As the NY Daily News continues to promote it's NY Yankees are for sale story on it's front page: "Manhattan without the Empire State Building? Brooklyn without the Bridge? The Yankees without the Steinbrenners? There is a strong possibility that the team could be up for sale." -- Yankees COO Lonn Trost went on the Boomer & Carton show and said, (paraphrasing) 'You lie Michael O'Keeffe & Bill Madden!' Or, quoting: “We’re reading fiction on the front and back page of the newspaper.”
“Listen, there have been stories about the Yankees and what we do about every aspect of our existence. However, this one is an absolute fabrication,” Trost said. “I’m sure that no one can find no evidence about this. There are no discussions, there have never been any discussions. In fact, the story should really be in the New York Times’ schedule of fiction.”
“We’re aghast at such a story,” the COO dropped.
O'Keeffe and Madden's sources added, "Hal Steinbrenner rarely attends games, and according to those who know him, abhors doling out the huge money long-term contracts such as the Rodriguez deal."
Now who likes the Rodriguez deal? Nobody. "I just read the Daily News story. It is complete fiction. Me and my family have no intention to sell the Yankees & expect it to be in the family for years to come," Hal said in a statement to CNBC. Trost also responded to the allegations that Hal has a no-show gig: “I also read that he’s not here much,” Trost said. “He’s here every single week. He’s here every single week.”
Trost audio via WFAN:
Madden later joined B&C and confirmed that baseball people sorta confirmed non-substantive rumors on the street that there was a lot of talk of such. George Steinbrenner once said of Bill: "Bill has been a close friend of mine for years. He's a spectacular sports writer who really knows his business."
“So I have Randy Levine’s denial in the story,” Madden said. “But the very fact that baseball people don’t seem to believe that — or at least in their minds, there is something to this story. And that’s all this story says."
Madden concluded: “We could have very just easily ignored this whole thing. But every time we called somebody else in baseball, we got the same thing.”
Instead? The front and back cover and 'There is a strong possibility that the team could be up for sale.' Awesome.
Later Hal commented: “It is pure fiction,” he said. “The Yankees are not for sale. I expect that the Yankees will be in my family for many years to come.”
“Major League Baseball has received no indications from any representatives of the New York Yankees or anyone else that the club is for sale,” the commissioner’s office said in a statement.
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