'You can just hear Selig and Reinsdorf guffawing, ready to make life Hell for Zell and Cuban'

Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times: "My belief is, the lords would prefer to tease Cuban,

• let him think he's on the verge of his Wrigleyville dream,

• then make him hurt by rejecting him in the final cut.

"So here we've arrived at a most fascinating juncture, where the irresistible force of money

• meets the immovable object of power politics.

This is where the baseball lords and all their backroom old-fartery -- Bud Selig, Jerry Reinsdorf and the like -- are confronted by Mark Cuban's extraordinary financial might.

• The Maverick has produced the highest bid thus far in the ``Survivor''-like scrum that is the Cubs' ownership derby.... But if Zell is taking a strong liking to Cuban -- they're definitely two business rebels, though separated by a generation and considerable more coherence on Cuban's part -- neither had better grow too comfortable in the coming months.

You can just hear Selig and Reinsdorf harrumphing and guffawing,

• ready to make life hell for Zell and Cuban because,

• well, they can.

Sure, Zell can approve Cuban's bid and take it to the owners' meetings in November. But the lords can just as quickly shoot it down, armed with their anti-trust advantages and a hitch that three-fourths of the 30 major-league owners approve Cuban or any other Cubs ownership candidate.

• Counterproductive and petty as it seems, the lords still have shown no evidence of wanting Cuban and his dynamic record of sports ownership in their exclusive country club.

• They view him as a billionaire Bart Simpson...

Those who care about baseball should be alarmed that the owners have so much power. Way back in September 1992,...

• Bud and Jerry led a coup at a O'Hare hotel to rub out the last middleman commissioner, Fay Vincent.

With the owners firmly in control, baseball endured a crippling labor mess and a steroids scandal enabled by, yes, a see-no-evil commissioner and complicit owners who allowed bulked-up creatures to revive the sport with inflated power numbers.

• In this vein, Selig and the owners can choose who they as new partners. The situation hasn't worked out well in Washington, where
• Reinsdorf helped maneuver the Montreal franchise to the nation's capital and

• magically watched son Michael and his International Facilities Group attempt to win a $3.7 million consulting fee

• for the new ballpark. Remember when D.C. councilman Adrian M. Fenty, an opponent of the stadium deal,

raised hell about a conflict of interest? ``Jerry Reinsdorf is an extremely wealthy businessperson only interested in making money," Fenty told the Washington Post in 2004.

• ``The fact that we somehow are preparing to possibly hire one of his family members makes the deal that much more bothersome and troubling.""...

There is a solution. Stop buying tickets to MLB games. (sm)

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