Only A Few Questions Left

Now that the Tribune Co. has announced a willingness to sell pieces of the company, all that's left for us to find out is this:

Which pieces?

Who are the prospective buyers?

It remains possible that the Trib could divest itself of all its non-Chicago holdings. A core company containing the Chicago Tribune, WGN TV, WGN Radio, CLTV, the stake in Comcast Sports Chicago and the Chicago Cubs could be all that is left. Such a company would clearly no longer be run by Denis FitzSimons and his management team. There's no way that current Trib management would go from running a national media company to a local one. They'd all take their golden parachutes and leave.

If this scenario comes to pass, then their remains one final question: Who would be the new CEO? That new CEO would be responsible for the direction of the Cubs going forward.

Our hopes could be pinned to someone like Scott Smith and Ann Marie Lipinski.

Ram and Shef

Can this page go on record and say that there would be severe disappointment if the first left and the latter arrived? Gary Sheffield as a Cub is of little interest. Aramis Ramirez needs to remain a Cub only because the Cubs failed to trade him and can't afford to let him go while receiving nothing in exchange.

A Ram may now be the most overrated athlete in Chicago now that Brian Urlacher is playing up to (and beyond) his reputation. While seeing him go would not be a bad thing, seeing him go for nothing back would be another Jim Hendry criminal offense.