Earlier Thursday, a New York Daily News report indicated that “multiple baseball and finance sources” were having “chatter” about the New York Yankees possibly being up for sale.

Yankees president Randy Levine earlier denied these rumors. Now it’s Hal Steinbrenner’s turn:

“I just learned of the Daily News story. It is pure fiction,” Steinbrenner said in a statement. “The Yankees are not for sale. I expect that the Yankees will be in my family for many years to come.”

That sounds very much like the “vote of confidence” that general managers sometimes give when field managers are on the hot seat; those are usually followed by firings of said field managers within a couple of weeks.

Hal Steinbrenner’s statement sounds pretty definitive, but you know how these things go. Denials, then more rumors, then no one talks on the record, then suddenly the thing that was so vehemently denied happens!

Will it happen that way this time? Maybe not. But you never know.

For more on the Yankees, please visit Pinstripe Alley and SB Nation New York.