He Gone

My daughter is becoming the bearer of all news baseball.  Clare called yesterday afternoon and advised me to sit down so she could deliver the news—Adam LaRoche was retiring.

What an odd bird.  When the White Sox signed LaRoche to a $25 million two-year contract in the winter of 2014, I kept hearing about what a great clubhouse presence he would be.  LaRoche also said Konerko-like things in the paper, so everything seened good.  Then I saw the ZZ-Top beard and started wondering, who is this guy?

Things only got weirder during the season, one that saw LaRoche hit a meager .207 with 12 homers and 44 rbi’s; in 2014, his stats were .259/26/92.  The diminished production was compounded by what I call the-look-and-walk after strikeouts.  LaRoche would trudge back to the dugout, dragging his bat and staring back at the catcher or out at the pitcher.  With LaRoche striking out 133 times in 2015, I got to see the look, and the walk, a whole lot.

I will say this for him, though—he’s now walking away from $13 million in salary.  LaRoche could’ve milked back spasms into one or more trips to the DL or forced the Sox to cut him, which they never would’ve done.  No, the leadership I heard so much about showed itself on Adam LaRoche’s last day as a member of the White Sox.  Kudos on that.