Today's Links

• The Bulls finally win one! It came down to the wire, but they pulled it out. If the last week has shown anything, it's that Drew Gooden is very important to this team.
  
• Antoine Walker gets busted for driving drunk. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
• Top Ten odds on what Milton Bradley will do this season. Pretty funny.
• The Cubs just finished sending Jason Marquis to the Rockies. Does that mean there will be enough money for Peavy? We probably won't know until the Cubs are sold.
• Mark Cuban has something to say about his involvement in the sale of the Cubs.
• Top Ten Michael Jordan magazine covers of all time via Zoner.
• Don't worry about Milton Bradley's ability to stay healthy, Jim Hendry already took care of that in the contract.
• Bears linebackers coach Lloyd Lee is out. Please let Babich be next!?
• Look who the Chicago Tribune writers voted for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Harold Baines? Really Phil Rogers and Paul Sullivan? Baines? Oh and Rogers voted for Grace. That's fine I guess, except for how its a terrible vote. I hate our mainstream sports media.
  

Crazy Cuban in Trouble With SEC For Insider Trading

It looks like Mark Cuban's bid to buy the Cubs may have hit a major road block:

Mamma.com is some sort of lame search engine that no one has ever used ever. Way back in 2004, Cuban made a sizeable investment in the company that made him its largest shareholder. (About 600,000 shares.) Later that year, Mamma decided to raise cash using something called PIPE financing. This would essentially create more shares for the public to buy, which raises cash for the company to use, but reduces the value of all existing shares.

The company called Cuban in for a meeting and told him what they were planning. (The hope was that he would buy many of these new shares, in order to maintain his investment and interest in the company.) This is totally allowed, but only with the understanding that any information the person is given must be kept confidential and they may not act on that information until it is revealed to the general public. The CEO of Mamma and others involved in the situation say that Cuban was well aware that the information was confidential and that he would not be able to act on it. This is allegedly well-documented, too.

Cuban did not approve of the PIPE strategy and wanted out. However, once the PIPE was announced the value of his shares would have gone down no matter what, so he instructed his broker to sell all of his shares immediately, which he did. By selling the shares before the announcement was made (and before the price could drop) he saved himself about $750,000. Cuban's reported net worth is a little over $2 billion.

If the allegations are true, this is textbook insider trading. The SEC has charged him with a civil complaint and if he is found guilty, he would likely have to forfeit the profits from the trades, plus pay a penalty which can be up to three times that amount. Also, if his actions can be shown to have hurt other investors, he can face additional penalties that can skyrocket depending on how much damage was allegedly done.

At the moment, this is only a civil action and not a criminal action, which means he will not face jail time. That could change in the future, but it is unlikely unless some new information comes to light. The most famous insider trading case in recent memory is Martha Stewart, but remember—she did not go to jail for trading. She went to jail for obstruction of justice and conspiracy, because she lied to federal investigators about the case.

And just in case anyone is wondering how this is related to the sale of the Cubs, I was informed by a reliable source this morning (some old crazy guy in the booth next to me at Lou Mitchell's) that his daughter works for the Tribune and the Tribune purposely leaked this information about Cuban to take him out of the running to buy the Cubs. I don't know how likely that is, but either way it doesn't look good for people hoping Cuban would be the next owner.

Somewhere, Sam Zell is menacingly cackling in a smoky back room.

You Are The Weekend Links...Goodbye

• Bye, Bye, Illini. Those bowl hopes go out the window with that loss to Western Michigan. Western Michigan? Really?
• Kirk Hinrich is out for up to 12 weeks from a hand injury. That will shorten up the rotation even more. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but when does Larry Hughes come back?
• Bears injury report for this week.
  
• Remember when that Bulls guy always did this to the Cavs? Yeah we lost to Cleveland again. But at least we won a tough one at home against Phoenix Friday night. I guess the Suns plan to rest Shaq against the Bulls (what a slap in the face, they are so confident they can beat us they don't even need the Big Cactus) did not work out like they thought it would.
• More stupid Mark Cuban and the Cubs news. Shysterball thinks if Baseball tries to lock him out of buying the Cubs, they may have an anti-trust suit on their hands.
  

Get To Know Your Owner: Mark Cuban Edition

Well, it looks like Mark Cuban may buy the Cubs. His bid is the highest, he showed up at Kerry Wood's charity bowling event, and he can't quite seem to win a championship, even when he has a good squad on paper (see: Dallas Mavericks). If he's not a good match for the Cubs, I don't know who is. Anyways, if he's going to be our new owner, maybe we should get to know him a little better. Here are a few quotes gleaned from Baseball Prospectus that summarize what kind of a guy Cuban is:

"If there's a hooker you want, it all comes down to price, right? And I think that's a better analogy."—Mark Cuban, a bidder to buy the Cubs on his desire to purchase the franchise.

"He's been outspoken on issues, but we've had owners who are outspoken as well. I've not heard of him referred to as a loudmouth."—MLB vice president Bob DePuy, on Cuban.

"He would be an effective owner in most businesses."—NBA commissioner David Stern

"It was the way he presented himself to us in the interview, wearing jeans and sneakers, and turning his nose up and acting like he was the smartest guy in the room. He was a smart-aleck kid."—Former NBA executive Dave Checketts, on Mark Cuban. (Richard Sandomir, The New York Times)

Sounds like my kind of guy. A guy in jeans and sneakers overpaying for high-price hookers? Sign him up.

Today's Links

• Cuban went to Kerry Wood's charity event last night? Maybe Cuban buying the Cubs is really legit.
• Are the Bulls doomed to mediocrity by signing Deng and Gordon long-term?
• No more tailgating during Bears games? They can't be serious.
• Are you serious? The Cubs are wrecking the ball. They average 5.3 runs/game. No joke. Yesterday was no exception.
• So I guess the Bulls are looking to sign a 7'2" Iranian guy. Interesting...
• Sox win to stay in first...Twins win to stay 1 behind. It's going to be interesting down the stretch, thats for sure.
• Favre to the Jets. Good riddance. I hope this ends horribly.
  

Today's Links

• I know the story of the Sox game was the fight, but since when does A.J. have white hair? He looks like even more of an idiot. Oh and by the way, look in the left column of this blog and say adios to first place Sox fans.
  
• Cuban wants Cubs, but will baseball want him? $1.3 billion dollars is a lot of money.
• Jr. Griffey is the man. He doesn't take shit from anyone. Just kidding, he's a pansy and he apologized.
• Erin Andrews responds to the accusations about her being too sexy. I love this whole storyline and will continue to link it as long as it continues to be a "story".
• This site is really cool. It has every baseball teams baseball contracts with their players and details of the contract. The Cubs and Sox ones are very interesting.
• "Coach Mike Krzyzewski, when asked why he benched Kidd, was in the middle of answering during his postgame interview when Kobe Bryant interrupted with a two-word explanation: 'He's old.'" Love when ESPN reports this stuff.
• Skip Caray dies at 68. I feel like he was a part of the Chicago Sports family. Sad, sad day.

Today's Links

• Ok Ben, so if the Bulls are going to stay under the luxury tax threshold, they can offer you a max deal of 9.8 million a year for 6 years. So that adds up to a 58.8 million/6 year deal. I think thats less per year than last summer's offer. Oops.
• "It looks that way. I don't think they want to lose their leading scorer for nothing. Maybe they do, I don't know." -Ben Gordon, on the Bulls limiting their offer to what's left under the luxury tax, and sticking to the scoring = $$$ talking points. (via Blogabull)
• Israel tries to "Jew" Jason Williams out of his money. I just wanted to use Jew in a J-Will story. He's my boy now.
• Griffey leaves with a cramp, but he's such an ironman, I'm sure he'll be ok.
  
• Mark Cuban not a long shot to own the Cubs? The players seem happy, but I would be happy too if I was getting a home theater system in my locker.
• Wait, the Bears were going to sign John Lynch? I didn't even hear this was a possibility. Isn't he 40?
• I hate Jay Mariotti. Get off Favre's balls already. (Hey Judd, remember when Mariotti gave me that wake up call? I'm still going to get you back for that)