Chris Sale honors LaRoche family inside locker (photo)

Chicago White Sox pitcher Chris Sale is honoring Adam LaRoche and his son Drake after an incident with team management.

As the Chicago White Sox look to bounce back in 2016, they couldn’t have had a worse way to go through spring training than to have an embarrassing internal story spark a national debate. It started when Adam LaRoche was told by team president Kenny Williams to limit the amount of time his young son, Drake, spent inside the team’s facilities.

LaRoche went a different route and announced his retirement from the team, a move that was met with national discussion about the issue. Inside the White Sox locker room, players were upset with Williams and other members of management over the incident. In particular, starting pitcher Chris Sale was the most vocal, reportedly telling Williams to get out of the locker room during a team meeting.

Inside his locker at the team’s spring training facility in Glendale, Arizona, Sale is paying tribute to his now former teammate as well as LaRoche’s son:

Sale would later go on to tell reporters the team was “lied to” by Williams during the meeting, leading some players to consider boycotting Wednesday’s game. LaRoche gave up a $13 million salary for the 2016 season by hanging up his cleats. Drake LaRoche signed the jersey in Sale’s locker, thanking him for his support during his dad’s time with the White Sox.

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