Symptoms: Sweats, rapid heart palpitations, nervousness, shakes, tremors, constipation, muscle twitches, sleeplessness, sensitivity to the appearance of orange and black things, extreme mood swings, panic attacks when certain relief pitchers appear, hair loss, nail biting, feelings of anxiety. An incessant compulsion to verbally attack anyone that speaks negatively of the Dodgers.

Dodgermania, It’s got to be an illness? How else do you describe those symptoms a sufferer experiences leading up to game time during the post season?

This is the time of year that I personally don’t enjoy games, I attempt to survive them. There’s a euphoria of meteoric heights when the Dodgers win and a depression of epic proportions when they lose. It has been a quarter century since I had that feeling of calm that the baseball season has concluded and we’re sitting on top. That’s a long time. Sadly, there are some that have never experienced it.

It only takes five words to trigger Dodgermania

The only cure for symptoms of the malady described above is to win. Eleven times in October to be exact. In the process, there is never a complete cure from the illness. In some extreme cases, it’s terminal. Often times the result of it is a broken heart. However, no matter how painful the ailment is, the symptoms seem to dissipate over time, once the cold weather of the winter season subsides and the warm spring arrives, the memory of that painful suffering from a few months previous, drop deep in the recesses of your mind.

Dodgermania has temporary cures, and that is when the boys in blue are a winner in October. That relieves all ailments for approximately 10-11 months before the suffering inevitably comes again, just as the leaves start changing colors.

Yes, Dodgermania. The disease that gives and takes a lot from all of us. I don’t seek a permanent cure, only the ability to control it, and sometimes, not even that.