WSJ colleague Matthew Futterman files this dispatch on the bidding for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

For months Mark Cuban talked long and loud about his desire to buy the Chicago Cubs, even appearing on a local radio station to make his pitch, writing about it on his blog and being quoted in myriad newspaper articles chronicling his interest.

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Associated Press

Then last Friday, the deadline set by the team’s owner, Tribune Co., for initial bids, the usually loquacious Mr. Cuban went mum. Meantime, several other bidders–such as Madison Dearborn Partners chief John Canning and Incapital’s Tom Ricketts, whose family founded TD AmeriTrade Holding–confirmed they had entered the auction.

Cuban broke his silence Tuesday, supplying a nine-word response to an email questioning whether he made an offer for the storied franchise, Wrigley Field and a 25% interest in a local cable sports network.

“I bid,” Cuban wrote. “Just no value in talking about it.”

In addition to making the best offer, Mr. Cuban has to convince baseball’s 30 owners he will be an acceptable partner in their exclusive club. That may be no small feat considering Cuban, owner of the National Basketball League’s Dallas Mavericks, has been an outspoken critic of the NBA and Commissioner David Stern.

Tribune’s owner Sam Zell wants to sell the Cubs to help pay down billions of dollars in debt the company has been carrying since the real-estate magnate bought the media empire last year. Zell and bankers at J.P. Morgan Chase are expected to winnow the list of Cubs suitors to fewer than five in the coming weeks and to close the deal by the end of the year.