Family disconnections

Just catching up to the whole Adam LaRoche Take Your Kid To Work Permanently docudrama, because the Blob has been A) busy watching basketball, and B) profoundly uninterested in whatever sorry mess the White Sox have stumbled into this time.

They are, after all, only the White Sox. To steal an old Saturday Night Live line, the Blob's official position when it comes to baseball is, "If it's not the Pirates, it's crap!"

That said ... it's fascinating how this whole business blew up into a major thing, with LaRoche going off in a snit (and leaving $13 million on the table), and VP Kenny Williams mishandling the situation so badly he wound up getting screamed at by staff ace Chris Sale. And that's not even getting to the most interesting part, which is that there's an apparent rift in the clubhouse.

I mean, someone, and most likely several someones, went to Williams and complained about LaRoche's 14-year-old son always being around. Why else would he reverse his previously held position, which was that LaRoche's kid could hang out as much as he wantd?

What this whole kerfuffle mostly does, though, is open an intriguing window on the lives of those in the high-end tax brackets -- who are, as we all know, different than you and me. I'm trying to imagine a scenario in any other workplace where it would be acceptable to bring your kid to work every single day.  I can't think of one.

But, again, the rich are different from you and me. And so LaRoche was allowed to do just that. And he was allowed to do that even though he wasn't, you know, Chris Sale, or anyone else remotely key to the White Sox' fortunes. LaRoche bringing his kid to work every day, in fact, was kind of like the guy in the mailroom bringing his kid to work every day.

Not the CEO. Not some vice-president. The mailroom guy.

The difference, of course, is the mailroom guy doesn't have the luxury of simply up and quitting if told to stop bringing his kid to work. LaRoche, being different than you and me, didn't have that problem. So he just up and quit.

Nice work if you can get it. Or turn it down, as the case may be.