Report: White Sox players mulled boycott to support LaRoche

Chicago White Sox players considered not playing Wednesday's Cactus League game as a show of support for Adam LaRoche, who unexpectedly retired Tuesday after team president Ken Williams told him to dial back the amount of time his son, Drake, spent in the clubhouse, reports ESPN's Karl Ravech.

After manager Robin Ventura intervened, however, the players agreed to take the field against the Milwaukee Brewers, who grabbed a 5-2 win over Chicago at Maryvale Baseball Park.

On Wednesday, after Williams acknowledged asking his veteran DH not to bring his son around so much, more than a few players jumped to defend the LaRoches, with teammate Adam Eaton even praising the work ethic of 14-year-old Drake.

"We wanted Drake in the clubhouse, and we were backing Adam in every aspect," Eaton told Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago. "In that sense we're going to miss him. He chose family over allowing his son to be in the clubhouse and we respect what he had to do.

"We can say we enjoyed Drake LaRoche in the clubhouse and everything he brought in the clubhouse. He brought perspective. He helped out and around, he wasn't a burden by any stretch of the imagination. He wasn't a big problem last year."

Williams stressed, though, that he never banned Drake from the clubhouse, but merely asked LaRoche not to bring him around every day.

"If I allow it here, and the next guy brings his son along to the level it was allowed in this case, how do I say, 'No,' to the next person?" Williams told Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "And the next person? How do you manage that?

"So I decided to cut it back, not eliminate it. We will continue to have a kid-friendly environment and kids around the complex. And I will still take kids out of the stands sometimes before a game while everyone is on the field, take them to clubhouse, and give them the thrill of a young person’s life to be in a major-league clubhouse."