In a fascinating blow-by-blow account, Cuban shines a light on what's traditionally been a very closed-door process: the effort to buy a Major League Baseball team:

During the entire process I thought I had a very strong chance of being able to buy the team. I thought I could offer a competitive price. I thought I had the experience to come in and improve the business so that I could continue to invest in the product on the field without having to squeeze every nickel from Cubs fans. I also thought I could win over Major League Baseball. All told, I thought my experience in owning a team and most importantly, my commitment to always trying to win, would give me an important advantage.

Cuban is already the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks franchise, and has, in the past, been said to have had fond dreams of one day owning the Pittsburgh Pirates. Some Cubs fans (commenting on his blog) are already lamenting that he won't be wheeling and dealing to get the long-suffering team and its fans back to the World Series. But if Cuban would have been the Cubs' savior, the economy is doing now what Steve Bartman did a few years ago:

There was also the issue of the economy. It was impossible to predict the full impact of these tough times on any sports team. That uncertainty created two issues. The first of course was valuation. How much would I be willing to pay for the team ? I wasn't sure. More important to me was the cash flow. If the economy had a significant impact on future revenues, it would also impact how much I could invest in players. The absolute last position i wanted to be in was paying so much for the team, that if revenues fell off, I couldnt play to win.