We called it: Mark Cuban will not be getting the Chicago Cubs. Well, to be accurate, we didn't call it -- our psychic friend Valentina Burton did, when she told editor Mark Donald that "someone tries to find a way to keep things in the family, he is blocked from doing this, there is a backroom meeting about how do we not do this. Very Sopranos, he is dealing with people he can't win with, old entrenched system he is not going to get what he wants, a lot of frustration on his part." This morning's Chicago Sun-Times confirms her fortune-telling, which sadly didn't make the best-of profile. Turns out, folks who worried that MLB stuffy suits wouldn't welcome Cuban's comfy jeans and tees into the club may have been right after all.
Global financial crisis or not, baseball's old guard plans to stand firm against letting Cuban into the club. ''There's no way Bud and the owners are going to let that happen,'' a Major League Baseball source said this week. ''Zero chance.''Which is unfortunate, because, as the Chicago paper notes, Cuban "was the fan favorite, the guy who liked to drink beer, watch the game from the bleachers and spend money." --Robert Wilonsky
