AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > July > 14 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHang loose, LaRoche, payback’s coming soon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Adam LaRoche came back to Atlanta this weekend, and little had changed but the uniform he wore. It said “Pittsburgh” across the chest. He came within a week of becoming a local homesteader before the Braves traded him to the Pirates for a bullpen pitcher last winter. Mike Gonzalez worked 17 innings before breaking down. LaRoche hadn’t endeared himself to Pirates fans until just lately, when his batting average improved from the gutter to .241 and his home run total to 13, three in the last three days before the All-Star Game.
Adam drew quite a crowd of inquiring reporters at Turner Field before the first game of the series Friday, and some were made aware of a side of him unknown to us while he was in charge of first base here. We knew him as soft-spoken, smooth fielder, sweet swinger, and of 32-home-run power. What we didn’t know was the prankster in him. Let me tell you about it.
Late in June, the Pirates played the Marlins in a day game in Florida while the Braves flew in from Washington for a series. Their uniforms and other trappings had already arrived and were hung in their assigned lockers at the Marlins’ ball park. Before the Pirates checked out, LaRoche fetched some scissors and cut the crotch out of every pair of underpants in the Braves lockers, and left a note behind that said, “Let it all hang out, fellas.”
He may as well have left his calling card.
“Any reprisal yet?” he was asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “I’m guess I’m sitting on a ticking bomb.”
“A reprisal, oh, yes,” Bill Acree, the Braves’ travel and equipment chief, said. “He may not have it yet, but the bill is in the mail.”
The LaRoche-for-Gonzalez deal set off quite a commotion in some quarters here. Carefully incubated in the farm system, and after hitting a solid .285, punctuated by 32 home runs and 90 runs batted in, the Braves had finally filled a gap at first base, where oftimes they had resorted to the ancient Julio Franco.
“My wife and I were just a week before closing a deal for a new house,” LaRoche said. He got the news when somebody called him on his cellphone. “I’d heard rumors, but nothing more. That’s the way it is. It’s all part of the game.”
He got a full whammy of the other side of it in his first stretch in Pittsburgh. He couldn’t hit his weight, and the home runs weren’t coming. He is known for his defensive lapses, and that followed him. Sometimes it appears his mind is in another time zone, as in a game last season when he fielded Nick Johnson’s sacrifice and casually loped toward first base, only to be beaten to the bag by the Nationals first baseman, who is no sprinter.
Trading the farm-bred first baseman, the first security the Braves had known at the bag since Andres Galarraga, for a one-inning pitcher aroused cynics from various latitudes. And the situation hasn’t improved. The Braves reached into free agency and signed Craig Wilson, let loose by the Pirates. Last heard from, he was having a struggle in Triple-A. He was to be the buffer until Scott Thorman got a grip on his game, but Thorman nearly swings all the air out of the ball park. The Braves point to Brent Lillibridge, a shortstop throw-in on the LaRoche deal, as a prize catch. Probable successor to Edgar Renteria? Hardly, not since Yunel Escobar got off the boat.
“You got to learn to roll with the punches in this game,” LaRoche said.
Growing up in a baseball family, he should be acclimated to it. His pitching father, Dave LaRoche, moved six times in his 14-year career. There aren’t many Chipper Joneses who play out a career with the same team in the major leagues in this era. Both Joneses, Chipper and Andruw, are unique in that respect, but Andruw’s name flows freely in the rumor stream now because (1) he’s in the last year of his Braves contract, and (2) his agent is the diabolical Scott Boras. LaRoche never had such leverage, except with scissors in hand.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
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By gobirds42
July 14, 2007 7:44 PM | Link to this
nice of the aliens to drop andruw back off…..was getting tired of that weak excuse for a clone!
By bwash21
July 14, 2007 8:10 PM | Link to this
1-0 Cincy over the Mets:-)
By Michael Procton
July 14, 2007 9:00 PM | Link to this
Why would you trash a top acquisition like Brent Lillibridge. He is considered one of the top players at his age and development level, and I’m pretty sure he has played some in the outfield as well as SS…it is perfectly possible that both of these players can help the team, either as Major League players or valuable trade commodities. The Gonzalez-LaRoche trade will be a very positive one, and just because Schuerholtz occasionally pulls off ridiculous trades like Soriano for HoRam doesn’t mean ALL of them can be that good.
By Braves Fan 79
July 14, 2007 10:23 PM | Link to this
BRING JULIO BACK…AND DUMP WOODCRAP!!
By jb
July 15, 2007 12:28 AM | Link to this
LaRoche lacks and has always lacked hustle. The Nick Johnson play is one example. I remember him lolligagging from second to third the season before last which cost the Braves a run and a possible playoff win. A trade straight up for Gonzalez would have been enough, but JS played his cards right and stole Lillibridge (who can play both middle IF positions as well as OF.) Unfortunately, Thorman and Wilson did not work out at all. Dump Woodward, give Julio another shot as a PH and occassional break for Salty at 1B. Send Thorman to the minors, have him work on cutting down his swing, and call up a back up catcher. Salty is a switchhitter, there is no reason for him to be platooning at first. Get his bat in the lineup!
By NASCARfan
July 15, 2007 12:32 AM | Link to this
You can’t find anything better to write about old man? Nobody in this town gives two squirts for LaRoche. He was always a stiff and seems to still be.
Hey Furman, why don’t you go dust off your AARP card and see if Denny’s has a blue plate special.
By Leroy Rogers
July 15, 2007 12:54 AM | Link to this
Mr. Bisher it takes a brave soul to continue to write your column in a city that is exceeded only by Houston, TX. as the worst sports city in America. I can remember Atlanta when it was known as its infamous “little five points” back in 1954, but the Yankees have over run the Southern city, like Gen. Sherman of yesteryear. Keep printing your opinion my friend. Thanks.
By LJ
July 15, 2007 5:38 AM | Link to this
Is this a great country or what? Some Mental Midget like Nascarfan is allowed to disrespect a writer who has more sports knowledge in his shoelaces than Nascarfan has in his pinhead. How long have you been a Nascar fan? One or two years? Real Nascar fans would’nt blow off like that. Crawl back under your rock.
By bfan54
July 15, 2007 8:58 AM | Link to this
I am an unabashed sentimentalist. I still recall the delight of long-ago Billy Bruton triples, and can’t let go of my pique that that crummy fielding/weak stick Felix Mantilla backed into him in the outfield and tore up Bruton’s knee. I am a big admirer of Julio Franco and what he did for this club, but the man has run out of bat speed and all the things that make you an above average hitter. Does he have a few more hits in him, yes, and yes we all want to see every one of them. We just can’t allow the triumph of sentimentality to blind us to the reality. Cheers to Julio Franco and a career well done!
By Bobbymahlon
July 15, 2007 11:26 AM | Link to this
What in the world do we want in a washed up player like Franco filling a spot when we should be calling up Pena so Salty can play first and pinch hit without worrying about not having a backup catcher. He is a 200 hitter who will take at bats away from Salty,Diaz and Escobar who are all hitting 300 or more. Haven’t we learned by signing Redmond,Sturtze,Wilson and Woodward that these guys have contributed just about nothing. JS and BC just like old timers.
By Bobbymahlon
July 15, 2007 11:26 AM | Link to this
What in the world do we want in a washed up player like Franco filling a spot when we should be calling up Pena so Salty can play first and pinch hit without worrying about not having a backup catcher. He is a 200 hitter who will take at bats away from Salty,Diaz and Escobar who are all hitting 300 or more. Haven’t we learned by signing Redmond,Sturtze,Wilson and Woodward that these guys have contributed just about nothing. JS and BC just like old timers.
By Ralph
July 15, 2007 11:36 AM | Link to this
Get Franco and give a lighter bat, and get rid of Woodward.
By JohnGTFan
July 15, 2007 12:06 PM | Link to this
Since Yunel “got off the boat”? Could that have been anymore degrading
By Tomy Fournier
July 15, 2007 12:24 PM | Link to this
PLEASE MR. COX….GO HOME….AND NEVER COMEBACK AGAIN….NEVER….PLEASE!!!!
By Bill
July 15, 2007 1:34 PM | Link to this
We want **FRANCO BACK as player or coach. Put Woodward on the road.
By Bill
July 15, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this
We want FRANCO BACK as player or coach. Put Woodward on the road.
By bravesfanbob
July 15, 2007 4:17 PM | Link to this
Wheeeeeeeeew. Wheeeeeeeeew, Wheeeeeeeeew… The sound of the Braves breath down the necks of the Mets. Julio Franco has won a division championship with every team he’s been with since 2001. He is a leader. If the Braves get him back, his breath on the Mets necks would be that of a fire breathing dragon. We will welcome you home, and spread the Jesus juice throughout the clubhouse.
By anonymous
July 15, 2007 7:42 PM | Link to this
That may be true bravesfanbob, but didn’t they win a lot more before Julio was here. Don’t get me wrong, I want Julio on this team, I was just making a point.
By Tucker
July 15, 2007 9:37 PM | Link to this
So nice to see that Mr. Bisher can recognize a bad trade when all others ride the JS bandwagon. Hey folks , JS is human just like everybody else and even he will make a mistake. Fortunately for the Braves, his mistakes are few and far between. The Braves got all of 17 innings out of Gonzales an stil have no first bseman to speak of. Thorman is a DH and should be traded to the AL and throw in Lillibridge to find some help at 1B. Salty is not the answer there either but a nice experiment nonetheless.
It just makes no sense to take years to develop a solid first baseman through the minors and then trade him for a 17 inning flop. The Braves would be in first now with just LaRoche’s defense.
By humbug
July 15, 2007 9:38 PM | Link to this
Julio wants to stay in baseball. I don’t know of a better place for him to do it than the Braves dugout. Make him batting coach, bench coach, third base coach, bull pen coach, or just a visible person, anything. Just get him here. Good things will happen. JS- please read this and get him.
By Chucker
July 16, 2007 12:46 AM | Link to this
Wow, All these postings from adult males who like sports. Arm chair idots and their offspring are a bad thing. I have met Adam and he is as straight up person as you could ask for. Why degrade everyone? As if I did not myself, but as a native Atlanta boy I am proud of my teams, everyone from Atlanta. And for the guy whom said his posting about Bobby Cox, Please have enough GUTS to meet me in person and let me show you how it is going to be!! Do not be a chicken BUB.
By Serbok
July 16, 2007 1:36 AM | Link to this
NASCARfan You Sonny! are an A*******HOLE!!! You must be the only “guy” Who never learned from momma? If you dont have anything nice to say than keep your mouth shut? You are the perfect Nascar person! Absolute “magical” Redneck Dumba$$ That Portrays decent people in such a negative lite! I do tech support for fools like you~ and the running theme from fellow employee’s is~ People like you need to take some sort of a basic test in order to use a computer! Dale SR rolls over:o(
By Serbok
July 16, 2007 1:41 AM | Link to this
My apologies~ Nascar idiot got to me~ I too like Dale JR and the roundy-rounds~ The Idiot got to me~ once again~ my apologies~!