This story has nothing to do with politics (which is a feature, not a bug, as far as I'm concerned), but I'm guessing the Cain audience has some strong feelings about both the value of families and what goes on in the workplace. So why shouldn't we discuss it here?
You've probably heard the story by now: Apparently White Sox first baseman had his 14-year-old son with him pretty much all the time last season. He was in the clubhouse. He was even in team meetings. He was on the field during batting practice and in the dugout during pre-game warmups. And while there is no indication that anyone complained about it, or that it had any negative effect on the team's performance, White Sox Vice President of Baseball Operations Ken Williams approached LaRoche and asked him to "dial back" the young man's presence:
"There has been no policy change with regards to allowance of kids in the clubhouse, on the field, the back fields during spring training," Williams told Fox Sports. "This young man that we're talking about, Drake -- everyone loves this young man. In no way do I want this to be about him.
"I asked Adam, said, 'Listen, our focus, our interest, our desire this year is to make sure we give ourselves every opportunity to focus on a daily basis on getting better. All I'm asking you to do with regard to bringing your kid to the ballpark is dial it back.'
"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.
"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?"
Now this is the easiest story in the world if you're looking to take the popular side. A man chooses his family over $13 million? What possible storyline could be better than that?
But does Williams have any sort of a point here? And could it have been resolved in a different way?
He's certainly correct that any business has the right to make its own rules about the access it's willing to grant to outsiders, and that includes family members of employees. And I'd guess he's mostly correct that very few other jobs would let you have your kid around any of the time, let alone all the time.
Other interviews I saw with Williams suggested that the White Sox as an organization stepped back and looked at the overall performance of the organization, and concluded that they were not performing at the level they should have been. There is no arguing that point. The White Sox won the World Series in 2005 but they've underachieved consistently ever since, much to my delight as a Tigers fan. Any organization that's not performing needs to look at itself, and that includes its personnel policies and its corporate culture.
You could make an argument that having players' kids around too much detracts from the proper focus and preparation necessary to achieve maximum success, and apparently that's what Ken Williams determined to be the case.
Can you defend that as an organization policy? Absolutely. But that doesn't necessarily mean it was the right decision in this particular situation. Even Williams didn't claim that Drake LaRoche presented an actual problem. He merely asserted that having kids around could become a problem and that there should be a policy giving the team the right to limit it.
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That still begs the question of whether kids in the clubhouse - even one that's there literally all the time as Williams says is the case here - is really a problem as opposed to just a theoretical one. It also has to be put up against the prevailing culture in Major League Baseball, which is very friendly toward the idea of kids in the clubhouse. That's evidenced by the widespread support players on all teams are showing for Adam LaRoche.
You also have to recognize that not every family is the same. I don't know anything about Adam LaRoche or his son on a personal level, but some boys need to be around their dads more than other boys do. A smart employer finds ways to make that work for the employee. We Tiger fans have known for years (and greatly enjoyed) the fact that Victor Martinez has his son Victor Jose around him just about constantly. It's one of the most popular stories associated with Tiger baseball, and it makes us all appreciate Victor that much more as a man beyond what he does for us on the field.
But not every Tiger player has his son around as much as Victor does. Every family is different. Some kids go to traditional school, while others (apparently including both Drake LaRoche and Victor Jose Martinez) are home-schooled, thus creating both different needs and opportunities to spend time around their dads.
I don't think Ken Williams did this to be a jerk. I think he was trying to put a rational personnel policy in place. But I also think he made a mistake by adopting such a rigid policy that it didn't leave room to accommodate a situation that, while unusual, was really doing no harm. And now he's created not only a PR problem but a problem in his own clubhouse, where players reportedly were so upset about what happened that they considered boycotting last night's game against the Brewers to show their support for the LaRoches.
It strikes me as a classic case of a solution looking for a problem, which sometimes happens when things just aren't going well, and management starts making changes just for the sake of making changes. I bet Ken Williams would take this one back if he could. Indeed, I wonder if he still can.
This story has nothing to do with politics (which is a feature, not a bug, as far as I'm concerned), but I'm guessing the Cain audience has some strong feelings about both the value of families and what goes on in the workplace. So why shouldn't we discuss it here?
You've probably heard the story by now: Apparently White Sox first baseman had his 14-year-old son with him pretty much all the time last season. He was in the clubhouse. He was even in team meetings. He was on the field during batting practice and in the dugout during pre-game warmups. And while there is no indication that anyone complained about it, or that it had any negative effect on the team's performance, White Sox Vice President of Baseball Operations Ken Williams approached LaRoche and asked him to "dial back" the young man's presence:
