Mark Cuban: 'I'm done chasing and bidding on baseball teams'

Mark Cuban might be a popular choice to buy the Dodgers should the team go up for sale, but the Dallas Mavericks owner said Wednesday that he no longer will initiate efforts to acquire a major league team.

Cuban, speaking before the Mavericks played the New York Knicks, was responding to questions about his possible interest in the New York Mets. The Mets' owners announced last week that they would be interested in selling a minority share of the team.

"I'm not going to -- whether it's here or the Dodgers, for that matter -- I'm not going to put myself in a bidding situation," Cuban said, according to ESPNNewYork.com. "I did that twice and learned my lesson."

Cuban bid for the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers but failed to acquire either team. In December, after a judge threw out an agreement that would have granted Frank McCourt sole ownership of the Dodgers, Cuban declined to say whether he would pursue the club.

"It's too early to say," he said in an e-mail to The Times. "Let's see what happens if and when it goes up for sale."

Cuban did not go as far Wednesday as to say he is not interested in buying a team. He said he would discuss possible acquisitions or partnerships but would not lead the way in pursuing a team.

"I'd be more than happy to discuss it," Cuban said. "But I'm done chasing and bidding on baseball teams."

He added: "I get contacted by franchises all the time, or representatives of franchises, in all the major leagues," Cuban said. "I've just come to the conclusion that if I'm going to write a huge check, I'd rather have my [butt] kissed than have to chase."

-- Bill Shaikin

Comments

[Zen]

Steve,

I think Cuban expressed my sentiments, exactly. I'm done chasing the Dodgers, as well.

And you?

[Bud Selig]

Now I know for sure Cuban is interested.
.
Next how do I give Mark the keys?

[skyharbor]

Mr. Cuban doth protest too much, methinks.

[LA42]

Cuban, a tell it like it is kind of guy.He is this way because he's smart, has the cojones and the money.....Baseball needs to stop living in the past and let this guy buy a team, like the Dodgers.

[JC]

Hey Cuban now in days you don't have to bid any money to own a MLB team. All you have to do is drive a taxi in LA and hook up with the wife of a MLB owner and before you know it you are a part owner.

[scott]

Cuban would be perfect, how to get a broke franchise back on the right track.

Selig is retiring in 2012, by then it maybe called the broke dodgers are in 3rd place.

How many true dodger fans love this crappy offense.

Ned wake up and smell the coffee, when you turn down a guy really wanted a tryout something is wrong?

Jermaine Dye
Dye told Ken Rosenthal earlier this winter that the Phillies, Rays and Rockies had been in contact with him. The veteran slugger also said he discussed a workout with the Dodgers in December but the club didn't call him back.

[Airedale]

Bud Selig doesn't want someone like Mark Cuban owning the Dodgers. Selig loves having the cash strapped McCourts running the team like it's some small market franchise. Cuban would infuse real money into the team and give Dodger fans a championship contendor. Cuban is too strong and independent to ever get Bud Lite's approval.

[fool & his money]

That's all we need, this fool running onto the field arguing missed-calls.

Before the McCourts were "given" the team, Cuban had an opportunity to buy the team at a lesser price than the current value and didn't do it. Why didn't he, what's changed? Dude should just stay away from Chavez Ravine and L.A.

[aprilglaspie]

Please, please, please, Mark Cuban. Buy the Dodgers. This is the greatest owner in the history of professional sports not named O'Malley.

[aprilglaspie]

How did Selig ever get to be the commissioner. He's never been anything but the Brew Crews owner. He's ... pretty much inexcusable. Anybody that would come up with homefield in the WS going to the league that wins the AS game is a horse's (fanny) and no kind of baseball guy at all. Worst rule in the history of organized sports, other than the tuck rule, which we have to thank for Belichik and prima donna "can't touch that" Brady.

[aprilglaspie]

Jermaine Dye is almost as old as I am. Ollldddd. And he played for the Braves. Oh, and fool and his money, somebody should have been on the field arguing blown calls when Mr. October stuck his butt about a mile out of the basepath. Or is that just chalked up to a bad break.

[Guess Again]

I see from the latest photos that Cuban and Charlie Sheen share the dame colorist ...

[Native Angeleno]

People need to read the lines, and then between them. Cuban says he's tired of chasing when he could do a better job than most owners with his bucks and determination.

Translation, who is the chaser he wants to chase him?? Not Dodger fans, as if he wants to be loved. He wants to be respected, because he has been rejected, snubbed, by MLB's other billionaire owners and commissioner, who want nothing to do with a free-spending NYY-type owner driving up player payroll with the quaint thought in mind of bringing a WS to any number of underachieving decades-long also-rans. They would have to approve him, and they have made it clear to Cuban they don't want him in the club. THAT'S what he means when he says he wants to be chased, and not chase when he knows they don't appreciate what he's about in the least.

Understand, all, MLB installed McCourt precisely to keep Dodger player payrolls dropping into the distant future, lest some billionaire busybody like Cuban raise them up into the Yankee/Red Sox spending stratosphere. They want that like they want to throw away money and actually "compete". Please. That is not what drives the owners. See David Glass' profits from running KC into Zabriskie Point. Big bucks from operating a team is what they want. And allowing Cuban into their midst is like burning billions in a fireplace they'd prefer to keep in the vault. That's business, folks. That's how baseball is really run, and why.

[Steve Wimer]

If MLB cared about L.A. fans they would go with Cuban. They don't!

[bluz1st]

Mark Cuban - If his mouth is moving, he is lying.

Mark Cuban says the Mets should feel free to ask him if he wants to own part of their team, because he would be open to listening, the New York Post reported Thursday 2-3-11.

[grumpy3b]

The Dodgers decline in class when O'Malley eighty-sixed the team jet then it was a done deal when he killed off the buffet for the press. That was the true beginning of the end of the Dodgers. The move into medocrity was complete with the handing of the team the McCourtCo.

Look my money is on that McCourt was not after the team to begin with, he wanted the land and is very intent on parting out the land, the TV rights, then dumping the team even if via defaulting on the loans.

From what we read early on in the divorce proceedings, he has already handed over the parking lot land to that dummy company where the team is supposed to be paying rent for their own parking lot. Well after enough time of not paying that bill, this dummy company can seize the land based on failure to pay. So McCourt then steals that asset from the team. Need I go on? He will, in the next several years try and do something similar with the rest of the hill top that is Chavez Ravine owned by the Dodgers. Once the land is safely separate from the Dodger organization he will just default on the debt owed on the team and let the league take it over. It's "House Flippers 101"...

And oh yeah, do not be surprised if McCourt hands the TV rights over to another dummy company for a token fee. Maybe even a company owned by one of his sons.

I am actually surprised some reporter has not speculated after looking at the rats nest of dummy corporations and "agreements on paper" to see what McCourt has really be up to. I would not even be surprised that once it all is done that he and the Screaming Meanie did not suddenly realize they "love" each other again. By then she will have a crap-load of cash via the "divorce" and the two of them can "make do and try to survive" by living off the billion or so she was given. And we won't even get into what he will hand over to his kids soon enough. I guess I just don't trust the guy...I mean look, he has managed to bring back the Greg Brock-Eric Karros (sorry dude I loved you as a Dodger but your teams blew chunks)-Mike Marshall era team.

I guess all I have left in the time I have left is to be bitter about the teams they will field. A true shame, thanks ever so much.

[realistic_dodger_fan]

Mark cuban has finally realized that he was never going to be approved to get a team. Wow he is a billionaire but has his team ever amounted to anything. Has he kept promising young players or traded them for veterans. I would hate if he we the owner because his antics and constant looking over coaches and GMs hasnt worked and wont work. I mean I like the guy and his antics but I love to observe from afar. That being said the Dodgers do need a new owner but not Cuban