Eammon discussed with, ahem, some vapidity earlier today: Jay Mariotti (who happens to moonlight as a colleague of mine at FanHouse) will be heading back to the Chicago-centric sports world as the newest member of the Chicago Tribune.

This ghastly Internet rumor — the kind that kills puppies and strangles children, natch — was purported by Brooks at “celebrity gossip site” Sports by Brooks. I use this hyperbole because well, that’s the same sort of reaction that Mariotti and the Tribune had to the rumor.

Via the Daily Herald:

Yet Tribune spokeswoman Kate Mersman issued a terse, “This is not true,” when asked about it today.

Mariotti, while allowing that “the Tribune and I have had discussions about various projects,” quickly added, “but we have not finalized it.” He referred to the item as a “silly blog report.”

“My non-compete clause at the Sun-Times expires in late August,” Mariotti added.

OK, perhaps I’m missing something here, but didn’t both parties just essentially say, “It’s not done because the non-compete is still active, but as soon as that thing runs insert sound of quickly moving feet here.”

Of course, FanHouse wasn’t mentioned in the Daily Herald’s story (tanks for notin, guys!) but Brooks’ original report had Mariotti hanging around the AOL sector while adding the Trib to his workload.

Per usual, I have zero insider knowledge on this one, but I think he’s headed to the Trib. And if my gut feeling isn’t enough to convince me, the above quotes certainly are.

The winners of the Chicago Cubs silent auction process are going to have some hurdles to jump from the beginning of the public announcement. Some of these hurdles include gaining approval votes from owners and some silly thing referred to as “financial terms.”

But, as Biz of Baseball points out, there might be even more issues with acquiring the Cubs. And they sound a lot worse than just getting Bernie Lomax George Steinbrenner to write “YES” on a piece of scrap paper.

While the Cubs, and their associated holdings are not part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for the Tribune Co., the final deal will have to be approved by a judge. With three bidders in the mix (Thomas Ricketts, Marc Utay, and Hersh Klaff ), the judge will be looking to have the maximum amount garnered from the sale, meaning the two finalists that were not selected for the Cubs will have one last shot at inching the sale price up.

To add to the difficult process, as reported prior, Sam Zell, the owner of Tribune, is structuring the deal in a tax-avoidance fashion by retaining an ownership equity in the deal. To gain as much cash as possible, Zell is looking to retain a minority stake in single-digits – perhaps as low as 5 percent.

Keep reading →

Mark Cuban is already out of the running for Cubs owner. We already know that much. But, despite complete, utter and total financial destruction across the entire country, it appears that there actually could be a winner announced soon in the silent auction that is being held for the Chicago Cubs. (Despite what Ryan said at the end of his last post.)

That’s right. Pretty soon we get to find out what owner will be making an early October press conference to say he’s not disappointed with the team’s performance in the first round of the playoffs and he has big hopes for 2010.

Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Cubs, is close to selecting a winning bid for the team from three finalists, according to people familiar with the sales talks.

Three prospective buyers made offers for the franchise at the end of November: Chicago real estate investor Hersch Klaff; the Ricketts family, founders of online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.; and a group led by Marc Utay, a New York private-equity investor who grew up in Chicago.

But, unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. See, apparently there are a few “bad” scenarios here for whoever might “win.” First of all, the Trib Co. can still yank the Cubs off the table. Just ’cause they want to, which seems totally fair.

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The Chicago Tribune, like everyone else in today’s stable economy, is looking to sell. In this case, they’re trying to sell the city’s beloved baseball team, the Cubs. However, if the word from the WSJ is correct — and it usually is — the Trib might be staring down the face of bankruptcy.

Tribune Co. is preparing for a possible filing for bankruptcy-court protection as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of worsening trouble for the newspaper industry.

In recent days, as Chicago-based Tribune continued talks with lenders to restructure its debt, the newspaper-and-television concern hired investment bank Lazard Ltd. as its financial adviser and law firm Sidley Austin to advise the company on a possible trip through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter say.

The first natural reaction of Cubs fans should be, “HOLY S***!” The second should be, “Someone burn that Dempster contract STAT!” But, apparently such a freakout would be totally unjustified. Because it’s … not going to affect the Cubs at all? Yes, that’s the word on the street (which is, awkwardly, the freaking Tribune.)

Keep reading →

The Chicago Cubs took one more step towards ending their pain and beginning ours (with a World Series title, of course) on Monday night as they clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Things are going so swimmingly that even Jason Marquis, who is getting demoted to a long reliever, is hitting grand slams.

And this shouldn’t be entirely shocking since the Cubs are the only National League team that’s really even home-field worthy; the NL West is a Fail Off to a degree and the Brewers obviously are desperate to not make the playoffs. So, yeah, the Cubs are the favorites, clearly.

But my fear is this: that Cubs fans are still being a little too cocky. Need proof? Look no further than the 33 percent of Chicago Tribune readers who don’t care who the team has to play in the postseason. (Also awesome news: the Trib makes sure to let everyone know that the results are “not scientific.”)

And yes, I think it’s totally fair to run under the assumption that those who “don’t care” are cocky, not ignorant. Sure, there’s the possibility that one-third of the people who read a Cubs article in a Chicago  simply don’t know anything else about the rest of the teams in the playoffs, but … yeah, actually, that’s not possible.

The majority of folks who read this article are Cubs fans. And that means that a larger majority who click through to the poll know who the Cubs could play in the first round … and yet, they don’t care. It’s confidence, and it’s both terrifying and very real. Of course, it’s also fairly fantastic, because there’s a decent chance it backfires.

Covering a professional baseball team full-time sounds like a dream job. In many ways, it is. The smell of the park everyday, walking on the field during batting practice, hanging out with team personnel whenever — it’s the life, right? Right.

But it also has its presumptive drawbacks, much the same as being a professional player. It’s a grind. Deadlines are difficult. Sometimes, like a newly returned Las Vegas tourist, all you want to do is sleep.

Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Sullivan feels this pain:

Paul, were you really dozing off during the interview with Lou Piniella the other day? Thanks for the laugh! –Doug newman, Frankfort, Ill.

No, I wasn’t dozing off, as Piniella claimed during his postgame press conference. But I was taking a mental nap while he was discussing Rich Harden’s pitch count, and he called me on it. Like Dusty Baker said when Sammy Sosa was caught with a corked bat in 2003: “What can you say but, ‘Busted!’”

Though I’m not sure the difference between a “mental nap” and an actual nap — what else is a good nap if not thoroughly mental? — kudos to Sullivan for owning up. It’s not like Lou Piniella can talk, anyway; Lou takes at least four naps every third inning, with the option of a nap to be named later during night games. How do you think Bob Howry still sneaks out to the mound?

Look: I know the Bears have completely and utterly blown two leads in as many weeks — double-digit leads in the second half at that. It’s frustrating; it’s mind-numbing; it makes you want to slap your television in the face.

But this little ditty from the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Rosenbloom about the yesterday’s loss to the Buccaneers seems um, a bit overkill:

Fire someone.

I don’t care if it’s an overreaction just three games into a season in a lousy division in a weak conference. Fire someone.

At home. Against a mediocre team. Up by 10 with less than seven minutes to go.

And the Bears lost. Lost to a mediocre team. Lost to a quarterback they didn’t want. Lost a big lead.

Late. Again.

Fire someone.

I know there’s a lot of season to go, but be honest, don’t you want someone to pay for this disaster?

Charles Tillman is the obvious suspect. The Bears had just stopped the Buccaneers on third-and-9 at the Tampa Bay 8 in overtime. Punting time. But no. There’s a scrum. Tillman gets flagged for a personal foul. Fifteen yards. Bucs keep the ball. They wouldn’t give it up until they kicked the winning field goal.

Oh, oh, oh, this is an excellent idea. What Steve is proposing here is that the Bears fire their best cornerback three games into the season because someone has to “pay for this disaster.”

You see, then a defense that has struggled to hold down the stretch the last two weeks gets decidedly worse. I wish I had thought of this.

Firesomeoneonthebears.com has yet to be registered. I think Steve should buy it and continue this crusade until justice is served.