Enough With Mariotti's Mark Cuban Fetish Already
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Mark Cuban would be interested in owning the Cubs. I know this because he said so, by e-mail, responding quicker to my questions than it takes Andy MacPhail to remove his tinted sunglasses and Dusty Baker to make a pitching change. Tired of writing every week that baseball-inept Tribune Co. should sell the club and set Cubdom free, I chose to seek solutions this time and gauge the self-made billionaire's level of curiosity. – Jay Mariotti, May 30, 2006
And to the dismay of Chicago, it began. "It" of course being Jay Mariotti's incessant temper tantrum rambling for Mark Cuban to be approved as the new Chicago Cubs owner. This endorsement of Cuban's ownership bid is peculiar. Perhaps Mariotti's grandstanding on this topic is more about embarrassing the Chicago Tribune rather than any sincere and shameless campaigning for the Internet tycoon. It is also worthy to mention that the back page pundit has been anything but negative towards Cuban as a NBA franchise owner over the years. Somehow in the universe occupied by self-loathing hatred scribbling hacks, only Mark Cuban can save the Chicago Cubs from another hundred years of World Series futility.
Memo to Cuban: Chicago grows to hate your ownership bid more and more after every published Mariotti column gushing over your suspected purchase the Cubs. Doesn't it seem odd receiving all these assuredly unwanted nonsensical text messages from inbox at Sun-Times.com? Isn't it irritating to being routinely corralled by a creepy Napoleon complex infected dwarf every time you come to Chicago to watch the Cubs at Wrigley or your Mavericks play against the Bulls?
Yeah Mark, it has gotta be weird indeed. We thought so.
Now next time Mariotti peppers you with more condescending praise and irritating badgering over the Cubs, remember these following pot shots previously blathered:
True, there aren't as many Mark Cuban types around as there were five years ago. Just as true, baseball isn't a wise investment for a young billionaire. – Jay Mariotti, Sept 23, 2003
Waiting as a savior was new Mavs owner Mark Cuban, an example of what's all wrong with people getting rich on the Internet. – Jay Mariotti, Feb 10, 2000
It's one thing for Cuban to criticize referees and the way the league does business, a habit that has landed him more than $1 million in fines since he purchased the Mavs in January 2000. It's quite another to cross the line of corporate responsibility and not think of the alleged victim. This is the problem when Internet-age moguls such as Cuban cash out in a big way, fulfill an adolescent dream and buy a sports team. They expose themselves as social buffoons. – Jay Mariotti, Aug 6, 2003
Ozzie? He makes Mark Cuban seem like Virginia McCaskey. – Jay Mariotti, June 22, 2006
Apparently, Cuban doesn't care much about the quality of human beings in his league. He just cares about the money, which explains why he described the Mavs' season opener Oct. 28 against Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers as must-see TV." Said Cuban: Take away the personal aspect, and the reality is there will be more people watching our game against the Lakers. Who do you know who won't watch the Lakers game with Kobe? - Jay Mariotti, Aug 6, 2003
I am not a fan of Mark Cuban, the relentless referee-basher. – Jay Mariotti, May 30, 2006
Other naysayers have ranged from Hall of Famers (Red Auerbach, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to attention hogs (Mark Cuban) to has-beens (former NBA player Mychal Thompson) to modern-day nobodies (Knicks reserve Shandon Anderson). – Jay Mariotti, Oct 2, 2001
But then came the brick in the head Tuesday, when buzz circulated about the gross insensitivity and naked greed of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Needless to say, nothing good can come of a case that might leave a bigger smudge on the American condition than any criminal saga since O.J. Simpson. That sobering reality didn't stop Cuban, the frat boy who never grew up, from delivering an appalling commentary that makes him sound like an ignorant, money-grubbing stooge. – Jay Mariotti, Aug 6, 2003
If I were the commish, I would have thrown Cuban out of the arena for Game 6 and fined him $1 million. The integrity of the game and its officiating is that sacred, and anyone who bludgeons it should be punished accordingly. As refreshing as Cuban has been in turning around a dead franchise, caring about fans and lathering his players with luxury -- and as great as he would be as a Cubs owner for similar reasons -- his finest ownership attributes are lost when he runs around like a loon. – Jay Mariotti, June 21, 2006
Admirably, the commissioner is living up to his name by protecting the NBA's pummeled image with behaviorial crackdowns on and off the court. He is removing players from the guns-and-weapons culture, a long overdue ban. He wants owners to act like grown men and not frat boys, known as the Mark Cuban Rule. – Jay Mariotti, Nov 9, 2006
Hey Mark, still think of Jay as your ally? Go ahead and ask the pundit about these quotes and his rather suspect sincerity towards your bid to buy the Cubs. Listen to Mariotti yammer some lame excuse that "he is just doing his job, blah, blah, blah". And then ask yourself, at who's expense?
Don't say you have not been warned.
(Jay the Joke invites you to help spare Mark Cuban further unnecessary deception. Feel free to email the link to this article to mark.cuban at dallasmavs.com. After all, Cuban seems to find the time to reply back to Mariotti's text rants. Seems like a safe bet that he would appreciate a "head's up" before potentially "heading down" unsuspectingly to a certain bunker.)
