Earlier this week former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich appeared in a Chicago courtroom to plead not guilty to 16 different criminal counts, which for some reason did not include a horrible haircut. As anybody in Illinois is already aware of, besides being a criminal, Blagojevich is also a huge Cubs fan.After all, one of the crimes he's being charged for includes pressuring the Chicago Tribune to be nicer to him in exchange for state financial help in trying to sell Wrigley Field. As it turns out, Blago was also in the business of trying to help out Cubs manager Lou Piniella fill out his lineup card in handwritten letters that the Tribune has gotten their hands on.
The Cubs were going through a rough stretch in May of 2007 in which they'd lost eight of 10 games, including a 9-0 shellacking from the Florida Marlins. The next day Blago wrote up a letter chock full of managerial advice and sent it to the Cubs skipper.
Blagojevich sent a handwritten note, a copy of which has been obtained by the Chicago Tribune. It began, "Dear Lou." Blagojevich included a Jack Higgins editorial cartoon that had run that morning in the Sun-Times, comparing Piniella's management to Blagojevich's.Wow, that advice is f---ing golden! Not to mention original, because no Cubs fan has ever thought of moving Soriano down in the lineup before.
Blagojevich then made his suggested line-up changes -- specifically recommending Alfonso Soriano bat third, followed by Derrek Lee and then Aramis Ramirez.
What's most amazing about this whole thing is that Blago didn't even try to shake Piniella down first, he was doing him this favor for free. You'd think Blagojevich would have made Piniella give him a spot on the 25-man roster first.
