Do we have people trying to make baseball a regional sport again?

My anonymous friend, whom, as readers of the blog know, often helps me with material and the occasional fact-check, has sounded the alarm.

My friend does not usually delve into match-fixing, booking scenarios, or the like of stuff on this blog.  In fact, my friend wishes I would either de-emphasize or stop altogether doing so on football, rather concentrating on the head-injury angle -- and my explanation of trying to add that they are dying for a lie on top of the dangers of the sport adding to my friend's argument does not always come with agreement.  (My friend, to be fair, has experience with CTE and the horrors of what it can do to people.)

This is not, however, a football post.

My friend is a Dodgers fan, and the alarm has been sounded.

A lot of you have heard of the Sports Illustrated Jinx.  Swimsuit ladies excluded, it would often be the case of getting on the cover of Sports Illustrated and then bad things happening.

Well, it appears to have come down for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers, as of about two weeks ago, were in the midst of the one of the most unbelievable seasons and runs you've ever seen in the history of the sport.

On August 22nd, 2017 (Cover date August 28), Sports Illustrated came out with the following cover -- which was echoing a sentiment rampant in sports coverage for most of the summer:



The next day, Rich Hill threw a no-hitter.

He did.

But you'll never hear about it, because the Dodgers couldn't plate one lousy run in Pittsburgh to cash it in, and they lost 1-0 in 10 on a walk-off home run.

On August 22nd, the Dodgers were 89-35.

They've been 3-10 since.

Worse:  The Arizona Diamondbacks, who've been crowing and throwing at them, have won 11 in a row, including four over the Dodgers, and, tonight, J.D. Martinez hit four home runs in a 13-0 rout.

A 21-game lead in the National League West has fallen to a mere twelve and a half games.  The Dodgers have 25 to play.

They are still nine up for the best record in the NL (over Washington), and eight (over Houston) for best record in baseball, to give you an idea of just how sick they've been most of the year.

But did this SI cover come at a point where The Powers That Be, in search for a more hardcore and intense September than the rout the Dodgers were putting together in June, July, and August would imply?  Since the Dodgers are not the Cubs, St. Louis Crackers Cardinals, Yankees, or Red Sox, are they of no use to this situation?

Several Diamondbacks think so.  During last weekend's sweep in Arizona, Fernando Rodney said this of the Dodgers (from Jack MacGruder):

“I don’t think they [the Dodgers] want to [face the Diamondbacks in the playoffs],” Rodney said. “Because we have (Zack) Greinke. We have (Robbie) Ray. (Patrick Corbin) has been throwing the ball well. We have good a good staff. The bullpen, we are here all season long.

Basically, it's almost as if they are trying to put into people's heads that the Dodgers don't have the stones to be hardcore and intense enough to be like their massive 2013 brawl, something which it now appears that Commissioner Blinded By The Light wants, so he can compete with football.

But wouldn't, especially if this WERE a somewhat intentional move to depush the Dodgers (which would only take a tweak of the strike zone here and there!), this mean that they want baseball to be a regional (Chicago - St.Louis on east) sport?

And wouldn't that be the LAST thing you'd want if you were trying to make more money?

But the Red Alert has been correctly sounded.  And if you don't believe my friend about wanting to push the likes of the Cubs on the rest of us, recall the bonanza ratings the Cubs brought last year's World Series...