Mayday. Mayday. The hull has been breached, and the Yankee ship is taking water.

Well, we did it. "It's Only" April is over, and the ever-listing Death Barge is tied for last in the AL East. We sit a game over .500, eight behind Tampa, a half-game down in the miserable wild card race - which increasingly looks like the only race we will know in 2023.

I shall not belabor this by listing our grievances. There is no time, no space, no stomach for such a litany. Besides, we know in our guts that the worst is yet to come: Soon, Gerrit Cole will tweak something. 

I say this so it does not happen, but - yeah - it will. 

In a strange, horrifying way, it must.  Somehow, the Yankees have built their house  on fault lines that run deep into the earth. Every attempt to patch a hole merely adds an extra layer of detritus to the teetering structure. It's taken us 10 years to build a concrete airplane with three wings and no propeller, and it will take a teardown and massive overhaul to get the team back on track. In the meantime, Tampa, Baltimore and Toronto are still ascending, and even Boston shows more reasons for hope. 

Over the last 10 years, how often has the Yankee brain trust blamed our woes on injuries and assured us that all will be fine, as soon as INSERT NAMES HERE return?

The bottom half of our batting order would be considered woebegone at Scranton, which, Fun Fact: has lost four straight. We have no breakouts in our farm system, unless maybe you don an oxygen tank and dive down to the Single A South Atlantic League, where 1B Rafael Flores (22) and OF Aaron Palensky (24) are hitting .404 (in about 50 at bats.) Everybody else, everywhere else, is lagging. 

The state of the Yankees this May Day, 2023: We are creaking, listing and ready to collapse. Evacuate the building, immediately.  

Yesterday's debacle - described in the 8th by Jack Curry as "the most demoralizing loss thus far this season" - (why, you ask, was I still watching?) - prompts an unspoken reply:  "It's early, Jack. Just wait. There are much worse losses ahead." 

If yesterday brought one positive, it is the growing anger across the Yankiverse, which is identifying the root of the problem: Our owner. 

Forget Boone and Cashman. They are lackeys. It's Hal, and nobody else. This winter, he was shamed into shelling out for Aaron Judge (even though the SF Giants offered more) and Carlos Rodon. But then, with major holes to fill, just like Giancarlo and Jackie D, he grabbed his hamstring and halted - a self-imposing spending limit. He could have chased a LF or fortified the bullpen, but Hal just stopped - as he always does.

He wants to win - sorta, anyway - but it's just not everything. There's a gentlemen's agreement, an unspoken limit, and Hal will always stay within it. Trouble is, he now competes with owners who want no less than a world series ring. Their franchises are what the Yankees used to be, and we are tied for last in the AL East.