Oops

A website got hold of and leaked a whole bunch of emails belonging to the Ricketts clan.  Lo and behold, some family members come off like typical rich jerks.

Keep in mind that, before they took the plunge and used their own money to renovate Wrigley Field, the Ricketts tried to do it on Chicago’s dime.  When Mayor Rahm Emanuel refused, Todd Ricketts emailed his father Joe, “I think we should contemplate moving” or reconsider owning the team.  In another email, Todd Ricketts vented, “I just hate the thought of [brother] Tom having to grovel to this guy to put money into a building we already own.”  Huh?  What?  Is this part of a Saturday Night Live skit featuring the Trump Brothers?

And let’s not forget papa Joe Ricketts, a man so mean he pulled the plug on two internet news sites he owned because the employees dared vote to unionize.  According to the Sun-Times, the elder Ricketts (think Alec Baldwin here as Donald Trump), wrote back to his son, “Yes, Todd, it makes me sad, it hurts my feelings to see Tom treated this way.  He is way superior to the Mayor in every way.  I have been brought up to deplore the type of value system adopted by the Mayor of Chicago.”

And what value system would that be, Joe, the one that doesn’t have elected officials genuflecting before obscenely rich people and offering to foot the bill for the family business?  Art Linkletter thought that kids say the darndest things.  He mustn’t have met the Ricketts.