Gasparino: 'I'm not making this stuff up'

Charlie Gasparino of the Fox Business Network joined Mut and Merloni on Thursday to discuss his story about the Red Sox owners "quietly shopping" the team.

Gasparino admitted that he knows very little about baseball, but that he knows the business of sports well and that his information is solid.

"There's no incentive for me to do this other than knowing first hand that there has been what I would call a very early stage entree to a potential buyer, and that internally among the brain trust of the Fenway Investment Group, the owner of the Red Sox, there is talk and they're talking about what to do with the team and to potentially sell it," Gasparino said. "Now, does that mean they're going to do it? Are we at an extremely early stage? Yes. Does [Larry Lucchino] have plausible deniability? Probably, but I am not making this stuff up. I don't care how many times they deny it."

Gasparino said that his information comes from "a source with direct knowledge," adding, "I didn't get this from the water cooler, guys."

Asked what the Red Sox might be worth, Gasparino said the ownership group would get a big return on their investment.  

"They think it's above a billion," he said. "… The number that's been bandied around is $1.3 [billion]. I've talked to people who say it's more."

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