John Henry's denials that the Red Sox are for sale aren't resonating with the reporter who broke the story that the team is, in fact, on the block.
"I've been covering Wall Street a long time," Fox Business' Charlie Gasparino told Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti on Thursday's 'Felger & Mazz' show on WBZ-FM Radio (98.5 The Sports Hub). "You know, there are denials and there are denials.
"I heard team president Larry Lucchino . . . or maybe it was John Henry, talk about how, you know, this could be misconstrued because we're . . . talking about estate-planning purposes and this kind of stuff. When you start getting into that sort of banter . . . you see right through it.
"I will tell you: Usually, the sort of responses from people when . . . a reporter kind of made it up, is, 'We don't comment on rumor or innuendo or whatever.' But these guys are obviously out there trying to put out a fire because, you know, I caught 'em."
Gasparino explained why he went with the story in spite of the Sox' denials.
"If you read the story, we put their full-throated denial very high up in it," Gasparino said. "And then the question is, 'Okay, why do you go with something that . . . someone like Henry is denying?' And you do that because you're confident with your sources, and you're confident with the way you wrote it, and you're confident with the . . . over-arching meaning of the story . . .
"I can't tell you whether they're going to sell it or not. But I do know this: This is a team that's in trouble, and an organization that's in trouble . . . Listen, I'm telling you: They're doing it. I have this from a source with direct knowledge of it, and the fact that they're doing it indicates this is a team that faces some immense hurdles."
Boston Red Sox
When asked by Felger what those troubles were, Gasparino responded:
"I'm a business reporter. If I see that you're unloading players like they're unloading players, to the degree that they're doing it . . . when companies do stuff like that, those are telltale signs of problems. Again, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out . . .
"Also, you guys know full well that Henry has issues . . . with the Liverpool soccer team owned by Henry's Fenway Sports Group, and . . . what I understand is that he's coming to the conclusion that . . . it's hard to finance two big, struggling franchises."