CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs owners are under fire after family patriarch Joe Ricketts' racist emails were made public earlier this week by Splinter.
The father of team chairman Tom Ricketts sent multiple emails endorsing racist jokes, conspiracy theories about Barack Obama and other hatred thoughts on minorities.
One of his emails stated that "Christians and Jews can have a mutual respect for each other to create a civil society. As you know, Islam cannot do that. Therefore we cannot ever let Islam become a large part of our society. Muslims are naturally my (our) enemy due to their deep antagonism and bias against non-Muslims."
Although the chairman says his father is not involved in any baseball operations, he was still a big part of how the team was bought.
The multi-billionaire is the founder and former CEO of TD Ameritrade, a company that he sold 34 million shares of to help purchase the Cubs.
Joe Ricketts has since apologized for his statements.
“I deeply regret and apologize for some of the exchanges I had in my emails,” he said.
“I deeply regret and apologize for some of the exchanges I had in my emails.” — Joe Ricketts
“Sometimes I received emails that I should have condemned. Other times I’ve said things that don’t reflect my value system. I strongly believe that bigoted ideas are wrong.”
"My father is not involved with the operation of the Chicago Cubs in any way," Tom Ricketts reiterated.
"I am trusted with representing this organization and our fans with a respect for people from all backgrounds. These emails do not reflect the culture we’ve worked so hard to build at the Chicago Cubs since 2009.”
For the full article and list of emails, click here.
