Who's To Blame For The Youkilis Screw-Up?

(Who did this you??  Who hurt you???  Courtesy of USATSI)

We're never going to find out, and I ask the question knowing full well that it really doesn't matter in the long run.  What matters is that Kevin Youkilis get 100% healthy and not come back to play until his back is 100% healthy.  But just out of sheer, morbid curiosity I'd like to know what went on behind the scenes on Friday/Saturday that led to Youkilis' name being put on the lineup card so he could go out there and hurt himself again.  Cash's statement on the matter yesterday was pretty damning, about as clear-cut an instance of people getting thrown under the bus as I've seen in some time, and I work at a company that specializes in that.  It's pretty out of character for Cash to be that blunt and sell his own people down the river like that, so I'd be very interested in knowing what happened to inspire his comments.


As far as I can figure, the "everyone involved" would have had to include Youkilis, Joe, and the training staff, with maybe Cash getting a vote on the matter after he heard all the reports.  His statement indicates that he wasn't on board with Youkilis playing, so who effed up?  We know Joe's been talking to Youkilis every day since he first started missing games, so did he just misunderstand something that Youkilis told him about how he felt?  Did the training staff miss something when they checked him out?  Did they miscommunicate something to Joe?  Or did Youkilis just snake everybody and say what he had to say to get himself back on the field?

Any and all of those explanations are possible and I'd believe all of them if that was the explanation the team gave.  But I still really want to know and it's driving me crazy knowing that I'm never going to know.  It's not every day that something like this happens in professional sports and it's not every day we see Cash sell his people out that publicly.  Somebody dropped the ball here, Youkilis is going to miss more time as a result, and his back injury could become an even greater lingering issue moving forward.  I DEMAND ANSWERS!!!