Forty-three-year-old Wilmette billionaire Thomas S. Ricketts and his family are Tribune Company's "preferred bidder" for the Cubs.

Tom Ricketts is the son of J. Joe Ricketts, founder of Omaha, Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade, and is of no relation whatsoever to former Cardinal Dave Ricketts, whose image on this 1968 Topps card has haunted me since I was a baseball card-collecting kid back in 1968.

More about the new owner-in-waiting, who currently sits on the board of the company his father founded, though he was never employed by it:

Thomas S. Ricketts is the chairman and chief executive officer of Incapital LLC, a company he co-founded in 1999. Incapital is a technologically oriented investment bank focused exclusively on the underwriting and distribution of fixed-income products to individual investors. Incapital underwrites for several major U.S. corporations through its InterNotes product platform. From 1996 to 1999, Ricketts was a vice president and an investment banker for the brokerage division of ABN AMRO. From 1995 to 1996, he was a vice president at Mesirow Financial. From 1988 to 1994, Ricketts was a market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He holds a bachelor's degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

The long-running comedy hit, "Zelling the Cubs," has been extended. Tribune Company is giving the remaining bidders for the Cubs a few more days to consider their final bids.

Speaking of which, The Heckler offers a profile of the prospective owners that is too good not to share.

-- Blogging for Crain's Chicago Business on Wednesday, Ed Sherman reveals that he was a classmate of Mark Utay, the New York private equity investor whose surname sounds like Pig Latin but isn't and who also happens to be one of three finalists in the bidding for the Cubs.

The stories make it seem like Mr. Utay is some sort of outsider. Why we would want a New Yorker to own the Cubs? I know better. Mr. Utay and I went to high school together, graduating in New Trier West's Class of 1977.

Rahm Emanuel also was part of that class. Emanuel, Utay, Sherman. Well, two out of three ain't bad.

I can't say Mr. Utay and I were fast friends. We were acquaintances who knew a lot of the same people. That's what happens when you're part of a class of 700 students. I looked up Mr. Utay in our yearbook. He was pictured with the debate team and was an associate editor of the high school newspaper. I talked to a mutual friend who remembered Mr. Utay as being bright and opinionated. He didn't recall him being a great baseball fan, but obviously he has plenty of interest now.

The "not being a great baseball fan" part bothers me. I would like to nominate another New Trier West alum to become the next owner of the Cubs—Rick Malnati, former Bradley University basketball player and later the school's basketball coach. Malnati is also the son of the late Chicago pizza magnate, Lou Malnati.

Unlike Utay, Malnati is a true sports guy. And I'm thinking the quality of the food at Wrigley Field would increase greatly.

-- John Dewan's Stat of the Week column this week lists the "Top ten reasons to feel good about what the Cubs are doing this winter." Three of the ten reasons have to do with recently signed Milton Bradley and three have to do with Mike Fontenot.

#3—Since Mike Fontenot (age 29) will replace DeRosa (age 34) the Cubs will be younger by five years.

#2—Mike Fontenot’s plus/minus at second base last year was +11, DeRosa’s was -8. The Cubs defense at 2B will improve.

#1—Fontenot’s projected OPS next year is .809. DeRosa’s projected OPS is.783. Fontenot is actually the better hitter!

-- Finally, speaking of Bradley, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts, who got an up-close view of the outfielder during Bradley's time in L.A., offered the following in discussing the deal that Pat Burrell signed with Tampa, not as rich a package as the one Bradley got from the Cubs.

Bradley is a fine hitter but one who comes with his own set of problems, some of which the media is only too happy to overemphasize. "Bradley's history of temper flare-ups could be cause for as much concern as the injury history," writes Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, even though his paper reports that Bradley has missed only nine games in his career because of suspension.

Ever since he got caught up in domestic abuse allegations in 2005, I have abstained from weighing in on Bradley's character. Nevertheless, I find that many of those who make a moral case against Bradley are much more forgiving of serious personal flaws in other ballplayers. As far as on-field performance goes, I'd be more worried about Bradley's physical condition than his mental condition.

— Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I found no fewer than eight positives in the concluding game of the Cubs' mostly miserable 2-4 road trip.

— According to the Sun-Times, Tribune Company has pared the field of potential purchasers of the team and the ballpark down to five, with all of those parties having bid at least $1 billion. Mark Cuban is among the five; John Canning, Milwaukee businessman and friend of Bud Selig, is apparently not.

— In light of Kerry Wood's ongoing blister problem, the S-T's Gordon Wittenmyer became the first reporter covering the team to utter those two words, one of which is virtually impossible to spell correctly: Jeff Samardzija.

The blister on [Wood's] right index finger hasn't come close to healing the way the club expected by now, and Wood could be facing another trip to the disabled list after seeing a specialist in Chicago [Thursday]. That might open the way for hard-throwing prospect Jeff Samardzija to make his major-league debut.

Since his recent promotion from Double-A ball, Samardzija has started six games for the I-Cubs, going 4-1, 3.13, fanning 40 and walking 16 in 37 1/3 innings. This past Monday, the former Notre Dame football star held Nashville to 2 hits and 1 run over 6 innings while striking out 9.

— I'll be out of town next week, when manager Ryne Sandberg leads his Class-A Midwest League Peoria Cubs into battle against the Kane County Cougars in the special "Road to Wrigley" game right there at Clark & Addison, but it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. The Cubs have decided to open the upper deck for the contest, with some of the seats going for as little as $5. All in all, a brilliant promotional idea. Hard to believe the Cubs could have come up with such a thing in the absence of former marketing genius-in-residence John McDonough, now President of the Blackhawks, speaking of which...

— Having lived my entire life in the Chicago area, I am at peace with the idea that the weather here will be completely inhospitable to human life from November 1st through April 30th every year, without exception. However, this year on December 31st, I'm really, really, really going to pray that the high temperature on New Year's Day, 2009 hits about 85 degrees.

Under a front-page headline so large it precluded proper coverage of the paper's latest sweepstakes winner or the R-Kelly trial, the Sun-Times Tuesday morning shouted, "ZELL NO!" meaning that Sam Zell will not be selling Wrigley Field to the Illinois Sports Facility Authority and will instead "(plan) to package the Cubs and their landmark stadium in a private transaction."

The article by Fran Spielman and David Roeder continues:

...sources said Zell has rejected the state's proposed terms because it relies on a novel and untested financing plan: the sale of individual seats at Wrigley as if they were condominiums. The idea is called equity seat rights and has been advanced by Chicago area business executive Lou Weisbach, who has applied for patent rights on it.

Zell, Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney and their advisers have concluded that the equity plan and its tax ramifications would violate both the Internal Revenue Service code and the rules of Major League Baseball, the sources said.

– The Chicago Tribune reports that a new investor group has announced its intention to get in on the bidding for the Cubs. Called Robinson-Greenberg and Associates (after Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg), it "would represent the first African-American majority ownership of an MLB franchise."

Principals include: a Lutheran minister named Anthony Williams; real estate investor and catering company owner Marshall Bynum, Jr.; and entrepreneur Harold Davis.

According to the Tribune...

Bynum said the group intends to purchase both the Cubs and Wrigley Field, and is prepared for a price tag of $1 billion dollars or more. Tribune Co. has indicated it prefers to sell the stadium and team separately.

The Trib story also quotes a baseball official who questions whether or not this heretofore unknown investor group could possibly be a serious bidder for the club.

– Alright, it's my fault. I dared to think that the Cubs might go through the Cactus League season and the regular schedule without losing a game, and look what happens.

On Friday afternoon in Mesa, Les Walrond was tagged for an eighth-inning grand slam by the Giants' Eddy Martinez-Esteve, as San Francisco turned a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 lead, eventually dumping the Cubs 8-6. Carlos Zambrano and Rich Hill gave up a combined one earned run over the first four innings. Kosuke Fukudome collected two more walks and scored two of the Cub runs.

Alfonso Soriano, who sat out the Spring Training opener on Thursday, made his debut Friday and went 0-for-2. Aramis Ramirez was absent from the lineup for the second straight day owing to a "tight right shoulder."

The Cubs (Jason Marquis) will visit the Angels (Jered Weaver) in Tempe on Saturday.

– The Cubs have already sold 2.7 million tickets for the upcoming season. That's a franchise record this far out from Opening Day.

Put another way, it's more tickets than the White Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Blue Jays, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Indians, Twins, Orioles, Reds, Nationals, A's, Pirates, Royals, Devil Rays, or Marlins sold in all of 2007.

– The Wrigley Company is not reacting to Sam Zell's reported desire that they pony up for the naming rights to Wrigley Field and, in the words of the Sun-Times, start to "pay for what the chewing gum company has been getting for free," i.e., the promotional value of having their name on one of the world's most famous sports venues.

The Sun-Times says that Zell would prefer to peddle those rights to Wrigley since that would allow him to put many millions of dollars in the Trib's corporate pocket and spare Cub fans the trauma of having to attend games at Boeing Park or McDonald's Field.

Always thinking about the fans--Sam seems to be really great that way.