So I came into work after the Giants had just beat the Dodgers on Wednesday to complete the 3 game series win and a co-worker friend of mine excitedly approached because he had a good one to share. It was a joke he’d heard and he’d probably been sitting on it for 12 hours or so to spring it on me, the Dodger fan. “What does a Los Angeles Dodger fan do after his team wins the World Series?” asked Paul. “I guess burning down his city like Giants fans do isn’t the answer, right Paul? I replied. “No,” he said, “He turns off his PlayStation 3.”

How do Giants fans celebrate their team winning the World Series? By burning a $700,000 bus and causing millions of dollars in damage to private businesses and vehicles. Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
(Photo courtesy of SF Chronicle)

When the Dodgers become the brunt of Giants fan jokes, and the jokes have a 25-year history of justification, it’s time for the Dodgers to win a championship and shut them up. If you were to ask me if I’d be satisfied with the Dodgers winning the N.L. Pennant this year, I’d have to answer “no.” They have to win the whole thing. Giants fans need to be stopped. Many of you in Dodger country don’t understand, but I live amongst them. I’m the subject of ridiculing. I’m the guy they point at and laugh. I can take it, but it’s not fun.

“I don’t get what Magic Johnson is smiling about?” says another a Giant fan that I don’t know too well. “The last time the Dodgers won a World Series, he was playing the Celtics in the finals.” Not entirely true. They were actually playing the Pistons, but you get the drift. Now have a Tic Tac mister garlic fries breath.

I hate almost everything about the Giants – everything except the actual players, that is. The funny thing is there are many of them that I can actually respect.

But those fans. Annoying and irritating doesn’t accurately describe them. What is beyond annoying? Multiply annoying by ten. Smug is probably an accurate term. These guys really think they know baseball. As successful as their team has been over the past three seasons, they still revel in attacking the Dodgers and their fans. That’s a sign of an inferiority complex in my view. While for years the attacks would be based on a jealousy of the Dodgers and their years of success, (though they’d never admit that). At least we could always mention their empty trophy case. Not anymore. The tables have turned.

They’ve got bragging rights now. They’re actually on the verge of a dynasty. When we think of the Dodgers from 1962-66, now that was a borderline dynasty. Well, the Giants with another pennant have equaled those years. For that reason alone, the Dodgers must win now.

As it sit and read Josh Suchon’s work Miracle Men, his book on the 1988 Dodgers championship team, I can’t believe that 25 years have passed. A quarter century of not only the Dodgers not winning the World Series, but not even sniffing a pennant. Losing twice to the Phillies in the NLCS isn’t a close call in my book. Both times they were dispatched in 5 games. That isn’t close in my mind.

Josh Suchon’s new book Miracle Men details the last time the Dodgers won a World Series title. It’s time for another one (or ten). (Image courtesy of Triumph Books)

These guys have to win the while thing. They need to silence the critics and put up and make them shut up. They need to win a series of championships, (one would be a good start). They need to be the team that everyone fears.

It’s a given that the Dodgers are hated in many cities in the league. Lately though, that hatred has been accompanied by laughter and mocking. Can you do that to the Yankees? Sure you can hate them, but there is always a respect that accompanies it. That’s the way it used to be with the Dodgers, but those days are long gone. It’s time for the respect to return.

It’s time for another one of these.
(Photo courtesy of scpauctions.com)

Dodger fans deserve to bask in the glory of another championship. Too many years have passed. Too much loyalty has gone unrewarded. Too much money has been spent. The Dodgers time has come. No more excuses. It’s time for on field execution and baseball prominence to be returned to its proper place. A World Series Trophy in Chavez Ravine. A celebration on the home field, 50 years after Sandy, Maury and Rosie danced around the mound after beating the Yankees. That would be the world returning into its proper order.