williams told him his son was no longer welcome in the clubhouse, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports.

LaRoche informed the club and his teammates during a meeting Tuesday that he was retiring after a 12-year career. He said his teammates asked him to reconsider but that he was “confident” in his choice. 

LaRoche’s 14-year-old son Drake has traveled with his father’s teams for several years. In a Chicago Tribune feature about LaRoche and his son last year, LaRoche referred to Drake as the team’s “26th man.” Drake goes to school in Kansas but the school allows he and his sister Montana “to take weeks worth of homework with them when they're on the road,” the Tribune reported.

Williams told Rosenthal that children are still allowed in the White Sox clubhouse but he told LaRoche that Drake should spend less time with the team. 

“I don't think he should be here 100 percent of the time—and he has been here 100 percent, every day, in the clubhouse. I said that I don't even think he should be here 50 percent of the time. Figure it out, somewhere in between,” Williams said. “We all think his kid is a great young man. I just felt it should not be every day, that's all. You tell me, where in this country can you bring your child to work every day?”

- Dan Gartland