Reports and rumors abound in Major League Baseball as they do in every sport. Trying to determine between true and false and speculation and fact can be hard.
It was reported that Jeb Bush and Derek Jeter had agreed to a deal of $1.3 billion to acquire the Miami Marlins three months ago, but it turned out that the two did not have sufficient money and were having problems finding investors that had it and would invest it.
Over the last three months Bush left the buying group of Jeter and joined that of Tagg Romney, but the former New York Yankees shortstop says that he not only found investors that he needs to satisfy Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, but one of the investors happens to be NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.
The new owners would then need to be approved by the remaining owners of team in Major League Baseball and it is still not known if the other team owners are in agreement with the decision that Loria is expected to make.
However, if Jeter does have the investors with the cash it is difficult to believe the rest of the league would reject such a legend of the game.
Jordan has much experience with baseball as he tried to play professionally after retiring the first time from basketball. He has also been the owner of NBA franchises and is considered someone who knows baseball operations.
The third group in the mix is led by Jorge Mas and a report was released Monday that said his bid had been accepted but there was no decision announced as of yet.
None of the bidders reached the mark of $1.3 billion that Loria was seeking and the Marlins owner does not have to pick an offer with the highest dollar amount.
The expectation is he will choose the winning bid in a week’s time so the wait will not be that long.
One possible investor in Jeter’s group was Richard Chaifetz a billionaire from Chicago who apparently backed out due to Jeter seeking outsized influence over the team, while investing what amounted to a comparatively low amount of money.
The contribution of Chaifetz has reportedly been set on hundreds of millions of dollars. Florida billionaire Bruce Sherman a part of the group increased the amount of his share when it was announced that Chaifetz had backed out.
