A cosmic event (maybe)

Fernando Valenzuela died the other day at 63, and if that seems far too young it also seems far too old for those whose memory has some reach. Isn't it always 1981, where Fernando lived? And isn't he always 20 years old, just a kid from Mexico trying to make his way as a pitcher in the bigs?

Sure he is. Why, you can see him out there on the bump in Los Angeles Dodger blue, making another batter fan the breeze. Doing that thing where he rolls his eyes toward the heavens in the middle of his windup, right before he unwinds and sends another seed dipping and darting toward the plate. 

Happened just yesterday, didn't it?

Fernando peering toward the heavens. Fernando chaining another batrack. Fernandomania plucking the 20-year-old kid from obscurity and transforming him into a cultural icon.

Seemed almost as unlikely as imagining Fernando Valenzuela at 63. When the hell did that happen?

And if Fernando at 63 is way too early to die and way too old to grasp, what about the timing of his passing? What script writer dreamed that one up?

Fernando Valenzuela going off to the angels, see, happened the very week the World Series starts up. And not just any World Series, but a Dodgers World Series. And not just a Dodgers World Series, but a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.

Some sort of cosmic hoo-rah going on there, you have to think. Might even call it an omen.

But what kind of omen, exactly?

By the Blob's lights a Dodgers icon joining the company of heaven right before this Series means one of two polar-opposite things. Either it means Fernando will reach out from the next world to inject every Dodger arm with spectral Fernando lightning, or it means one extinguished spark will herald another.

Fernando dies; the Dodgers lose the Series.  The synchronicity of the eternal, or something like that.

Me?

I'm ecumenical about these things. Could go either way.

Although how perfect would it be to see some current Dodger arm -- Walker Buehler, maybe, or maybe closer Blake Treinen -- suddenly start rolling his eyes toward heaven in the middle of his windup?

"That would be tres spooky, Mr. Blob," you're saying now.

And with Halloween just a week away. Like I said, perfect.