Less than a week after officially losing his job as general manager of the Chicago Cubs, Jim Hendry is about to be displaced from another prominent spot.
The Chicago Tribune reports that officials in Park Ridge want to remove two "Honorary Jim Hendry Way" signs that hang along a busy road in the suburb that Hendry and his family call home.
The honor, it seems, was bestowed upon Hendry in 2009 by disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich, a big Cubs fan who was recently convicted on 17 corruption charges.
The signs are located on a stretch of the Northwest Highway that's controlled by the state, so Park Ridge never had a say in the postings by the Illinois Department of Transportation. In fact, the city's public works director said they just appeared one day without any warning.
Now, with Hendry booted out of office after a nine-year stint atop the Cubs, Park Ridge wants IDOT to remove the signs.
[Park Ridge mayor Dave] Schmidt said the request is nothing personal against Hendry, but the city never wanted the signs mounted in the first place.
"Of course, if he had brought us a World Series, I would have built a monument to him at the intersection. But, alas, all he brought us was Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano," Schmidt joked in an email.
Yeesh. I know I've had�my issues with Hendry's tenure but, wow ... low blow much?
Look, I totally get the anti-Blago bent here. I would have parked alongside the road and applauded had I been in my car when IDOT workers were removing the Rod Blagojevich tollway signs right after the charges against him were first brought to light.
But this Hendry story is something different altogether. It'd be one thing if Hendry resided in another 'burb and Blagojevich issued the honor just because, but Hendry is a Park Ridge resident who just lost his job in a very public fashion. Now they're going to very publicly take away an honor from him before Hendry has even had the chance to reach out to all of his LinkedIn contacts? That doesn't seem right. It reeks of kicking a man while he's down.
If Park Ridge really wants to get rid of the signs, they could have done it in a quiet manner a few months from now, after the story had died down and the Cubs found a new GM. Even then, though, I'm not sure why they would have wanted to remove them. Yeah, Hendry gave out some insanely large contracts to players who weren't very good and the Cubs aren't a good team right now. But Hendry also won three division titles and happens to be a pretty good guy who most suburbs would be proud to call their own.
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