Anyone Want Mark Cuban's Yearbook?

It's not too often that a piece of Mt. Lebanon High memorabilia comes up for sale, but we finally have one: the 1975 Mt. Lebanon Log yearbook, featuring future billionaire Mark Cuban.

This is the yearbook from Cubes' junior year, which would ultimately be his last at any high school. Cuban went on to become a Pitt Panther for one year before transferring to Indiana University's Bloomington campus.

Half of the proceeds from this auction will go to Cuban's Fallen Patriot Fund, which was established to help families of U.S. military personnel who were killed or seriously injured during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Fallen Patriot Fund will be matched dollar for dollar from the general funds of the Mark Cuban Foundation, up to $1 million.

I never knew that Cuban had any such involvement with anything related to the military. So while doing some background research for this story, I found out that amongst the Mavericks, the Pittsburgh ownership flirtations, The Benefactor, Dancing With the Stars, Blog Maverick, and HDNet, Cuban sparked quite a debate with his editing of the movie Redacted, which was based on the Mahmudiyah killings (the rape, murder, and burning of Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, in March 2006 by U.S. soldiers, who also killed her parents and younger sister):

During a New York Film Festival press conference for the film, De Palma mentioned that Redacted is itself redacted, due to Magnolia Pictures owner Mark Cuban "being disturbed" by the ending montage's imagery. A voice from the audience called out "That's not true"; with the speaker identifying himself as Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures. The producer of the film later appeared on stage to explain that the images were taken out not because they were disturbing, but because of concerns about the possibility that relatives of the dead persons appearing on the photographs might bring lawsuits for emotional distress and the like. Magnolia, he said, had been put in "an untenable legal position" making the movie uninsurable.

So Mark Cuban is now editing movies involving the conflict in Iraq. Amazing.

I must admit, it's easy for Cuban to come across as incredibly annoying, especially during his Pirate/Penguin-buying attempts. But you have to respect a guy that can have his hand in sports, entertainment, technology, media, and philanthropy and still make it work on some level. You may love him, you may hate him, but he's one example of a successful person born and raised in our city. For that, you should at least respect what he's accomplished in so many different fields.

Mark Cuban 1975 Yearbook [eBay]

Fallen Patriot Fund [Fallenpatriotfund.org]

Mark Cuban [Wikipedia]

Will Mark Cuban Back Up His Words?

Lest anyone forget, I bring back the article from the November 2 installment of "Blog Maverick", Mark Cuban's personal blog on whatever crosses his mind.

Cuban leads off the piece with this thought:

"I already know that not creating my own ownership group to buy the Penguins will go down as a huge mistake. There are only so many hours in the day, and I didnt have the time, or the expertise in hockey to do it right. My mistake."

Cuban goes on to talk in greater detail about his recent trip to a Pens game, which coincided with the Mavs-Cavs preseason game at Mellon Arena. He purchased a $277 Malkin jersey and had it signed the next night. From his account of his Malkin-Crosby experience, the infectious atmosphere of our favorite hockey team seemed to reel in Cuban in a major way.

According to Forbes.com, Cuban is worth $1.8 billion...and rising. He has flirted with not only the Penguins, but the Cubs and the Pirates as well. So with Blackberry Balsillie heading back to Canada with no team in hand, wouldn't now be a great time for Cuban to put his money where his mouth is?

I'm not trying to spend anyone's cash here, but if the guy said a little more than a month ago that he wished he purchased the team, and now it's back up for sale (by all accounts), wouldn't common sense indicate that Cuban make an offer soon?

There are pros and cons to going down the Cuban Road. A pro is that he probably would spend the money needed to keep the team viable, as opposed to a McNutting regime that runs another franchise in town. Say what you want, but he has never short-changed Mavericks fans in terms of player acquisitions. That would be important in a near future of signing multiple superstars to extensions.

A con is some of the peripheral noise that goes along with Cuban. Would he be as visible an opponent to Gary Bettman as he is with David Stern? Would he manage the Dairy Queen in Brentwood for a day? Would he steal the spotlight from the Crosby/Malkin/Fleury/Staal publicity machine? If you say "no", just remember that even his current Dallas Mavericks players think he needs to "chill out", as evidenced by this interview with Dirk Nowitzki during the NBA Finals:

"..Do I think it's a bit much sometimes? Yeah. He's got to learn how to control himself as well as the players do. We can't lose our temper all the time on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too. He's got to improve in that area and not yell at the officials the whole game. I don't think that helps us.

"We all know what Mark brings to the team, how he supports us. We live with who he is, and we love him that way. But do I think it's good for us always? No."

Will Cuban make an offer? I doubt it. His involvement in the Andrew Murstein group (the one that also involved Dan Marino) was by all accounts on a minor level. Cuban has enough money to buy the Penguins 10 times over on his own. If he was serious in his interest, he wouldn't need an Andrew Murstein to head the ship.

Whatever happens, one group will have to shut up, once and for all: either the Pittsburghers who constantly pine for Cuban to buy one of our teams, or Cuban, who always ponders the idea of buying the Pirates/Penguins out loud but never writes the check. We'll have our answer shortly. Until then, I guess we'll all have to read Blog Maverick.