The Cubs, as most Media File readers know, is the pro baseball team being sold by Tribune Co as it looks for a way to dig away at its mountain of debt after it was taken private by Chicago real estate mogul and noted raconteur Sam Zell (careful with that link. It’s NSFW). One potential bidder is Dallas Mavericks owner and blogger Mark Cuban, who got quite a plug during the conference.

Thomas Ostertag, senior vice president and general counsel for Major League Baseball, was giving a state-of-the-sport speech to an audience of several hundred sports industry officials and attorneys. Here’s what he said about the Cubs:

“We do expect this sale to get more public attention than really almost any sale I can think of in the history of our game, putting aside perhaps the sale of a guy named Babe Ruth to the Yankees way, way back.”

That’s when Joel Litvin, president of league and basketball operations for the National Basketball Association said, “I’m sorry Tom, can I make a plug for Mark Cuban as the next owner of the Cubs?”

Cue laugh from the crowd.

Litvin pressed on: “He’s smart, innovative and entrepreneurial.”

Ostertag smirked and replied, ”Moving on.”

More hilarity ensued, especially because few people believe Cuban has a shot at getting the team. But even if he doesn’t, he has plenty on his plate already.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman in San Francisco. Writing and links by Robert MacMillan in New York)

(Photo: Reuters)

Got any others?

We’re interviewing MLB’s Bud Selig (pictured left) and the commissioners of Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer, as well as NASCAR CEO Brian France (left) at the Reuters Media Summit in New York Nov. 26-28.

We expect they’ll discuss drug testing in sports and we’ll ask how they plan to keep team values rising and attracting new owners.

Here’s more:
Does hockey need to score a major network television contract to thrive? With a static fan base, how can NASCAR push for more growth? Does soccer need to sign other deals with global stars like David Beckham to draw more U.S. fan interest?

Send us more of your questions and comments to this post. We’ll try to get them answered by the commissioner. Check here to follow the interviews during the summit.

(Photos: sports leagues / clockwise from top left: MLB’s Bud Selig, NHL’s Gary Bettman, Major League Soccer’s Don Garber, NASCAR’s Brian France)

The average head golf pro earns almost $58,500, while Woods took home almost $112 million, according to data compiled by Web site Salary.com and in a report entitled “How many ‘Average Joe’s’ does it take to earn a pro athlete’s salary?” published reports.

Tiger’s pay dwarfs even Professional Golf Association Commissioner Tim Finchem’s $4.5 million salary, according to data compiled by Salary.com from  published reports in 2004 and 2005.

The disparity doesn’t end there as it would take more than 1,500 exercise specialists earnings more than $36,300 to equal boxer Oscar De La Hoya’s $55 million take home, 545 senior automotive mechanics making almost $50,000 to match NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s $27.1 million and 384 flight attendants making almost $60,000 to equal the $23 million earned by tennis pro Maria Sharapova. (pictured right)

All that is of little surprise to sports fans, who have watched salaries balloon across most professional sports. Long gone are the days when New York Yankees’ baseball pitcher Don Larsen, who threw a perfect game in the World Series, worked on farms and lumber yards in the offseason to supplement his income.

Of course, to appeal to the media, Salary.com threw in that it would take 3,692 reporters’ salaries to match Tiger’s, which just goes to show that Woods is buying the next time he shows up at the National Press Club.

updates to clarify sourcing on data

The owner of the Dallas Mavericks pro basketball team has been mentioned as a possible contender for Chicago’s iconic, loveable baseball losers, but plans to buy a team in the United Football League, the new competitor to the NFL. (See this New York Times story that broke the news.)

The UFL, which also is getting backing from Hambrecht + Co. investment bank founder Bill Hambrecht and Google executive Tim Armstrong, will start with eight teams and play on Friday nights.

The league will include teams in such NFL-less cities as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico City, which last year hosted the most heavily attended regular-season game in NFL history (Plans for a UK game are in the works as well).

Cuban, who has expressed interest in the past in buying the Cubs, stands ready to gamble on the UFL succeeding where the World Football League, the United States Football League and the XFL failed. Even the Canadian Football League failed when it tried to establish a presence in the United States.

Cuban could still be in the running for the Cubs, which Tribune has put on the block, but Major League Baseball tends to favor local owners, which may be a reason why Cuban is looking to the gridiron.

Side note: See this other New York Times article — which is a story by one reporter at the paper talking about how his colleague got the exclusive report… if you can follow all that.