Adam LaRoche issues statement, says Ken Williams banned son from ballpark

The conflict between Adam LaRoche and the Chicago White Sox rages on, with LaRoche contending that he was asked to not bring his son to the ballpark at all.

LaRoche issued a statement via Twitter on Friday telling his side of the story for the first time, and he contended that he had an agreement with the White Sox and team vice president Ken Williams that was reneged upon.

LaRoche noted that he made clear that would have immediately dealt with any issues that his son Drake’s presence caused, but at no point did any teammates or coaches inform him that they had any problems. Moreover, he said that he and the White Sox had an agreement regarding his son prior to his signing, and contended that the team had violated that agreement.

“With all of this in mind, we move toward the current situation which arose after White Sox VP Ken Williams recently advised me to significantly scale back the time that my son spent in the clubhouse,” LaRoche wrote on Twitlonger. “Later, I was told not to bring him to the ballpark at all. Obviously, I expressed my displeasure toward this decision to alter the agreement we had reached before I signed with the White Sox.

“My decision to walk away was simply the result of a fundamental disagreement between myself and Ken Williams.”

Ultimately, LaRoche said, the decision was an easy one for him.

“This was likely to be the last year of my career, and there’s no way I was going to spend it without my son,” he wrote.

It had previously been reported that Williams had asked LaRoche to scale back his son’s presence, not eliminate it entirely. White Sox players are deeply unhappy with how the situation has been handled, and it’s a distraction that the team really didn’t need.