Special Reports

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The Cubs opened a new season Monday with a new owner, a fabulously wealthy, eccentric and controversial Chicago businessman who inherited the Cubs when he bought the Tribune Company.

Sam Zell has made headlines talking about selling the ballpark, and taking the Wrigley out of Wrigley Field, for a price.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine takes a rare look at the man behind the myth, using Zell's own words and his close friends.

"I think the message is there's a new sheriff in town," Zell said upon his arrival as head of the Tribune.

A sheriff who came in with both guns blazing, caught in the act, courtesy of YouTube, recently answering an employee's question and then, when she turned her back on him, uttering an expletive at her.

"That's Sam," said legendary Chicago civic and business leader Lester Crown. "The one thing you can say is he's very consistent."

Crown says he's not surprised by Zell's profanity-laced pep talks to Tribune employees.

"What I'm looking for are the people in this company who are willing to step up and not worry about this [expletive] and that [expletive]," Zell said. "Worry about one thing. How the [expletive] do we win."

Never has the old saying "winning isn't everything; it's the only thing," been more appropriate.

"We did a lot of ski racing together," said Zell's longtime friend Howard Ecker. "Sam's method of skiing is going straight down the mountain. So either he won or he crashed. You might bet on him crashing skiing, but not in business."

His business: buying companies on life-support, then reviving them. The Tribune may be Zell's toughest turnaround yet, with Zell himself a target for the rival Chicago Sun-Times, which has tried to make him public enemy #1.

"He's really very, very secure in his own skin and he doesn't need approval by other people," Crown said.

In fact, when a Tribune intern tricked the Sun-Times with an entry poking fun at her new boss, he quickly responded with this e-mail.

"I was shocked! Appalled!" Zell wrote. "It demonstrated a glaring disrespect for your chairman and CEO."

And then he congratulated her for "a deft grab of the ball away from that other paper."

Zell's sense of humor is apparent in the holiday gifts for friends like David Bradford -- intricate music boxes playing personal messages set to original music.

His personal style isn't what you'd expect from your ordinary billionaire. Restaurant czar Jerry Kleiner has helped him throw extravagant parties featuring major fireworks displays and big-name stars like Bette Midler, the Beach Boys and Paul Simon.

"Everybody looks at this guy as a big untouchable, unapproachable sort of mogul," Kleiner said. "I think he's a really down to earth person. He's a really sweet guy."

Zell got his start selling Playboy magazines to his North Shore classmates. Selling the Tribune may be tougher, but friends say they haven't seen Zell this motivated in a long time.

"You think I needed to take on the Tribune because this is my way to make...maybe I can get a plane and maybe I can live in a penthouse or maybe I can have a house in California if this works?" Zell said. "I got all that s--- OK?"

Zell declined our repeated requests for interviews. Like most wildly successful business people, he's used to operating behind the scenes.

Equally successful friends say they don't envy his having to make tough business decisions about Chicago icons, second-guessed by everyone with a column or a barstool, every move captured by someone with a cell phone camera.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Editor's Picks

• Gay Celebrities
• Did You Know? Stars From Chicago!
• Celebs Who Lean To The Right
• Real Or Fake?