Jurickson Profar got into the minds of Dodgers fans

There was a lot of fun in every sense of the word this weekend, so it would be difficult to pinpoint the biggest one. It was an unusually eventful NFL Sunday with two blocked field goal scoop-and-scores and two hundred-yard defensive scores; Vanderbilt blocks Alabama’s hat and its fans run over the goalposts toward Nashville’s version of the ocean; Miami ruins Cal’s reintroduction into college football’s inner sanctum; Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty reached 1,000 yards in just five games; Kyler Murray celebrates a 50-yard touchdown run at the 45-yard line; the silly Mets-Phillies series; and the New York Liberty are closing in on their first WNBA championship by comfortably edging the Las Vegas Aces. And these are in no particular order; Your own emotional range may vary.

They were also the downright goofballs of the Dolphins-Patriots, all three tumultuous hours of it, and the disaster that is Jets general manager Aaron Rodgers; Davante Adams is in a stasis loop as the Raiders try to figure out the worst place to trade him; the NFL’s new speed concussion policy regarding Justin Fields and Josh Allen (note: their heads are still attached, so they’re ready to go); the Tigers-Guardians first inning; the mega-disaster that is Trent Dilfer’s apology/experiment in Alabama-Birmingham; and most depressingly, the lightning storm in Pittsburgh that delayed the Cowboys-Steelers but didn’t hit Elon Musk when he was there for the roast.

But nothing was more hilarious, and we mean it, than the outfield at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night. Jurickson Profar did the following, which led to a series of exchanges between Profar and the fans in left field, including a baseball change that caused a complete delay.

In a 10-2 Padres win, Profar’s catch was itself a troll of great size, force and depth, as he took Mookie Betts almost to third base before realizing his home run was nothing of the sort. In its own way, it was both incredibly disrespectful (no pun intended) to everyone else on the field and the broadcast crews, and extremely inflammatory to what has become the Dodgers’ most intrusive rivalry. It was, in short, art.

But not just art for a few seconds, but the new touchpoint in a series that could well become prickly, what with the geography, the Padres’ noisy neighbor syndrome, their general don’t-play-with-others-ness. Last year’s image appears to have to do with each other and the very real possibility that San Diego is good enough to eliminate the Dodgers, thus angering casual fans and Ohtaniphiles around the world. In other words, there’s a lot at stake here, a lot that the Royals-Yankees, the Tigers-Guardians, and yes, even the Mets-Phillies can barely match.

And if the series reaches the full fivesome (and that will be the case if there is a celestial being who loves and cares for its intergalactic creatures), the Friday night show-or-go game will be back with all its potential in Los Angeles his mutant fun that implies. Ohtani’s year could end up close because the Dodgers couldn’t find enough pitching to support him, the Padres and Guardians could meet in the first Empty Trophy Case World Series, Fox could try to go all Bally’s on his baseball rights, and Rob Manfred’s “October Of Love” could be another mouthful of ashes.

All because Jurickson Profar is not just a master of sleight of hand, but a mischievous provocateur of the first order. This could only be better if the Dodgers handed out souvenir Game 5 baseballs and made Musk fuck flyballs before Game 5 while wearing a brown jersey with Profar’s name on the back. We all live in hope.