No Cubs For You!

If you were looking forward to the antics of Mark Cuban running the Chicago Cubs, the Sun Times claims you can simply forget it.

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.''

On Opening Day 2007, the Cubs officially went on the market. Zell's group was hoping for a quick transaction, certainly before Opening Day 2008. That same MLB source promised a deal won't be done by Opening Day 2009.

''We'll be standing here at next year's GM meetings,'' the source said, ''and this will still be unresolved.''

All of this likely will put the group headed by John Canning Jr. -- Selig's personal favorite -- back as the front-runner.

Either way, the slow process figures to have a financial effect on the Cubs, who are pursuing expensive San Diego Padres ace Jake Peavy and still have their eyes on free-agent pitchers Ryan Dempster and CC Sabathia. A potential deal for Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, who's a year away from free agency, could include a new, richer contract.

Already, the payroll figures to make a significant jump in '09 with so many backloaded contracts. Among the notable pay raises, outfielder Kosuke Fukudome goes from $6 million to $11.5 million, pitcher Ted Lilly from $7 million to $12 million, pitcher Jason Marquis from $6.37 million to $9.87 million, left fielder Alfonso Soriano from $13 million to $16 million, third baseman Aramis Ramirez from $14 million to $15.65 million and pitcher Carlos Zambrano from $15 million to $17.5 million.

Will the Cubs' ownership question put a crimp in general manager Jim Hendry's ambitious offseason plans?

''We'll be given a fair payroll number,'' Hendry said. ''I don't have a final figure yet, but there is no indication that we are going to go backward. We're in the middle of a pretty good situation. The last couple of years, we've got it going in the right direction, and we don't have an old team. We still have a lot of positives, and our [minor-league and scouting] departments are doing real well.''

Had Cuban purchased the Cubs, there was a feeling he'd open the checkbook even wider to end the team's 100-year World Series title drought. But this week at the GM meetings, Selig cautioned executives to be prudent in the face of the world financial crisis.

''There are some very real issues in the global economy,'' White Sox GM Ken Williams said. ''For any of us to believe this isn't going to ultimately affect our business, you have to have your head in the sand.''

As I mentioned earlier this week, after the election, this isn't the time to gloat. Still, it seems like the time to throw garbage at Sarah Palin, if you're one of the losing Republicans. As Gail Collins observes in the New York Times.

The Republicans are being way more nasty to Sarah Palin than the Democrats are to Lieberman. They've been portraying her as both a shopaholic and a woman who walks around in nothing but a bath towel, a hillbilly who's also a prima donna. The leakathon climaxed this week when Fox News's Carl Cameron announced that Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.

Palin says this is untrue. But the worst part is that if these people get any meaner, we're going to wind up feeling sorry for her. This is not something we are looking forward to, Republicans, and we will resent you for it.

"Mutts like me."

Obama made the remark as he revealed his thinking in what kind of puppy will he and his wife, Michelle, get for their daughters as they move into the White House.

Because Malia, 10, has allergies, the family wants a low-allergy dog. But Obama said they also want to adopt a puppy from an animal shelter, which could make it harder to find a breed that wouldn't aggravate his daughter's problem.

"Obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," Obama told the Associated Press with a smile. "So whether we're going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household."

The man who will be president in just over two months described himself as a mutt as casually as he may have poked fun at his jump shot.

Yes, it's a new day, aint it?