Chicago Cubs Owner and Chairman Tom Ricketts has responded to the release of a cache of emails sent to and by his father, Joe Ricketts, the contents of which include disgusting, Islamophobic, and racist language and views.

https://twitter.com/TheAthleticCHI/status/1092595469757353985

Here are the racist conspiracy emails rotting right-wing billionaire Joe Ricketts' brain https://t.co/8OkLJ4NbkI pic.twitter.com/VTKtX7Y0BG — Splinter (@splinter_news) February 5, 2019

The emails range from the kind of dopey but harmless dreck you or your friends may have received from family members six or seven years ago, to the kind of malicious and harmful bile that cannot be tolerated by any caring and thinking person.

Of them, Ricketts told The Athletic that the “language and views expressed” in the “racially insensitive” emails “have no place in our society,” and do not reflect the culture of the Cubs organization. He went on to point out that Joe Ricketts does not have any role in the operation of the Cubs in any way, which is true. Ricketts and his wife Marlene made available a portion of the contents of a family trust for the Ricketts children – Tom, Pete, Todd, and Laura – to use to purchase the Chicago Cubs in 2009. The four children serve on the Cubs’ board, with Tom the Chairman and public face of the team’s ownership.

Nevertheless, because of particularly harmful contents of these emails, and because of the political relationships in the Ricketts family – which includes both Joe and the children – the Cubs simply could not stand by without comment. On that front, I do approve of Tom’s swift rebuke. It may not have been all you’d want to hear, but it is quite a bit more than many would offer publicly about the father who helped him purchase the team.

How these and previously-released emails came into the possession of Splinter News is unclear, and it makes me uncomfortable not knowing that detail. But, to be honest, it’s hard to worry about that side of things quite as much when it’s weighed against the contents of the emails. They are quite bad. I leave it to your decision if you want to read them.

More at The Athletic – in fact, that article has just been updated to reflect a statement from Joe Ricketts, himself, expressing “deep regret” over some of the exchanges in the emails, as well as an apology.