Dodgers embrace being baseball's Evil Empire by literally giving away a Death Star

For a franchise that has always portrayed itself as being wholesome, let us just say: Welcome to the dark side of baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers. Long gone are the days of rival fan bases saying they only win Mickey Mouse championships. As it turns out, money can buy happiness in the form of championships, and after a second straight lavish offseason, nobody outside of L.A. is rooting for them anymore.

While the Dodgers have largely been the antithesis of cool, as Fernandomania predated me by almost a decade, I love the fact the boys in blue are leaning into being hated. It is not in their nature, but how can you not appreciate and respect what the Dodgers plan to do on their Star Wars Night vs. MLB's walking embarrassment known as, I guess, the Athletics? They have a freaking Death Star!

This may be the inner Slytherin coming out of me, but I do have an affinity for sports franchises leaning into the fact that nobody likes them. Us vs. the world. You love to see it! People may have really hated the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons, but I find that era of NBA lore to be quite compelling. If not for the motivation to finally get past Detroit, we might have never seen Michael Jordan win six NBA Finals over eight seasons.

Bobbleheads do nothing for me, but I gotta say that this one does tickle my fancy just a little bit.

I low-key love how Star Wars Night will be against a team that does not even have a home base.

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Los Angeles Dodgers fully lean into the dark side of the force this season

Nobody likes to be hated, but this is the role the Dodgers have signed up for. After outbidding seemingly everyone in free agency with something I can only describe as Monopoly money, I feel like as fans we do not even get to collect $200 for passing go. We are merely trying to avoid going to jail or having to pay Milburn Pennybags our life's savings for having to spend a night in a Park Place hotel.

Let's make one thing perfectly clear. I am not rooting for the Dodgers, and you should not either. While I do not own a tinfoil hat, there is a reason why Shohei Ohtani had a fall guy. As he rots in prison, I will tip my cap to him across the hall because I only plan on going to jail if I can do time in the Park Place/Boardwalk community. Mediterranean Avenue would have to be everyone's worst nightmare!

As far as if the Dodgers can wear the black hat, I would love to see them try. Everyone has a role to play, and this is the one they paid for. It does not last for long, as illustrated by LeBron James not winning three, four, five or six NBA Finals after taking his talents to South Beach. At the end of the day, good always prevails over evil. For right now, we all live inside of an Evil Empire, so come with it now!

The bulls are on parade in the city of angels, but will we see another one rolling down Rodeo soon?