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Thursday, May 01, 2008

CST: Mum Cuban sits with Trib execs at Wrigley

I hope she had behind-the-netting seats unlike Olbermann’s mum.

News flash: Mark Cuban didn’t want to talk during his visit to Wrigley Field on Wednesday. Talk about trying to win over Major League Baseball.

‘’I’m here as a Cubs fan,’’ Cuban said, waving off a group of reporters as he took his front-row seat—one chair from the Cubs’ dugout—before their game against the Milwaukee Brewers. ‘’How can I enjoy my beer if you guys are around?’’

Cuban, braving the 47-degree weather wearing a long-sleeve shirt, signed autographs before the game and sat with Tribune Co. executives in their premium seats.

It’s no secret Cuban is among the six to 10 groups ready to make a formal bid for the Cubs, who have been put on the block by Tribune chairman and CEO Sam Zell. As Cuban continues to clear hurdles in MLB’s tough weeding-out process, the less that the usually talkative—and controversial—owner of the Dallas Mavericks says, the better for his bid.

And those with an insight into the proposed sale indicate Cuban is no longer the dark horse he once was considered when he initially expressed interest last year.

Repoz Posted: May 01, 2008 at 07:30 AM | 15 comment(s)
  Related News: GeneralChi Cubs

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   1. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad)  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 06:38 AM (#2764900)
No, Mark! We need you for the Pirates!
   2. cv2002  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:04 AM (#2764948)
As a Cardinal fan, I applaud his application for ownership of the Cubs. If his time owning the Mavericks is an analog, then the Cubs will be successful every year, but just fail to advance to the World Series.
   3. andrewberg  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:19 AM (#2764957)
Cuban seems to have matured quite a bit in the last few years. Fewer outbursts about the referees and the league, fewer fines, fewer times on the court. Even though he has wracked up $1.6m in fines, he hasn't had a single one since the end of the 2005-2006 finals where David Stern decided to make Dwyane Wade a star by sending him to the line a quintillion times. In fact, the first instance of restraint (February 2007) where he declined to comment on Wade, citing a desire not to be fined, coincided almost directly with the announcement that the Cubs would go on sale (March 2007). Soon after that, he hinted as his own interest in buying the team.

Since then, he has stayed out of trouble, exercised more restraint- only overhauling his roster one time 18 months, and at a semi-appropriate time- and generally made himself out to be a more responsible ownership candidate. Declining to comment in the situation the article notes seems to be exactly the kind of deference that Bud Selig loves.
   4. Misirlou had a hedge back home in the suburbs  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:19 AM (#2764960)
As a Cardinal fan, I applaud his application for ownership of the Cubs. If his time owning the Mavericks is an analog, then the Cubs will be successful every year, but just fail to advance to the World Series.


Now that's what's know as cutting off your nose to spite your face. See, if the Cubs just fail to make the WS, that implies that they are in the playoffs every year. And if that happens, it is unlikely that the Cards will make many playoff appearances.
   5. A Surfeit of Peaches Graham (SdeB)  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:27 AM (#2764967)
If his time owning the Mavericks is an analog, then the Cubs will be successful every year, but just fail to advance to the World Series.

That would be a marked improvement over the current situation.
   6. andrewberg  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:29 AM (#2764973)
That will only happen if he builds the cubbies around a german guy who is very good, almost great, but not one of the top 5 or 6 players in the league, and not well-suited for the league's evolving style. Actually, Soriano might work for that role if he starts listening to more Hasselhoff.
   7. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory)  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:39 AM (#2764977)
I thought the headline was saying his mother was there.

If his time owning the Mavericks is an analog, then the Cubs will be successful every year, but just fail to advance to the World Series.

Because, of course, the owner is at fault for their playoff "failures".
   8. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66)  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 08:43 AM (#2764981)
I thought the headline was saying his mother was there.

I thought it meant there was some laconic guy from Havana trying to buy the Cubs
   9. Greg Maddux School of Reflexive Profanity  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 09:13 AM (#2765012)
That will only happen if he builds the cubbies around a german guy who is very good, almost great, but not one of the top 5 or 6 players in the league, and not well-suited for the league's evolving style.

Nowitzki has ranked 12th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 5th, 1st, 1st and 5th in PER since '00-01. That 5-1-1-5 stretch coincides with the emphasis on disallowing contact, which resulted in the league's changed style.


A better analogy would be the Cubs becoming consistently elite, then getting hosed on a series of calls by Joe West or Angel Hernandez or somebody (who's baseball's answer to Bennett Salvatore?) in the World Series, at which point they develop a fetish for veteran presence and championship experience has-beens, causing them to slip to fringe contender status, at which point they panic and trade one of the key pieces of the future for the most expensive, most famous has-been of all, from which there is no recovering.
   10. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad)  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 09:14 AM (#2765013)
"not one of the top 5 or 6 players in the league"

Who on the Mavs meets that description? I didn't think they had any Germans other than Dirk.
   11. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory)  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 10:02 AM (#2765100)
the most expensive, most famous has-been of all

At least in baseball, that guy is a free agent.
   12. The New Gloucester Whaler  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 11:16 AM (#2765272)
Nowitzki has ranked 12th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 5th, 1st, 1st and 5th in PER since '00-01.


I think I just had a moment empathy with baseball fans who only imbibe of mainstream media. I am a very casual basketball fan, and I had to ask "What the heck is PER? Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?"

Now I know, having looked it up.
   13. Pat Rapper's Delight  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 11:37 AM (#2765317)
If his time owning the Mavericks is an analog, then the Cubs will be successful every year, but just fail to advance to the World Series.

No, they'll get to the Series. They'll win the first two and be up by 5 or 6 late in Game 3, then go on to choke Game 3 away as well as the next three games to lose the series.

Next year they'll have the best record in MLB by far but lose the NLDS to an 83-79 Wild Card team in 4 games by a combined score of something like 45-12.
   14. bfan  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 11:57 AM (#2765359)
He has increased the Mav's revenue, but the 7th best record in the west this year makes me think his ego-driven approach that doesn't let the GM be the GM, while he meddles, maybe isn't so good. i think the Cubs will be worse off with him that with some of the other candidates.
   15. Cabbage  Posted: May 01, 2008 at 01:06 PM (#2765475)
the most expensive, most famous has-been of all

Dustin Hoffman?
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