Chicago Cubs Baseball Team

Who's going to buy the Chicago Cubs, and for how much? With Tribune Co. saying Monday that it was putting the storied franchise on the block to raise cash, speculation centered around several big names, including Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and a former owner of that team and baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, and Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

Tribune Co. said Friday that it signed an agreement to sell the Chicago Cubs to the Ricketts family. The family is paying about $800 million to acquire a 95% interest in the team, Wrigley Field and Tribune Co.'s 25% stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, which broadcasts many Cubs games on cable television. Tribune will retain a 5% ownership stake in the joint venture. The announcement is somewhat anticlimactic because in January Tribune had selected the Ricketts family as the winner of a protracted auction for the franchise.

Tribune Co. signed a $300- million asset-backed commercial paper credit agreement with Barclays Bank, using $225 million to repay a term loan. The deal allows Tribune, the newspaper publisher taken private in December by real estate billionaire Sam Zell, to borrow against receivables, the Chicago-based company said. The loan gives Zell breathing room to find buyers for assets to reduce $13 billion in debt. Tribune is selling the Chicago Cubs baseball team and exploring options for the buildings housing its two biggest newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.

Rafael Furcal missed 125 games and his preparation for the playoffs consisted of 10 plate appearances in the final week of the regular season. Saturday, he was the Dodgers' starting shortstop for the third consecutive time this postseason. He said his surgically repaired back is fine. So is the hamstring that tightened up on him last month. As for the pressure of being thrust into the team's starting lineup in the playoffs after not playing for almost five months, Furcal isn't feeling it.

CHICAGO -- Takashi Saito is the Dodgers' closer again -- at least that's what Saito said he was told by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt at the start of the National League division series. Saito didn't fool the Cubs in the ninth inning of Game 2, giving up two runs on two doubles and a single, but for him to pitch at all is almost a medical miracle. "For me to be here with my teammates at this time of the year," Saito said, "I really can only think that I had luck on my side."

Bidding for Tribune Co.'s Long Island newspaper, Newsday, got livelier Friday as New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman matched a $580-million bid by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, according to a person familiar with the situation. The bids are structured differently, but both would provide Tribune with well over $500 million in immediate cash without triggering a large capital-gains tax, the person said. The Chicago media conglomerate needs the cash to knock down debt incurred in its $8.2-billion buyout in December.

Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, reported a second-quarter net loss of $4.53 billion after writing down the value of its publications. The loss compared with a profit of $36.3 million a year earlier and included a $3.83-billion expense to reflect the falling value of its newspapers, the Chicago-based company said. Sales fell 5.7% to $1.11 billion. Newspaper advertising sales tumbled 15%, Tribune said. The worsening advertising slump has made it harder for investor Sam Zell, who took Tribune private in December, to manage $12.5 billion in debt after the buyout.

Cash-strapped Tribune Co. is considering putting two of its signature properties -- the Los Angeles Times' main office downtown and Tribune Tower in Chicago -- on the block. Tribune Chief Executive Sam Zell told employees in an e-mail Wednesday that the company had contacted "several of the country's leading real estate firms" about the Times property and Tribune Tower, the company's 40-story headquarters in Chicago. "Both Tribune Tower and Times Mirror Square are iconic structures," Zell said.

If 19 Dodgers really fought Chicago Cub fans in the Wrigley Field right-field seats last week, there would be no more right-field seats. If 19 Dodgers really attacked fans, there would have been hospitalizations, not arrests. If 19 Dodgers really blended into a single-minded war machine--if any baseball team anywhere is capable of that--then I'm Frank Robinson.

From the hillside cemetery, you can look down, through the rows of red cedar and palms, upon much of San Bernardino and Colton. One recent day, Keith Hubbs stood near his brother's grave, and pointed out that it was a rare, crystal-clear afternoon. Looking north, the snow-capped San Bernardino mountains framed the spectacular setting. "It was like this the day we buried Kenny," he said. "Except the wind blew so hard at his funeral.

For the Cubs, there simply were no excuses. "I'm in shock," outfielder Mark DeRosa said in the Cubs' clubhouse after Dodgers beat Chicago, 3-1, to sweep the National League division series. "We didn't play well, we didn't deserve to win," he said. "We played well all year, and for us to have three games like this is shocking. "We felt confident coming into tonight's game that we were capable of winning three in a row," he said.

For the first time in two decades, the Dodgers popped champagne corks in October. With a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 3 of their National League division series Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the team that had the league's best record in the regular season and won their first playoff series since claiming the 1988 World Series. In front of 56,000 towel-waving fans who chanted "Sweep! Sweep!"

Takashi Saito pitched so poorly in Game 2 of the National League division series Thursday that when he looked ahead at the remainder of his postseason, he started by saying, "If they let me pitch again . . . " But Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said Friday that Saito would remain his closer, even though he was charged with two runs and three hits and failed to get an out in his ninth-inning nightmare. "I think it could've been the score," Torre said of how Saito entered the game with a 10-1 lead.

CHICAGO -- Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa was asked if Thursday night's game against the Dodgers was "do or die" for Chicago in the best-of-five National League division series. "Yeah, I think it's pretty do or die," he said. "I do. You don't want to get on that 4 1/2 -hour plane flight [to Los Angeles] down 0-2." But Cubs Manager Lou Piniella strongly disagreed. "You've got to win three ballgames in these things," he said.

CHICAGO -- Do you believe in curses? How else do you explain what happened Thursday night at Wrigley Field, where the National League's best defensive team suddenly turned into the worst?

CHICAGO -- Takashi Saito is the Dodgers' closer again -- at least that's what Saito said he was told by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt at the start of the National League division series. Saito didn't fool the Cubs in the ninth inning of Game 2, giving up two runs on two doubles and a single, but for him to pitch at all is almost a medical miracle. "For me to be here with my teammates at this time of the year," Saito said, "I really can only think that I had luck on my side."

How invigorating retirement was for Ryne Sandberg, who spent his 17-month exile from baseball discovering things he never seemed to have time for in the previous 17 years. Sandberg went skiing for the first time and fell in love with Utah's powdered slopes. He went water skiing in the summer. There were Wiffle ball games, basketball games and touch football games with his kids.

Two former El Dorado High School baseball standouts have signed professional contracts, El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said Monday. Jay Hassel, a right-handed pitcher, signed with the Chicago Cubs. He is on his way to the Cubs' Class-A team in Huntington, Va. Hassel played at San Diego State this spring and at Rancho Santiago for two seasons before that. Kevin Schula, a catcher who played at Oklahoma this spring, signed with the Atlanta Braves.

Kosuke Fukudome may get a second chance to prove himself in the postseason, because Cubs Manager Lou Piniella said before Game 1 that he would like to start Fukudome in every game of the National League division series. "I'd like to stay just the way we are," Piniella said. "Fukudome is very capable of having a nice postseason, so let's see. With the wind blowing and everything else, we went with good defense in the outfield. " Fukudome started in right field and batted second Wednesday night but went 0 for 4 in the 7-2 loss to the Dodgers, which may cause Piniella to change his mind today.

CHICAGO -- It's 52 degrees and getting colder at Wrigley Field as Manny Ramirez, waiting for the next Cubs hitter, shoves his right hand into his back pocket to keep warm. Suddenly a man in the bleachers behind the Dodgers' left fielder stands up, cups his hands around his mouth and yells, "Hey Manny! Take your hand out of your pocket! Get ready to run!" Ramirez either doesn't hear him, or pretends he doesn't hear him, but the Chicago fans are just getting warmed up.