Adam LaRoche owned the baseball news cycle seemingly for at least a couple of weeks, after retiring because the White Sox wouldn’t let his son hang out in the clubhouse any more.
In Tim Keown’s profile of LaRoche that will appear in ESPN The Magazine’s April 25th issue, he touches on LaRoche’s decision to retire, but he also details how LaRoche and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Blaine Boyer spend 10 days in November in Southeast Asian brothels.
LaRoche and Boyer wore hidden cameras, doing undercover work to help rescue underage sex slaves. According to Keown, the pair worked through a nonprofit called the Exodus Road. They tried to determine the age of the girls, who were only known by the numbers that were pinned to their bikinis, and also tried to determine who their bosses were.
Keown added the following details:
In Tim Keown’s profile of LaRoche that will appear in ESPN The Magazine’s April 25th issue, he touches on LaRoche’s decision to retire, but he also details how LaRoche and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Blaine Boyer spend 10 days in November in Southeast Asian brothels.
LaRoche and Boyer wore hidden cameras, doing undercover work to help rescue underage sex slaves. According to Keown, the pair worked through a nonprofit called the Exodus Road. They tried to determine the age of the girls, who were only known by the numbers that were pinned to their bikinis, and also tried to determine who their bosses were.
“Something huge happened there for us,” Boyer says. “You can’t explain it. Can’t put your finger on it. If you make a wrong move, you’re getting tossed off a building. We were in deep, man, but that’s the way it needed to be done. Adam and I truly believe God brought us there and said, ‘This is what I have for you boys.'”
“I was sick,” he says. “I was thinking about my kids and then thinking about the hundreds of thousands of parents who are searching for their 12-year-old daughters.”
According to Keown, LaRoche asked Boyer as they waited for their plane back home, “What are we doing? We’re going back to play a game for the next eight months?”“I was sick,” he says. “I was thinking about my kids and then thinking about the hundreds of thousands of parents who are searching for their 12-year-old daughters.”
Keown added the following details:
They wielded their emotions like crude homemade weapons. Every crazed thought ran through their minds. Quit the game. Sell the house and move here. Give up everything and fight the fight full time.
LaRoche couldn’t talk about it for two weeks. It’s going on tonight, he thought as he tried to sleep. And here I am, in paradise at the ranch with my kids, where everything’s safe.
For as much off the field news that goes across professional sports, you hardly hear of things such as this from LaRoche and Boyer. It certainly makes sense in terms of keeping it low-key and undercover, but I’m sure the number of other athletes (and people in general) doing this type of thing is pretty low. It’s admirable of the two for sure.LaRoche couldn’t talk about it for two weeks. It’s going on tonight, he thought as he tried to sleep. And here I am, in paradise at the ranch with my kids, where everything’s safe.
