Monday, February 11, 2008

What The Hell Happened To: William Ligue Jr.

Hugs and Kisses

This is an obscure one, I know. Sometimes people just have stories that fade into obscurity, and Mr. Ligue is one of them. Let's start with some background and see if you can remember:

Ligue was charged in May 2002 for hitting his girlfriend "in the face, head, neck, back, nose with his fist." He was also charged for tossing a brick through the window of her house. Ligue was also sued in 1996 (child support payments) by the mother of his teenage son. They were both later seen at a ballgame at U.S. Cellular Field.

Still don't know who he is? How about one last clue:

Sucks to be you, Tom Gamboa.

Yes, that's right. Ligue and his son were the two brilliant masterminds behind operation "run onto the field and beat the shit out of Royals coach Tom Gamboa." Maybe not the best name for a plan, but effective. On Sept 19th, 2002, Ligue Jr. and his 15-year old son rushed onto the field and kicked the crap out of Gamboa (above) in response to poor play. Both were restrained, ejected, and arrested. A knife was also found on the field afterwards.

This spawned hate camps against the White Sox, claiming that they allowed drunken lunatics onto the field, lacked security, and ultimately had shit for fans. The Tribune had a field day with this story, making every other article in 2002 about how the Ligue family revealed how inferior Comiskey/U.S. Cellular and their fans were. Nothing like that would EVER happen with a Cubs fan (Stupid Tribune bias -- squashed that story in a millisecond. Amazing).

Anyways, after 2002, Ligue dropped out of the news entirely while waiting for his court day.

What the hell happened to William Ligue Jr.?

The Sox tightened security in response to complaints, and Ligue went to his court date in May 2003. Interestingly, Ligue cleans up rather nicely:

Ligue with a Clark Kent thing going on. Doesn't he look like the guy from Independence Day?

Amazing what you can do with new glasses and a good lawyer: 35-year old Ligue apologizes to a grand jury on Oct 11, 2003. Three counts of aggravated battery and one count of mob action later, and both Ligues somehow get off with 30 months of probation without any prison time. Amazing.

Meanwhile, Tom Gamboa is feeling unloved: he's got permanent hearing damage, and the 2003 season is almost over (no more work for six months). Doing what all the cool kids are doing, Gamboa decides to file suit in 2003 against, well, everyone. Gamboa demands more than $200,000 in damages from Ligue Jr., SDI Security Inc. (ballpark security), and others. The case is filed September 19th, and Gamboa looks like he's in for some money. Unfortunately, Gamboa neglected to think of his job for next year, and just 11 days later (and only 2 hours after the final game of the season), the Royals decided that Gamboa just wasn't a good fit for the team anymore. Oops.

But what about our good friend William Ligue Jr.?

In March of '06, Ligue snapped again and violated his probation by breaking into a car. Ligue gets sentenced to 57 months in prison (4 years and 9 months, for you math majors), and is up for parole in January of 2010.

Don't drop the soap, Will.

7 comments:

The TPC said...

Another upstanding Sox fan. And I thought it was only Cubs fans who got wasted at the games, thanks William for showing the Sox fans true colors.

Gepetto said...

You DO remember that he said he got piss-drunk at the CUBS game earlier, and THEN went to the Sox night game, right?

Will said...

This made me feel so bad for Tom Gamboa, as if coaching first base for the Royals wasn't bad enough he's gotta get a beat down.

The Sports Hernia said...

If only he tried attacking someone more like Ed Hochuli.

Or even Red Chashen, he would have given him an atomic splash.

Gepetto said...

Ed Hochuli is so ripped I wonder how they get the guy a new uniform before every game.

I think Clemens' wife injects HIM.

Unknown said...

Sorry but these 2 assclowns were NOT at a CUBS game earlier that day unless they flew in from NY. The cubs were playing the Mets at New York so sorry Sox fans try making up another lie.

Sox Machine said...

Eric Dybas was the Cubs fan who ran onto the field at the Cell to attack Laz Diaz, and promptly found out Diaz was trained in self-defense.

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