LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles Dodgers have spread the gospel of baseball more than any other franchise, providing platforms for the likes of Jackie Robinson, Fernando Valenzuela, Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park. They have established the standard for pitching with rotations that have included stars such as Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw.
What they haven't done much is win.
Games, sure, they have won plenty of those. Championships are another story.
As much as their fans associate them with October glory, the actual history of the Dodgers is a story of underachievement, especially in the last half-century.
Of the franchise's six World Series championships, four were won from 1955 to 1965.
In the 53 years since, they've won two.
The Dodgers owe their status as one of baseball's signature teams to their iconic players, managers, broadcasters, stadium, uniforms and hot dogs _ anything other than their October record.
Fifteen other teams have won as many or more World Series trophies than the Dodgers since 1965, among them ragtag organizations such as the Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins and Miami Marlins.
After winning the 1965 World Series, the Dodgers had to wait 16 years for their next championship. Their current titleless streak is at 30 years.
The franchise's futility over the last three decades can be explained away as a byproduct of mismanagement. Peter O'Malley sold the Dodgers to Fox Entertainment, which was more interested in the team's broadcasting rights than it was in actually running a baseball team. Fox unloaded the team to the McCourts, who were underfunded.
In the context of the last 30 years, the last few years count as a golden era of sorts, with Guggenheim Baseball Management fielding some of the most expensive baseball teams of all time. The Dodgers have entered each of the last five seasons as one of the favorites to win the World Series and will do so again this season, reinvigorating fans who became disillusioned under the McCourts.
But with every season that ends without a championship, the pressure is mounting. How this era is remembered will ultimately depend on whether the Dodgers can win a World Series.
If they do, everything up to this point, including the loss in Game 7 of the World Series last year, will be viewed as incremental steps that were necessary to win the Big One. If they don't, fair or not, this period will be perceived like the last _ a disappointment, only more so because of how much money was invested.
Some other thoughts and predictions on the upcoming season:
Shohei Ohtani is 23 years old. He was sidelined for the majority of last season because of an ankle injury. And it's not as if he found overnight success in Japan as a two-way player.
It wasn't until his fourth season with the Nippon-Ham Fighters that Ohtani was an All-Star-caliber player as both a pitcher and hitter.
As an unfinished product, Ohtani shouldn't be defined by his statistics. Rather, his success should be defined by opportunity _ specifically, whether the Angels continue to let him play both ways.
That might not sound like much, but it is. These are the major leagues. Results are important and Ohtani will have to show the Angels something in the batter's box in order to continue this experiment.
For the record, I like Ohtani better as a hitter than as a pitcher.
