Crain's Chicago Business (subscription required) reported Monday that progress on the sale of the Cubs is slower than the junk Livan Hernandez threw to break Cub fans' hearts over the weekend.

According to a Crain's source, the boys in Tribune Tower are still trying to figure out how to maximize their return on the transaction, i.e., moving the Cubs, Wrigley Field and Trib's share in Comcast SportsNet in separate transactions or bundling them all in one big bag of billion-dollar fun.

The net of all this is that there now appears to be a distinct possibility that Tribco will continue to own the team well into the new year and even beyond Opening Day 2008, when Carlos Zambrano whizzes that first pitch under the chin of Rickie Weeks.

How that will impact Jim Hendry's budget this winter is, I guess, impossible to say. The Crain's source sounded confident, however, in pronouncing that none of the Cubs' suitors to emerge to date--including the high-profile group led by Chicago financier and friend of Commissioner Selig, John Canning, Jr.--are likely to lose interest because of the delay.

Mark Cuban, for one, is willing to spill his own blood to show how much he wants the team.