I have had trouble articulating why, in my mind, the Dodgers are migrating toward Yankee-hood. My boyhood favorite team. With good friends and cousins still rooting for them. But every year I get madder at the system that buoys the Dodgers, and sadder for my friends and family for what their Dodger-fandom must be doing to their souls.

This week, in a post about the Dodgers re-signing Miguel Rojas, Patrick Dubuque nailed it. (You have to scroll to the last part of his piece.)

Here are some key passages:

In some ways, the Dodgers are like what a child thinks being an adult is like. You head into the offseason wreathed in glory, ready for a nice relaxing break, like the ones your parents probably take after they inch their way through the drop-off loop when they send you to school. Oh, sure they still have to do stuff—everyone knows adults have to do stuff, they never stop talking about all the things they have to do. But you know they have nothing to complain about: They’re adults. They get to do whatever they want...

… Most teams would say … they can’t afford that sort of expense, what with all the bills and all the kids asking for more money every year. But they’re the Dodgers. They can have as many treats as they want.

...The fact that they get all those leadership qualities [in newly-re-signed Miguel Rojas] they clearly adore for free, on top of a numerically justifiable contract, is what makes them the Dodgers. That, and the fact that they get to drink beer and cola when the kids have to drink milk, which is totally unfair.

A certain beloved member of my family ¹. will come back from playing soccer or basketball with kids 8, 10, 12 years younger then him and brag about how he “schooled” one kid, or “dunked all over” another kid. I sometimes decide it’s time to again remind this family member that this is not a good look. There’s no honor in beating kids playing with half or 1/10 of one’s own resources (in this case, experience and practice time) so don’t gloat.

That’s why I still sort of hate the Yankees the most: because their fans are always gloating about dunking on teams with a fraction of the resources. In my experience, Dodger fans are nicer. But even when they keep their public celebrations modest, their quiet satisfaction is hard to bear.

Their team can do whatever it wants. Which is totally unfair.

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1. No, not Ryan, or at least not so much Ryan as the certain member I am talking about. Not Melanie, either. Nor Ben. Not even me — now stop, I’m not answering any more questions! ↩︎