Peoria Chiefs Baseball Club

In my last blog, I made mention of my 1994 investment in this LLC organization and my Schedule K-1 showed a 13th consecutive loss, only an $810.00 loss this year probably because of the presence of ex-Cub star, Ryne Sandberg.

I read Roger Monroe's monthly column in the CommunityWord to see who he is attacking in the local community. His one sidekick, the JSEB called them Batman and Robin, is running for the Peoria County Board in November as a Republican. Good sources, a phrase Roger often uses, told me that "Robin" Jeff Lickiss considered running as a Democrat if Allan Mayer won over Ms. Gordon. Allan didn't but no word from the Democrats whether Allan will drop down and run for the County Board again. Anyway good luck to both of them as it is a service to the community for someone to just to have the guts to run for public office. Also good luck to the Peoria Chiefs, a good show for the buck and you'll get to see Ryne (and Rocky).

Back to Monroe, a Republican on the County Board for 22 years; most of those years, Republicans were a majority, he was never elected board chairman. Since I was on the board only two of those 22 years, he convienently passed the blame to me. Was this fair? Hardly, since the Republican caucus, Monroe included, voted unaminously to vote for Lynn Pearson. When the vote was called, Monroe reneged on his promise to vote for Pearson and voted for Williams. The rest of the Republicans kept their promise with the exception of Lickiss who voted for Williams who won and Monroe didn't even get a committee chair.

Once in 22 years, he was elected Vice-Chairman. It rankles him that in only 6 years I was elected Vice-Chairman twice while the board was three to one Democrat.

On 10/1/07 Monroe wrote the following, "Peoria Chiefs End Year With a Great Run", What a year is was for the Peoria Chiefs! With Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg as manager, the Chiefs set some attendance records and tied for 2nd place in the second half of the season. By virtue of some strange point system, the Chiefs didn't get into the playoffs."

Then Monroe wanders off, "I was told by two different people about a "funny" incident of a meeting of Chief stockholders. A well-known local malcontent was complaining about the value of his stock. (two different people told me he was talking about me) He reportedly complained he hadn't received a single dividend and his stock wasn't worth much. (correct so far) A stockholder with far more invested in the walked over to the "malcontent" and said she would buy his stock on the spot. After coughing, the malcontent shut up. Based on what investors tell me, the stock in the Chiefs is worth far more than it originally sold for."

The true story? Not hardly. Joyce Eagleton offered me $8,000.00 (my original investment was $50,000) Then she laughed and quickly withdrew her offer saying it was made in jest. When Batman, I mean Monroe, printed this article on 10/1/07, I called Judge Eagleton who I know quite well (we roomed together when we both played in a Cub Fantasy Camp in 1993). The judge said that his wife didn't own any stock and I knew she was just kidding with her $8,000.00 offer. i knew it too and wouldn't have sold for anything less than my original investment now 13 years old. (I did get two free tickets until the club moved downton; no dividends, though. My Schedule K-1shows a loss of $810 dollars for 2007. Under "ending capital account", it shows a figure of $65,560.00. My offer to Roger or anyone is that I'll sell my stock for my original investment of $50M and the buyer can make a cool $35,000.00 by quickly reselling it to all those "clamoring" buyers waiting for someone to sell.

Monroe over the years has printed a lot of falsehoods and made serious attempts to embarrass community leaders. But he takes a very dim view of anyone telling the truth about him. He will say someone is doing a lousy job and in the same breath will praise that person as he did to ex-Board Chairman Williams in the Community Word. I never listen to the Royce (a great ccmedian and former great athelete) and Roger station because of Monroe and Monroe says he doesn't read my blogs or anyone elses. So maybe someone will forward this blog to him.


Monroe stories speak of his extreme dislike for me. He wrote me a letter quoting, "After all I done for you, (he, Lickiss and Polhemus who later turned Democrat, came to my house to ask me to run against Zan Ransburg) and the Republican party, I am treated the same way Gary Stella, Zan Ransubrg and Rosemary Trump treated me when they conspired with Democrats to cheat me out of the board chairmanship." ( I couldn't nominate ) there would not have been a second let alone nine more votes to win).

Roger did help me get elected but not because of his like for me. We hardly knew each other. He thought I could beat Ransburg and with his help and my door-to-door campaigning, I won easily. Only later did I learn the the Ransburgs were on a board that employed Monroe and Monroe got booted and blamed the Ransburg's and Monroe was seeking revenge thru me. I thanked him by tearing up the $1800 check he gave me too late to submit it as a political contribution and submit it to the state.

But, he got Ransburg beaten with my unwitting help.

Any further interest in some of the facts on Roger Monroe look in the archives of "Letters to the Editor of the Community Word", dated 6/02 and 10/04.