As the Trib narrows in on FINALLY selling the Cubs, Mark Cuban goes public on his involvement in the sale process.

His angle seems to be pretty simple. Cuban is cash rich. There is a credit crisis making cash more valuable. He did not want to take refinance risk on buying the Cubs with debt. The amount of cash he was willing to spend to buy the Cubs was far lower than the amount of cash plus debt he was willing to spend. If Sam Zell wants to sell to him, it's going to be at Cuban's price, not Zell's. And Cuban has that check ready if Zell needs it.

This all sounds pretty smart.

Then again, maybe Cuban just doesn't want to deal with Milton Bradley.

Oh, and a quick note to the various writers covering the Cubs new right fielder and, one guesses their #3 hitter: Can we please stop with the awful, awful board game puns?