Remember when CBS owned the Yankees? For many New Yorker's it's a repressed memory equaled only by being a current Jets fan. Those were dark days when the Bronx Bunglers were the laughingstock of the American League.

George Steinbrenner managed to make the Yankees hated again and in the course of three decades built a perennial winner. He meddled, investigated, castigated and forbid facial hair below the lip but his wallet was every bit as big as his mouth.

18 times the Yankees made the playoffs and brought home a fistful of World Series rings. Whatever the Yankees needed George bought. But George hit the wall in 2006, age and illness forced him to the sidelines and like a lot of family businesses sometimes the son isn't a chip off the old block.

2007 started like a horror film, the Yankees stumbled out of the gate and were 18 games behind the BoSox by the end of May. Hank Steinbrenner was called Steinbungler and Hankenstein, Joe Torre made 500 pitching changes in 2007 crawling out of that hole to win the wild card. It was his last and possibly best hurrah. The Yanks were steamrollered by Cleveland in the playoffs 3-1. The ax soon fell on Joe in the form of a mumbled pay cut.

A-Rod made the off-season memorable with a bad agent and bad math skills, and the Yanks re-signed other veteran stalwarts like Rivera, and Posado. Unfortunately the well that brought the Yankees so much success ran dry. The open checkbook for pitching didn't matter. Every team in baseball desperate for pitching snapped up or traded circles around the Yankees, gone are the days where the Yankees culled the cream of the crop with money that left other teams gasping like fish out of water. Unwilling to trade their top prospects the Yankees saw Johan Santana come to New York as a Met. It was an ill omen for the Bronx Zoo.

The 2008 Yankees equaled last year's dismal April performance dropping 14 games. The better news is they're only 2 games out of first. The bad news? A-Rod and Jorge Posado are on the 15 day DL which spells real trouble for half of May, while A-Rod's pulled quadriceps might heal there's no definitive word on whether Posado will need surgery on his bum shoulder.

The pitching staff is good to fair to gut-wrenchingly putrid. The good, Chien-Ming Wang, (5-0, 3.23 ERA), and Andy Pettitte, (3-2, 3.23 ERA). The fair, Mike Mussina, (3-3, 4.73 ERA). (Is Moose headed for another meltdown like last season that got him sent on vacation in the middle of the wild card race?)

The gut-wrenchingly putrid; the young tandem of Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy are throwing pillows and batting practice for opposing teams. Winless in April, getting shelled early and often, both sport ERA's that look like snowmen on a bad round of golf.  Maybe they should take the bus to Yankee Stadium to remember what the minor leagues feel like.  They did inspire Hank Jr. to throw an April shower about wasting Joba Chamberlain in a setup role.

Does Joe Girardi have the temperament to handle a powder keg owner foolishly shooting his mouth off to the press all season long? Despite the great job he did with the Marlins he got the boot for not #### kissing one owner who while completely insane isn't anywhere near as nuts as Steinbrenner aching to prove to Daddy he can man up before the daughter steps in to clean up his mess.

The Yankees are finally damned, by the one thing they can't buy, trade, release, or send to the minors; squabbling billionaire siblings. Like every other baseball fan in America I'm going to enjoy watching the bonfire of the baseball vanities...Stay tuned for May.