Sale of Cubs Inches Forward. Final Bids Due by Dec. 1

The sale of the Chicago Cubs could be finalized by the end of the year as the Tribune Co. has set a date of Dec. 1 for final bids to be submitted for the storied franchise, Wrigley Field, and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Tribune pushed the date out by a week after initially setting a Thanksgiving Day deadline for bids a?" a date seen as too aggressive to meet given the current credit crunch. "Bids are expected the week after Thanksgiving," MLB COO Bob DuPuy said to The Associated Press after the first day of the MLB owners quarterly meetings. "Mr. Zell claims the team is for sale and they're moving forward." Bidders have been in New York over the past two weeks meeting with officials from the commissioner's office, MLB Advanced Media, and the MLB Network headquarters in New Jersey. The deadline news comes at a time when baseball officials believe that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been out of the running for the Cubs f...