Thank God for corruption!

The fun news today is that Illinois has kept its governors-in-jail streak alive. But this isn’t just your average, everyday corruption story. This one has some baseball!

Blagojevich and Harris conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of Blagojevich in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.

There is little context provided, but I am assuming that this part happened back when Zell and the Tribune Company were considering selling Wrigley Field separately from the Cubs. I thought that was a bad idea at the time, because it could create incentives for the Cubs to leave Wrigley one day, thus diminishing both properties in incalculable ways. I am also assuming that if Illinois had a non-crook governor who wasn’t driving such a hard and illegal bargain, state help would have been forthcoming, hastening the separate sale.

So, on behalf of baseball fans everywhere, I would like to thank Governor Blagojevich for all of his assistance in keeping the Cubs and Wrigley Field together!


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Chris H.
15 years ago

Ya know, I hadn’t even thought of that angle.  In fact, not only did it keep the two together; it also by extension kept a taxpayer-boondoggle-type deal from happening.

How can this guy only have a 13% approval rating? smile

Pete Toms
15 years ago

Not a good time to be a Zell defender but….

I think I understood why Zell wanted the ISFA ( do I have the acronym correct? )to buy Wrigley.  Whoever buys the Cubs is gonna dump a LOT of money into Wrigley, a la Henry and Fenway.  Well, if you can get the taxpayers to do it instead, doesn’t that make the baseball franchise more valuable?  Anyway, obviously all moot. 

Bloomberg was speculating yesterday that the $1 billion plus estimates are QUITE a bit high…

MooseinOhio
15 years ago

So when Blagojevich said he wouldn’t be doing business with Bank of America over the weekend – he really meant it.  Of course several federal prison have inmates working customer service so maybe he’ll end up working for them.

Rob
15 years ago

Sounds like an episode from The Wire.