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….

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.” And managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, George’s younger son, weighed in with his own denial Thursday morning, saying in a statement: “I just read the Daily News story. It is complete fiction. Me and my family have no intention to sell the Yankees and expect it to be in the family for years to come.”

However, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation, the recent sale of the Dodgers to a group that includes NBA legend Magic Johnson is just one reason why the Steinbrenner family may be looking to sell the team, which experts estimate could be worth up to a stunning $3 billion.

– Michael O’Keeffe and Bill Madden, N.Y. Daily News.

Are you a hedge-fund billionaire looking to get your name in the papers more often? Do you fantasize about paying Alex Rodriguez tons and tons of money through 2017? Good news! The Steinbrenners could possibly be considering selling the Yankees soon, even though they deny it.

Hopefully I have an extra $3 billion laying around by the time it actually goes down because it’d be fun to buy the Yankees then troll everyone hardcore. Put names on the back of the jerseys, or change their name back to the Highlanders and go with an entirely Highlander-themed new logo and color scheme — tartans and lightning bolts and stuff.

By now, though, you know that none of that matters. While shagging fly balls in the outfield during batting practice before the game, Mariano Rivera twisted his knee and fell to the ground in obvious pain. Waiting his turn in the cage almost four hundred feet away, A-Rod spoke for Yankee fans everywhere when he said, “Oh, my god! Oh, my god! He’s hurt!” Manager Joe Girardi raced to where Mariano lay on the warning track, and moments later he and bullpen coach Mike Harkey were hoisting the greatest closer of all time — and by at least one measure, the greatest pitcher of all time — onto a cart that would drive him off into the sunset, perhaps forever.

The true extent of Rivera’s injury wouldn’t be revealed until after the game, but the specter of disaster loomed over the entire evening. At one point Ken Singleton reported that it was simply a twisted knee and said something about how Girardi would have to do without him for a few days. Anyone who had seen the play (you can watch it here) knew it was much worse.

Within minutes after the final out, Rivera himself confirmed the worst. He had torn his ACL and his meniscus. The exact course of action won’t be known until Rivera flies back to New York and meets with team doctors, but one thing is for sure: he won’t pitch again in 2012, and since this season had long been rumored to be his last, there’s no guarantee that he’ll want to return for 2013, nor is it clear that he’ll even be able to pitch next year. When asked if he thought he would pitch again, an emotional Rivera gave a sobering answer: “At this point, I don’t know. At this point, I don’t know. We have to face this first.”

– Hank Waddles, BronxBanterBlog.com.

That just sucks. Not much else to say about it. Here’s hoping he recovers and gives it one last go in 2013.

Time waits for no man except Jamie Moyer.

Two great points contained in one Hardball Talk post. First, the excerpt from Buster Olney:

The explosion of social media has fueled the desire to identify incompetence, to illuminate failure, to expose the cheaters. Within seconds that news broke that Michael Pineda will miss the rest of the year with a labrum tear, Twitter was flooded with theories — that the New York Yankees blew it, that the Seattle Mariners knew that Pineda was hurt, that there were idiots and schemers … The Mariners didn’t cheat, the Yankees weren’t idiots. It just didn’t work out.

Second, the perspective from Craig Calcaterra:

When bad things happen we often look for someone to blame. It makes it much easier to deal with bad news if we believe that it is the result of malfeasance. The scariest part of this world, however, is that the vast majority of bad things that happen … just happen.  Often for no reason at all other than bad random chance.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Brutal luck for the Yankees and Pineda.

Yankee star Derek Jeter, one of New York’s most eligible hunks since his split with longtime gal pal Minka Kelly, is bedding a bevy of beauties in his Trump World Tower bachelor pad — and then coldly sending them home alone with gift baskets of autographed memorabilia.

The Yank captain’s wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kiss-offs came to light when he mistakenly pulled the stunt twice on the same woman — forgetting she had been an earlier conquest, a pal told The Post.

“Derek has girls stay with him at his apartment in New York, and then he gets them a car to take them home the next day. Waiting in his car is a gift basket containing signed Jeter memorabilia, usually a signed baseball,” the friend dished.

– Emily Smith and Tara Palmeri, N.Y. Post.

Yikes. I know it’s from the Post, but I want to believe it anyway. I’m beginning to suspect this Jeter fellow has a pretty healthy ego. I mean, have you seen his license plate?