(670 The Score) Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein became the latest member of the organization to condemn the racist and Islamophobic emails of Joe Ricketts, the father of team chairman Tom Ricketts and patriarch to the family ownership group.
The hateful emails, which dated between 2009 to 2013, were released by Splinter News last week and included Joe Ricketts writing: "I think Islam is a cult and not a religion. Christianity and Judaism are ... based on love whereas Islam is based on 'kill the infidel' a thing of evil."
Joe Ricketts issued an apology in the wake of these emails being released, and Tom Ricketts joined Cubs vice president of communications Julian Green in meeting with the Chicago-based Council on American Islamic Relations. Tom Ricketts will also address the matter when he speaks with the Cubs in their first team meeting at spring training.
"I'd like to join Tom in stating unequivocally that the views expressed in those emails have no place in our organization, in the sports of baseball or in society overall," Epstein said Tuesday at spring training. "I'll join him in condemning racism and Islamophobia in all forms. The emails were upsetting to read and especially upsetting to think that some of our fans were put into a position where they had to even consider a connection between their favorite team and some of those types of views.
"For us and for almost everyone in this building, baseball has been a great vehicle to help us grow and to help us get outside of our own little world and start to appreciate difference and start to celebrate diversity and start to understand different people's perspectives. When you play baseball, when you work in baseball, when you're around baseball every day, you're forced to be exposed to and start to understand and respect everybody's different backgrounds and to appreciate and celebrate difference and diversity. It's been such a force for good for helping us expand our own views and help us develop empathy."
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Joe Ricketts doesn't have a role within the Cubs organization, though he provided the family with the funds to purchase the franchise in 2009. Amid the loose connection between the Cubs and Joe Ricketts, the team has worked to mend the pain caused by these emails to members of the Muslim community.
The Cubs hope to hold more meetings with CAIR in the future, Green said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Monday morning. It's part of the organization gaining a greater understanding for how it can help work to end Islamophobia and be a solution after these damaging emails.
"When I think about the Cubs -- I know it's an easy target right now -- our slogan, "Everybody In," but that's genuinely what I think about when I look across our clubhouse, when you look in our front office, when you look at how we treat each other, when you look at how much respect we have for people of different backgrounds," Epstein said. "We are everybody. We do stand for everybody in. Now that this has happened, I think the burden falls on us even more not just to show it.
"All fans are welcomed. Diversity is to be celebrated. Every different background is to be respected. Everybody's welcomed. Everybody in. Now we have a greater burden to show it. I think this organization is up for that. That's something we look forward to doing over the course of this year."
