More money, more problems? Tom Ricketts talks about the Cubs budget, his father's racist emails and more – The Athletic

Cubs President Tom Ricketts spoke to reporters for the first time in a long time, giving his annual state of the team address during the team's full reporting day in spring training. Unlike previous years, the atmosphere was not light. For more than half an hour, he answered questions about racist and Islamophobic e-mails from his father, Joe Ricketts, about the team's controversial budget limits and general issues related to baseball work.

We wanted to give you a complete transcript of the conversation with a little of my mixed reactions. Journalists 'questions (some have been condensed) are in bold, and my responses to Ricketts' answers are marked with my name and in italics.

RICKETTS: I'd like to start with what I was talking about with the players in the other room. I gave my annual speech in three parts: to respect the badge, to respect the Cubs, it is an important organization, to act well on and off the field. I told them to respect the fans, to treat the …