Dodgers Confident Key to Getting Hot is Being Super Cool

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 10: Actor Brad Pitt watches a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics on April 10, 2018, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 10: Actor Brad Pitt watches a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics on April 10, 2018, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The Dodgers are confident in their ability to turn it on when needed. They know that their secret to getting hot is just being super cool.

In the 1970’s, the Dodgers were a cool team. But back then, they were outshined by Charlie O’s Oakland A’s and Cincinnati’s Red Machine in cool factor. Even the New York Yankees carried a certain caliber of cultural cache in the Summer of Sam with an icy edge the 70’s Dodgers just couldn’t out-cool.

Back then, the Dodgers had some solid mustache machismo, but they just couldn’t hang with some of the bigger facial hair stars of that era.

In 2018, luckily, that 70’s show is ancient history and the Dodgers are presently the coolest kid in school.

To even wear the iconic Dodgers cap is an instant self-esteem adjustment. It has a precise color: Dodger Blue. It has an interlocked L and A on the front telling folks that you are from the city; you are urban; you are streetwise.

Ice Cube has worn a Dodgers lid and so has Don Drysdale. Rock it with pride. When this hat’s on your head, you’re always in Cool Country amigo.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers /

Los Angeles Dodgers

And have you ever been to Dodger Stadium? The iconic LA landmark is quite literally a blue heaven on earth for at least one person. The nickname it has earned by association with the land Dodger Stadium was built on is by far the coolest ballpark nickname in MLB. Forget about the House that Ruth Built or Yawkey Way, you only need to know how to say Chavez Ravine to fit in with Dodgers fans in Los Angeles. It proves to everyone that you are in the know and hipper than all get out.

Nowadays the Dodgers boast a chill club comprised of a cast of cool characters. With offerings like orange beards, tongue-waggers, a wild horse, consecutive ROYs, a CY, a reverse-ager, a ki ki, and a Kenleyfornian just to name a few. Right now the Dodgers are cooler than cool – they’re ice cold.

Brrrrr. Look out for falling icicles.

However, when they’re ready to do their thing, the Dodgers will just press a button and start dominating. They’ll look cool doing it, too. Every other team will look like pubescent noobs clumsily stomping through their first ever slow dance in comparison.

But with such a cavalier attitude surrounding this Dodgers team, you never know what might happen on any given night. It could be a manic celebration as Dodgers fans experienced just this past Tuesday during a shutout against the A’s.

Leading off with back to back homers by Chris Taylor and Corey Seager, the team made a statement against Oakland. How cool are the Dodgers now? LA’s faithful were pleased that night, shouting: Matt Kemp hit a home run? Matt Kemp hit a home run. Matt Kemp hit a home run! Oh my, the Dodgers are back in business [high-fives all around]!

On the flip-side, with their devil-may-care attitude, the Dodgers are vulnerable to experience the occasional shellacking at the hands of an underestimated opponent. For instance, on Wednesday night when a lackadaisical and lethargic LA lineup let that same A’s team steamroll all over them like hot tarred asphalt. That night, while watching their team get pounded, losing 6-16, Dodgers fans fretted: Oh, no [thumb-twiddling all around].

This team is not one to wilt when the heat is on like a peace lily drooping on a hot summer day, though. No. This Dodgers team is cool under pressure. They know what they want and and when they want it.

After all, let’s not forget that the Dodgers lost their share of ballgames last season, too.

It’s like, if I were to eat the last danish off of a continental breakfast platter, I would most certainly look like a gluttonous loser. The glaze would get stuck to my sausage fingers and I would absolutely end up with whatever filling was in the center be it streusel, lemon curd, apple, cream cheese, or raspberry and cream cheese smeared onto my face and smudging my clothes.

The Dodgers on the other hand can take that last kolache from the serving tray and eat it right in front of you and you still will think they’re super cool. They will smile at you while they chew and you will admire the way the muscles of their jaw flex. You will amaze at how their perfect incisors tear through the puff pastry like a powerful racehorse might chomp through an apple after an epic run.

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Right then you just know everything will be alright because such Coolness has never before been personified the way it has been this year by the Los Angeles Dodgers. When the once-were-cool Oakland Athletics came to town, an ultra-cool playboy having Billy Beane Moneyball connections even showed up to grace us all with his steely coolness. Yep, that’s right; of course I’m talking about Farhan Zaidi. If you need more affirmation of the effervescent cool-ality of the Dodgers, though, I offer cool guy Johnny Suede who definitely thinks that Dodger games are the coolest.

With these modern Dodgers, it’s never been a question of if they’ll put together a hot streak of wins, but when? The Dodgers showed last year that, when inspired, they can turn it on and start crushing opponents at will. The offense is sure they can produce ample runs nightly. The starting pitching has no doubt they will be able to rattle off quality starts. Kenley Jansen and the Dodgers’ bullpen crew are ready to put the last inning stranglehold on hopeless opponents without fail whenever they feel like it.

For now, the Dodgers are cocky but not arrogant. Almost seeming as if to say, “Yeah, we’re not perfect. We might lose a few games to hated division foes at home and not at home, we might even get swept by a rival upstart with a chip on their shoulder. Heck, we might not even care about losing a game until we reach Game 7 of the World Series (which we will) – then we’ll really care a lot.”

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So, at the moment, there appears to be no real sense of urgency for this team of confident confidants. They will casually coast through their season with an air of nonchalance as if the playoffs are an inevitability that awaits them at summer’s end. So strap on your Locs, brah. If you are the Dodgers or a fan of the Dodgers, you are cool and that’s hot.