History Characters / TheWireBaltimoreDocks

He is seen briefly in Season 5, jeering the opening of the Granary condominiums.

* HeroesWantRedheads: She's a redhead and the primary love interest for [=McNulty=] (the nominal protagonist) in Seasons 2-5.

-->I got tired of being the punchline to every joke.
** A typical example is when his coworkers goad him into attacking the much larger and stronger Maui. Maui doesn't even bother to beat Ziggy up, but just humiliates him by lifting him onto the top of a stack of containers and leaving him there.

* TheDitz: Prone to life threatening stupidity for the most part.

* FatalFlaw: Not wanting to be the fuck up of the family.

* IdiotBall: InUniverse. Just about everyone who interacts with him comes to think this.

* [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Only Known By His Nickname]]: He has other nicknames too. Nick also calls him "Fucknuts" and the Greeks almost exclusively refer to him as "Malaka" (a word rich enough in meaning to have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malakas its own page]] on Website/TheOtherWiki).

* SiblingYinYang: With his cousin Nick.

* SmallNameBig Ego: "a fucking legend on the docks" who just keeps getting punked by everyone around him any time he doesn't have his cousing Nick back him up.
* SmartBall: While he is an abject failure at ''everything'' else, when it comes to being a thief he has his moments. Interestingly, he seems to pick this up whenever he ''isn't'' trying to be the center of attention - the only time he gets anything close respect or affection is when he isn't acting up for them.
* SuspiciousSpending: the Italian leather jacket immediately draws dirty looks among the other longshoremen, and Maui "accidentaly" spills coffee on him.

[[center: [- [[Characters/TheWire Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimorePoliceDepartment Baltimore Police Department]] | [[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] | [[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireStanfieldOrganization Stanfield Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | '''Baltimore Docks''' | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]]]-]

* GagPenis: Ziggy certainly does think whipping his large penis out and putting a hoto of it as Maui's desktop is a great joke.

* WhatAnIdiot: InUniverse. Just about everyone who interacts with him comes to think this.

-->'''Beadie''': [[DeadpanSnarker You need a close-up?]]

* [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Only Known By His Nickname]]: He has other nicknames too. Nick also calls him "Fucknuts" and the Greeks almost exclusively refer to him as "Malaka" (a word rich enough in meaning to have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malakas its own page]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki).

** Frank's last-ditch effort to make amends by helping the cops arrest the Greek completely fails: him and Spiros [[KarmaHoudini get away scot-free]], killing Frank on their way out.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Ziggy's naivete and poor sense of judgement defy normal human behavior, to the point where mental illness would probably explain a lot of the gravely stupid decisions he makes.

* RaisedCatholic: Frank is a regular churchgoer who pays more than lip service to the Church, but when Father Lewandoski suggests a confession, Sobotka scoffs at the idea.

* SiblingYinYang: Louis is straight and softspoken, has been retired for some time and spends his days calmly, while Frank is crooked and remains very active and agitated. When Frank tries to use the NotSoDifferent angle, Louis dodges it easily.

Frank Sobotka is the Polish-American treasurer for the stevedore's union in Baltimore. Needing to keep his workers paid in the face of declining port traffic and the juggernaut of gentrification, he arranges to lobby and bribe local politicians in exchange for projects to keep the docks alive. He gets the money by an arrangement with The Greek, who uses the port for smuggling. He runs afoul of Major Valchek, who starts investigating into his finances. Things start unraveling when thirteen dead prostitutes are found in a shipping container, and he has to deal with both the police and The Greek. When his son, Ziggy, murders the Greek's fence, and the plans for expanding the docks collapse, he agrees to inform on The Greek to the police. The Greek gets word of this, and has him killed.

Son of Frank Sobotka. He is stupid and impulsive, failing at both legitimate work in the docks, as well as drug dealing. He convinces his cousin Nick to make a deal with The Greek to sell drugs. Nick's success where he failed sends him into a depression, which drives him to kill one of The Greeks' frontmen when a deal goes sour. He is apprehended and sent to prison. Both the police and the Greek try to use Ziggy's situation to apply leverage to Frank and Nick.

[[folder:Bruce DiBiago]]
->'''Played by:''' Keith Flippen

->''My great-grandfather was a knife sharpener. Pushed a grinding stone up Preston Street to Alice Ann, one leg shorter than the other from pumping the wheel. And since he didn’t want his sons to push the goddamn thing, he made sure my grandfather finished high school and my old man went to any college that would take him.''

A fancy, high-priced lobbyist hired by Frank to drum up political support for dredging the canal. His great-grandfather was an uneducated labourer, and the family has steadily climbed the socioeconomic ladder ever since.
----
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream: His family achieved this by having every generation strive to surpass the previous one, persuing higher education and rejecting their working-class roots; unlike the stevedores who passed down blue collar union jobs from father to son.
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Frank paid him from a shoebox full of loose bills in his desk drawer.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone: His oldest son is a student at Princeton.
* NecessaryEvil: How Frank views him. He hates that he needs a rich guy in a suit on his side to be taken seriously, and is pretty open in his contempt for Bruce.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When Frank becomes politically toxic after his arrest Bruce bails on him, but he does have the decency to meet Frank in person and tell him so face to face.
* SelectiveObliviousness: He had to at least suspect that the money Frank was paying him with wasn’t legit but he didn’t want to ask questions.
[[/folder]]

A fancy, high-priced lobbyist hired by Frank to drum up political support for dredging the canal. His great-grandfather was an uneducated immigrant labourer, and the family has steadily climbed the socioeconomic ladder ever since.

* AmericanDream: His family achieved this by having every generation strive to surpass the previous one, persuing higher education and rejecting their working-class roots; unlike the stevedores who passed down blue collar union jobs from father to son.

* TheAmericanDream: His family achieved this by having every generation strive to surpass the previous one, persuing higher education and rejecting their working-class roots; unlike the stevedores who passed down blue collar union jobs from father to son.

* ChaoticStupid: Ziggy makes a mess out of absolutely everything he says and does; Lighting hundred dollar bills on fire in a pub full of poor working men, [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare buying a pet duck and giving it whisky]] ([[RealityEnsues causing it to die]]), repeatedly picking fights with bigger and tougher people, whipping out his member in a crowded bar—if it's stupid, and he thinks there's a laugh in it, he'll do it. [[CharacterDevelopment He eventually realizes how foolish he's been acting and becomes much more somber and reserved]], but it's come too late to avert tragedy.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jaded, rough, brash and gruff, but deep down a very decent man.

* {{Jerkass}}: He's generally well meaning, but he's very rough around the edges, kind of abrasive, doesn't have the greatest manners in the world, and is too blunt to try smoothing things over or softening the blow of his words.

* TheDitz: Very much so.

** JerkassWoobie: In the end. He inadvertently gets his father killed (in his defense) as well as the dockside industry being killed off and thereafter spends his life in prison, ultimately because of his inferiority complex. He's not evil-mean, just stupid-mean.

* TranquilFury: Very nonchalantly hands Ziggy's ass to him and also says to the other workers chillingly calmly: "Anyone of you fucks try to help him down, you'll be up there with him".

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Frank is genuinely offended that the police think he had something to do with the dead girls in the shipping container, and it isn't a front because he was furious with Spiros earlier for letting something like that happen on his dock.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Some other prominent union members insist they should settle for the more modest goal of the grain pier, but Sobotka aims higher with the dredging of the canal (not for personal gains but for the well-being of the workers). This requires a closer criminal collaboration with The Greek.
* AntiVillain: A smuggler out of necessity, and with probably one of the most SympatheticPOV in the whole story. It's easy for the corruption of his family to come off as a greater sin than his involvement in criminal activities.
-->Help my union? For 25 years, we've been dying slow down there. Dry docks rusting, piers standing empty. My friends and their kids, like we got the cancer. No lifeline got thrown all that time. Nothing from nobody. And now you wanna help us?

->'''Played by''': Chris Bauer