Rumors are flying in Major League Baseball and New York banking circles that the family that has owned Major League Baseball’s premiere franchise since Cleveland shipbuilder George Steinbrenner purchased the club for $8.8 million in 1973 is exploring the possibility of selling the Yankees.

Multiple baseball and finance sources told the Daily News they are hearing that the team the Steinbrenner family has led to seven World Series titles could be put on the block in the wake of the record sale price of $2.175 billion the Los Angeles Dodgers went for in April.

“There has been chatter all around the banking and financial industries in the city for a couple of weeks now,” one high-level baseball source told The News.

Yankee president Randy Levine adamantly denied the rumors: “I can say to you there is absolutely, positively nothing to this. The Steinbrenners are not selling the team.”

Sure, and, back in the ’50′s, the Dodgers and Giants said they were not moving to the West Coast…

Seriously, now is the time to sell for the Steinbrenners. The Dodgers sale set the market price. And, the Yankees know that their team is getting old and average…and the pipeline is not full of legit prospects. Factor in the changes in the draft and payroll taxes – and the Yankees product on the field is going to get worse in the future. Then attendance and TV ratings go down. That’s not going to help the value of the team. Better to sell now, and cash out, while the value is still high.

Hat tip, no pun intended, to Chris Creamer.

More on this here.

Major League Baseball management has fired Shyam Das, the arbitrator who overturned Ryan Braun’s drug suspension in February.

MLB informed Das and the players’ association of its decision last week. Das had been baseball’s permanent arbitrator since 1999, part of what technically is a three-man panel that also includes a representative of management and labor.

“Shyam is the longest-tenured panel chair in our bargaining relationship,” union head Michael Weiner said. “For 13 years, from the beginning to the end of his tenure, he served the parties with professionalism and distinction.”

Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement says the arbitrator can be removed by the players’ association or management at any time with written notice.

“I had the distinct privilege to serve as chair of the MLB-MLBPA arbitration panel for almost 13 years,” Das wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “I have the greatest respect for the representatives of both parties I worked with during that period, and I wish the parties well in their ongoing relationship.”

MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred declined comment, spokesman Pat Courtney said.

The sides will now try to select a successor. If they cannot agree, baseball’s collective bargaining agreement calls for them to ask the American Arbitration Association for a list of “prominent, professional arbitrators.” The sides would then alternate striking names from the list until one remains.

A classic case of MLB taking its toys and going home?

I am still waiting for the judge to ask Clemens’ lawyer: “Did you say ‘yutes’?”

Major League Baseball is working on a scheduling reconfiguration for the 2013 season and beyond that likely will eliminate the Mets and Yankees as well as other “natural rivals” playing home-and-home, six-game series annually, baseball sources told ESPNNewYork.com.

With the Houston Astros moving to the American League West next season and the leagues becoming balanced at 15 teams apiece, natural rivals throughout baseball no longer will be guaranteed six games a season and home-and-home series, the sources said.

That goes for obvious intracity rivals such as Mets-Yankees and Cubs-White Sox, as well as for more-forced natural rivals such as the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners.

The Mets and Yankees will continue to play six games a season — three apiece at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium — when the AL East and NL East line up for long-form interleague play every three years.

But in the other seasons, a major league source added, the competition likely will be limited to three games at one ballpark, or two games apiece at each ballpark.

Sources cautioned that the 2013 Major League Baseball schedule, and the precise new configurations, are still being discussed.

I wish there was a way to get this right. If the Yankees are going against the Red Sox, Rays, Orioles and Blue Jays to see who finishes first in their division, then, those five teams should all play the same schedule. That’s only fair, right?

Detroit Tigers slugger Delmon Young was arrested early this morning after he allegedly assaulted a man in front of a Midtown hotel, police sources told The Post.

Cops were called to the hotel around 2:40 a.m. after Young, whose ballclub is in town to play the Yankees tonight, pushed the man to the ground, sources said.

Young, known for his powerhouse arm in the outfield, was “highly intoxicated,” sources said, and had to be taken to the hospital to sober up before being moved to a police precinct.

The victim suffered scratches on his arm and was treated at the scene.

Young, who has had problems controlling his temper in the past, was charged with assault in the third degree and is in custody while awaiting arraignment.

Anger managment issues, perhaps?

Nice to see Damon land a home.

Yankees first baseman Mark “Tex” Teixeira has a new team.

No, the four-time Gold Glove winner hasn’t been traded.

He’s signed on with Patch, as “Commissioner of Patch Baseball.”

Teixeira will interact with Patch users by regularly responding to questions, sharing baseball tips, and posting exclusive videos. Teixeira will also offer young athletes advice on how to stay in shape and why healthful eating is so important for optimal performance.

“I live in a Patch town now and I keep tabs on my original hometown via the Patch site there, so I’ve seen the ways that Patch supports its communities,” said Teixeira. “I’m excited to be a part of that by connecting with Patch users who have the same passion for baseball that I do. I’m eager to see what kinds of questions they toss my way!”

“Baseball is such an important part of so many of the communities we’re in–and if something’s important to our users, it’s important to Patch,” said Rachel Feddersen, Chief Content Officer at Patch. “Mark is a great representative of what Patch stands for. We’re thrilled to offer this exclusive opportunity for our communities’ baseball players, from little leaguers to college prospects, to interact with this World Series champion.”

Now that he’s the commish, does this mean Tex will have even more “pull”?

Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said prior to Monday’s game against the Phillies that he would travel back to Miami after the game and hold a press conference Tuesday to address comments in a recent Time magazine article concerning Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Guillen was quoted as saying he respected Castro for having been able to remain in power in Cuba as long as he has.

Guillen later apologized for the comment during the team’s road trip this past weekend to Cincinnati, saying: “I’m against the way he [Castro] treats people and the way [he has treated] his country for a long time. I’m against that 100 percent.”

The press conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Marlins Park.

“I was planning to do something Friday, but [Tuesday] we have the day off and I want to make everything clear so people can talk to me face-to-face,” Guillen said. “They can ask me whatever questions they want, and the sooner the better for the people, for the ballclub and for me. I want to tell people what is going on in my mind and what I believe.”

Guillen said he has been struggling with the situation the past three days and hasn’t been able to sleep.

“I want the people there,” Guillen said. “I feel embarrassed. I feel guilty not because I’m lying, but because this thing hasn’t let me sleep for three days. Only my wife knows how bad it’s been last few days. I feel very guilty, sad and embarrassed. Anyone who wants to be there, feel free. I want the Cuban people to understand what I’m going to say because everything I’m going to say is true.”

Guillen said he wasn’t surprised by the reaction and knew how deeply it would affect the Cuban community.
“I have to face it,” Guillen said. “I have to make people feel good about themselves. I will say what I said a couple of days ago. I don’t want to just make a statement and that’s it because I think when you do that, that’s a bunch of crap.

“I feel sad because I know I hurt a lot of people,” Guillen added. “I’m Latino. I live in Miami. I have a lot of friends and players [that are Cuban]. They know who I am. They know how I feel.”

This Ozzie thing reminds me of 1992 when Marge Schott said “Everything you read, when [Hitler] came in [to power] he was good…They built tremendous highways and got all the factories going…Everybody knows he was good at the beginning but he just went too far.”

At the time, Bud Selig, fined Schott $25,000 and suspended her for the 1993 season. Will he do the same now with Guillen?

One of the nation’s top baseball prospects, a bright student headed to Vanderbilt, was found dead along the side of a Tennessee road on Tuesday after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sending shockwaves throughout the Volunteer State baseball community.

As reported by the Jackson Sun, the Nashville City Paper and a variety of other Nashville-area news sources, Parsons (Tenn.) Riverside High ace Stephen Gant was found dead in Perry County shortly after the local sheriff’s office had been called about a man walking up and down the road with a gun threatening to commit suicide.

“We found the body of Stephen Gant about 30 feet from the roadway with a gunshot wound,” Perry County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Nick Weems told the Sun. “We do believe at this time that it was self-inflicted; however, we will continue to investigate to look at other possibilities to make sure it was suicide.”

To call Gant’s death a stunning turn of events is a vast understatement. The senior was a Vanderbilt signee with what many anticipated would be a bright future at one of the nation’s most impressive college baseball programs. In all three of his prep seasons he had been named the Sun’s Baseball Player of the Year, a remarkable achievement in a tough Tennessee baseball region.

In fact, Gant’s arm was so strong that some had even penciled the senior in as a likely first round draft pick in the forthcoming MLB draft.

On Tuesday, the communities that knew him and were looking forward to his arrival were still struggling to come to grips with the teenager’s tragic death, as Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin made clear in a statement released to the press.

“This stops you right in your tracks,” Corbin said in the release. “These are life occurrences that can’t be explained … there are no ‘do-overs.’

Indeed.