Mar 19, 2016 4 min read

Adam LaRoche hit .207 last season. He was paid $13 million. The Chicago White Sox guaranteed him $13 million for this season, too, but LaRoche walked away from it last week because of a dispute over his 14-year-old son, Drake.

White Sox vice president Kenny Williams thought it would be a good idea if Drake backed off a little bit from his practice of showing up in the locker room with a uniform for almost every game.

LaRoche claims he discussed the issue with Williams before signing as a free agent with the White Sox before last season.

He’s already made $71 million as a slightly better-than-mediocre first baseman and decided he could get by without $13 million more because he couldn’t bear to be separated from his son.

Of course, this story has gone around the world millions of times on the Internet, and there are reports it wasn’t just Williams who wasn’t thrilled with having a kid, who was sometimes referred to as the team’s 26th man, around. Apparently, the players didn’t have the guts to tell LaRoche they didn’t want the kid around and laid it on Williams.

And there was the inevitable improvised clubhouse shrine put up by players showing support for LaRoche. Adam’s and Drake’s jerseys were hung in a locker.

Here’s how the conversation between Williams and LaRoche should have gone:

Williams: “Hey, Adam, we’ve decided it’s not a good idea for Drake to be around the team as much this season.”

LaRoche: “But you and I had an agreement when I signed my contract last year.”

Williams: “How much did we pay you?”

LaRoche: “Thirteen million dollars.”

Williams: “And you batted .202 with 12 home runs and we’re guaranteeing you another $13 million this season. Leave the kid at home or quit.”

And if I were Williams, I’d be hoping he’d quit so I could find a better way to spend the $13 million.

• That was a big win for the Penguins in Philadelphia Saturday for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is it was against the Flyers in Philadelphia.

The Penguins haven’t been the model of composure and confidence against the Flyers lately, no matter where they’ve played them, and a loss would have put the Flyers within a point of them in the standings.

Coach Mike Sullivan is doing something right. The Penguins have won five games in a row – four of them without Evgeni Malkin. And it’s not just the wins, it’s how they’ve been winning. Sidney Crosby has never put up points any more consistently at any time in his career and coaching must have something to do with it.

If it’s not good coaching by Sullivan, it must have been bad coaching by the guy he replaced, Mike Johnston.

Kris Letang scored his 14th goal – a career high for him. The Penguins were built to be a high-scoring team and Sullivan seems to be getting the most out of them.

The Penguins look like a legitimate playoff team, and they look good enough to win a series without Malkin.

• Maybe it’s time Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford received some credit.

It looks like he pulled the trigger on the coach he hired at just the right time. Getting Trevor Daley to play defense also played a major role in the Penguins’ recent resurgence.

Phil Kessel has started to look like a good pickup, too. He might be getting hot at just the right time.

Replacing Johnston with Sullivan didn’t just change the philosophy, it put a coach in charge who had good knowledge of the young players who are making major contributions. He coached them in Wilkes-Barre.

• Nineteen rule changes were proposed by NFL teams for next season. Most of them are minor tweaks but my favorite comes from the Kansas City Chiefs. They want teams to pay more of a price for being penalized deep in their own territory.

If a team is penalized half the distance to the goal, the yards that couldn’t be walked off because of the proximity of the goal line should be added for the first down.

If, on first down, you’re penalized for holding on your own 8-yard line, the ball is spotted at the four and it’s first-and-14. The Chiefs think the first-down marker should be moved as well, six yards downfield to make it first-and-20 just as it would if that penalty happened outside the 20.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.