In the long, exasperating process of the Cubs sale, Tom Ricketts has always been the front-runner to take over ownership. So it should come as little shock that the Sun-Times has a source saying that the Tribune Co.’s preferred bidder is indeed Ricketts.

And, it’s pretty much for all the reasons people have pointed to in the past:

Ricketts is believed to have offered around $900 million.

“They want Ricketts, and it’s always been Ricketts,” a source said.

While the others might have bid a higher price for the team, the source said the Ricketts offer had more conservative financing, an important factor when credit is extremely tight.

Also, Ricketts lives in the Chicago suburbs and represents what it essentially a family bid. Baseball owners, who must approve any Cubs sale, are known to favor tight-knit groups of owners with local ties.

It’s interesting to note that even if the two other bidders actually threw down more money than Ricketts, it might not have mattered. And this is coming from a company that just filed for bankruptcy. Funny how that works out, eh?

But yeah: Ricketts has all the other important factors that other MLB owners just love. Namely, he’s got that conservative attitude, family appeal and is a local guy. Tom Ricketts is pretty much Wilson from “Home Improvement,” if Wilson had a family, was rich, didn’t drop philosophy all the time and lived in Chicago instead of the Michigan.

Come to think of it, he’s not anything like Wilson at all.