A perfect mediocrity with a .500 record at the All-Star break, the Chicago Cubs are doing even worse off the field: To finish the planned sale of the team, the Cubs "may become the first Major League Baseball team in 39 years to file for bankruptcy."

Real-estate tycoon Sam Zell, who's bollixed up the Tribune Co. but good, is trying to unload the futile, but beloved team (and its wonderful old Wrigley Field) to Tom Ricketts for $900 million. But too many bad assets — and we're not talking about Milton Bradley. No offense to the Cub faithful, but some observers are ridiculously comparing this proposed brief sojourn into bankruptcy court with a real life-or-death situation. From Bloomberg:

Yeah, "clean." And still a century without a World Series championship — they haven't even made it to the World Series since 1945.

Bankruptcy court won't solve that problem.

For a financial roundup of MLB (including those $2,625 seats at publicly subsidized Yankee Stadium that are going empty while ordinary fans can't even afford the cheap seats), see "MLB's First Half Reveals Money Troubles."