Will the Yankees be "Trump's team?" And if so, are we doomed?

Generally, unless my Giants are playing in it, I view the Super Bowl as a repulsive, brutal pageant that celebrates corporate fascism and drug-enhanced mutants. But this year's spectacle has roused up a new stench: 

It's political. 

The New England Patriots - America's second most successful pro football franchise, after Alabama - is Trump's team. For me, that simply adds a bit of incentive to root harder against the Pats, a team I hate on principle. Go Falcons.

Now, before you start frothing... I come to praise Caesar, not to bury the fukkin asshole: If Trump man-loves Tom Brady, so be it. He is exercising his god-given right to root, and nobody - not even that there Gaga lady - should give a rat's "rah-rah-ooh-ma mah" about it. It's nice having a sports fan in the White House. We should all cut him some slack. 

Unfortunately, though, that's not our current world. 

As a brilliantly perceptive man noted in Politico recently, we are plunging into an abyss where everything - even sports - is taking on an us-against-them divisiveness. 

I say this because soon - like, next month - the Yankees likely will replace New England as King Donald's favorite team.

Yes, he claps for the Mets, but it's Yankee Stadium where he sips shamrock shakes with Billo and Rudy; it's Randy Levine who supplicates him at Trump Tower; it's Paulie O'Neill, whose endorsement rang out in Ohio; it's John and Suzyn that make his little hands flutter like butterflies. Like it or not, for the next four years, the Evil Empire will be lashed to Trump like Ahab to the whale. 

And it's going to hurt us.

Again, forget your feelings about Trump. The question here is: How does this NOT undermine us? At the least, it's a lingering controversy, which other teams happily avoid. At the worst, it splits the fan base and the team. When the President is cheering from the owner's box, the players get asked about it. Whatever they say pisses off somebody. And if the Yankees clamp down on locker room opinions, eventually that becomes an issue.

On the road, the Yankees could become "Trump's Team," making them even more unpopular than they already are. And there's little upside. Ardent Trump supporters in Cleveland won't switch allegiance and cheer for the Yankees; their hatred for us burns hotter than a billion suns, and it won't change because they privately think Donny Landslide shares cabana girls with Lonn Trost. For half of America - actually, 51 percent - it'll be their first-ever reason to boo Didi Gregorius.


If we were a dynasty like the Patriots, or the Yankees of 1998, we'd shrug this off like flakes of Cashman's dandruff. It might even embolden us. But this is a young team that will chase a Wild Card. It won't need distractions. 

Which raises the big fear: We melt down in May, turning Trump's team into a punch line on Saturday Night Live. If a just few players bomb - let's not name names - everything could go south to Mexico fast. Trump could push Prince Hal Steinbrenner into sign some executive orders, shipping out prospects for another Chase or a Jacoby... the baseball equivalent of invading Iraq.  

Imagine Trump turning up on Opening Day to throw out the first pitch. Listen to the cheers and jeers. Now, picture the bleachers in the seventh, with six beers into every foghorn's belly. WrestleMania.

Brace yourselves, everybody. Soon, Donald Trump will be America's Number One Yankee fan. 

Impeach?

(UPDATE: Patriots fans wavering because of Trump.)