Altoona Mirror, March 20, 2016

Adam LaRoche has been playing Major League Baseball since 2004, but he didn't become famous until last week.
That's when the story of his retirement from baseball blew up, only because of the circumstances.
LaRoche said he was walking away from his $13 million salary because the Chicago White Sox said they didn't want his 14-year-old son hanging around the clubhouse on a full-time basis.
Drake LaRoche doesn't go to school; instead he goes to work with his dad, even though Drake doesn't really have a job with the White Sox.
He has a locker and a uniform and he apparently just sort of shadows his father. He hangs out.
Adam LaRoche claims that White Sox executive Ken Williams reneged on an agreement that Drake was welcome as an adjunct team member. There are now reports that some White Sox players complained about Drake being around all the time. Other players defended his presence.
There are a lot of angles to this story, but here's the one that should override them all:
The locker room of a professional sports team is no place for a 14-year-old. Even though today's kids are more worldly and sophisticated than the Opie Taylors of another era, they're destined to see and hear things in a clubhouse that most 14-year-olds shouldn't be forced to process.
Most players are fine upstanding citizens who are admirable role models. Some are not.
The money and the lifestyle can corrupt. Some players start to believe that money can buy them out of anything. Rules? Who needs them when you're rich and famous?
When people are lining up to pay for a scribbled signature on a photo, it can twist one's perspective.
The money and notoriety can warp values. A generation ago, a Pirates player approached a front office operative about buying a season ticket. He wanted something in right field.
Sure, the team guy said, but we can get you a better location than that. No, the player said, it's for my girlfriend and I don't want her sitting anywhere near my wife.
Back in the "We Are Family" era, the Pirates wives organized to do some work for charities. They had a meeting one afternoon when the team was on the road, and someone decided it would be fun to hold it in the clubhouse.
The door was unlocked, and the wives naturally checked out their husbands' lockers. At least one wife was appalled at the collection of phone numbers and photos that her husband had attached to the inside of his locker.
During the 20-year losing streak, a group of players hung around late after a game to discuss their problems over some beers. The next day, early arrivals noticed an arrow had been shot through a big screen TV that sat in the middle of the clubhouse.
No perpetrator was officially identified, but the archers on the team were led by avid outdoorsman Adam LaRoche.
Hey, when you're making $5 million year (as LaRoche was then), what's an extra three grand to buy a replacement TV?
There used to be a sign posted in every clubhouse: "What you see here, hear here and say here....let it stay here."
There was a reason for that. There are also a lot of good reasons a 14-year-old shouldn't be hanging out in a baseball clubhouse.
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--STAYING PUT
In case you missed it, the Cincinnati Bengals signed Adam (formerly known as Pac Man) Jones to a contract extension last week.
It's three years and $24 million. Because sometimes it's crunch time in a playoff game, and you need somebody to do something profoundly stupid to give the game away.
Now the Bengals know they're covered.