Mark Cuban is out?

According to Chi Ball and their sources, Mark Cuban is out of the running for Cubs ownership.

Actually, it seems he was never actually in it.

It is a believed by these sources that Zell has used Cuban all along to increase the bidding. The orchestration could have gone as far as inviting Cuban to sit next to Sam Zell’s right-hand man Gerry Spector at a Cubs game in the Tribune seats. A source is quoted as saying “If Mark Cuban didn’t exist, Sam Zell would have made someone like him up, he was a dream come true.”"Cuban is not only out of it, he was never in it.”

The source went on to say that the John Canning group was a favorite of the commissioner’s office but wouldn’t meet the price Ricketts and Cuban went to. The major league owners group however, intimated to Zell they would never approve Cuban. The fact is Jerry Reinsdorf still has great influence over the majority of baseball’s owners.

I'm a little saddened by the rumor, based on the pure curiosity to see what a marketing guru like Mark Cuban would do with the Chicago Cubs. It would have just been interesting to see what would happen.

And is Chi-Ball the worst website out there? The Cuban story this morning, the Mariotti to the Tribune rumors on Monday? STOP RUINING THE INTERNETS WITH YOUR AWFUL RUMORS!!!! At least give us a rumor we'll like every once in awhile. Sheesh.