Waist deep in Big Muddy; will the big fool say to push on?

Tom Yawkey bought the Redsocks in 1933 and ran the club for 44 years. His racism is legendary. Boston became the last team to integrate, and while generations of just and earnest Redsock fans pined over their tough plight, the cause of it was not a curse by Babe Ruth or a "chosen" status from the gods - it was the scumbag legacy of their "beloved" owner. The phrase used most often to define the Boston team in 1968 was "country club." Yawkey never traded his faves. So they just kept losing, until finally he went away.

We are now 1-2 since the All Star break, and the Yankee fan base is torn about whether to even want victories - because we fear a winning streak will inspire trades of prospects for veterans. But for all the glandular secretions and the gnashing of tusks, last night it hit me that Hal Steinbrenner probably feels absolutely no pressure to change a damn thing. Odds are, he won't.

Over the last nine years, Happy Owner Hal has shown little taste for the dirty job of demanding excellence. When Lonn Trost made an idiot of himself this spring, describing his goal of keeping low-levels out of Yankee luxury boxes, he didn't get the hook. Why would he? Randy Levine sounds like a political oil can every time he opens his mouth. Brian Cashman has now been Yankee GM for 18 years - eighteen years - yet the farm system still sputters. That's the organization he vowed to build. Under what metric is Cashman considered successful? Joe Girardi has been our manager for nine years; does anyone think he won't return in 2017? (For the record: I don't think this team is Joe's fault. But what managers out there have such job security?)

Likewise, I suspect in 2017 we will again see A-Rod, CC, Ellsbury, McCann, Headley and the entire cast of Glee. Don't be surprised if the Yankees make Carlos Beltran a qualifying offer, or give Tex another year to salvage his career. Listen: These guys are all millionaires (Hal is a billionaire) who live in Westchester County and send their kids to the same schools. They dine together in the same restaurants; their wives swap recipes for potato salad. Hal isn't going to fire anyone in the front office. Good god, they are the people who insulate him from the scum - from fan websites like us, and from players who ride the Scranton shuttle for five years and then get discarded. These are the people he most cherishes - the ones who always say yes.

Reporters have been telling us the next 10 games would be critical to the future path of the Yankees. But - as Randy Levine says - we don't know a damn thing about running a team. It's just somebody's opinion - and not necessarily Hal's. There is no reason to think he will take up the unpleasant task of admitting defeat, cleaning house and starting over.

Listen: I don't think Hal is a Yawkey-style racist. (Frankly, the Yankees have their own historical demons on that front.) But Hal has the Yawkey "country club" spirit. He doesn't like to trade away beloved pets.

So... last night, we won. Of course, I'm happy - we beat the goddamm Redsocks, goddammit - but the damage is done. In game one, we let their new bullpen guy - Brad Ziegler - get acclimated to the AL East. We should have destroyed him. In game two, we allowed their eternal prospect - Eduardo Rodriguez - to become resurrected. We should have sent him back to Pawtucket. We won one of three. We are back to a game below .500. Everybody knows this team is an abomination on the Yankee legacy. But only one opinion matters, and he runs things in his pinstriped pajamas.

Can't even celebrate a win over Boston. God, we are screwed...