Major League Baseball Player, Adam La Roche Walks Away from Baseball and $13 Million Dollars to be with his 14 Year Old Son and to Help End Child Sex Slavery

LISTEN NOW! As a professional baseball player with the Chicago White Sox, Adam LaRoche has turned many heads in his extensive Major League career. This time he’s not turning heads by how he is walking on the field, but how he is walking off the field. A 12-year veteran of the league as first baseman, LaRoche has decided to leave baseball so that he can spend more time with his son, Drake.

When LaRoche started his tenure at the Chicago White Sox, bringing his son, Drake, to work every day was part of his agreement to be a part of the ball club. But, when senior management expressed that having Drake at work every day was no longer an option, it was time for LaRoche to walk through the door of retirement. In addition to this decision, LaRoche was also walking away from a contract that would pay him $13 Million.

When ABC News sat down with the father and son, LaRoche shares more about what caused him to make this decision. LaRoche shares what he was told by the team management, “Enough is enough. I don’t want to see your son around here anymore”. When this dialogue occurred, LaRoche continues to share when he began to consider retirement; “Probably twenty minutes later”. As a deeper priority than money, LaRoche explains his role as a father. “We have a responsibility as fathers to teach our kids how to grow up to be men and women of character, of value”. This is the very embodiment of Malachi 4:5-6, “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…”

These are the moments that we have to be able to make the decisions that will echo in eternity. All of us have a certain amount of time in this life, but not the same amount of time. Regardless of who we are, at the end of our lives, many people will have two regrets: I wish I would have done more for my family because I’m about to leave them; and I wish I would have done more for God because I’m about to meet Him. We can avoid the regrets of tomorrow by doing what is right today.

This wasn’t the first event that caused LaRoche to consider walking away from a game. During a trip to South East Asia with friend, and pitcher of the Minnesota Twins, Blaine Boyer, while joining the non-profit group Exodus Road, the two went undercover and witnessed the evils of sex trafficking. “We go over and spend ten days with these girls that are literally raped, six, eight, ten times a night. And as young as ten, twelve years old. I think that would mess anybody up”. Coming back to America, it caused LaRoche to consider his own lifestyle. “I guess I realized more, how much of a fantasy world we live in here; that I live in, for sure with baseball. We make a crazy amount of money. You’re waited on, hand and foot, everywhere you go. It’s just not real life.” After experiencing something as traumatic as this, baseball simply wasn’t the same anymore.

It is organizations just like Operation Underground Railroad who are also making a major impact against child sex slavery. Created by Tim Ballard, he first started his career within the C.I.A. in a child’s crime group. It wasn’t long until Ballard experienced the immense limitations of working with the American Government while trying to work against international sex slavery. The experiences Ballard faced were life altering. He knew he had to make the decisions that were needed so that he could apply his specific skill sets to stop what was taking place in the world. Ballard’s work is now being produced into a new film The Abolitionists, which will be released in May of 2016. Reportedly, “there are nearly 2,000,000 children being held against their will as sex slaves”.

Today, all of us have a choice to make. These are the moments that we are given in order to make a difference in the lives of those all around us. We can volunteer our time with organizations such as these; we can give financially; we can simply educate others by spreading the knowledge; and we can also pray. But, we must do something. Hear the full report of LaRoche’s life changing decision to leave Major League Baseball, his life altering experience in South East Asia, the events within Operation Underground Railroad, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: value, professional athletes, value of family, father and sons, priorities, sex slavery, freedom, and prayer. John and Steve shared in this segment.

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Loving God, Loving Others and Leading Others to do the Same

Major League Baseball Player, Adam La Roche Walks Away from Baseball and $13 Million Dollars to be with his 14 Year Old Son and to Help End Child Sex Slavery

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