Any day now, the Los Angeles Dodgers will win the National League West, sending them to the playoffs, with the chance to win the World Series.

And do any Dodgers fans really think they will do that? Win a World Series? This year? (We could ask “in their lifetimes”, but let’s not be dramatic.)

It has been 27 years since they won a World Series, in 1988, and all they needed then was one of the most dramatic home runs in baseball history (thank you, Kirk Gibson) and two overpowering pitching performances (thanks, Orel Hershiser).

Since then?

The Dodgers reached the National League playoffs in 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2014. Not only did they not win a World Series in those postseason appearances, they did not advance far enough to lose a World Series.

And what about this team makes any Dodgers fan confident they will change that this fall?

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This was the mind-boggling score of the weekend. Actually, of the season, so far. Maybe the decade, to date. A team from a hamlet, really, of the northern UAE outback that is Fujairah, scoring four on Al Jazira, the big, proud club smack in the middle of the 1 million people on Abu Dhabi Island.

Jazira, perennial Arabian Gulf League contender. Dibba Al Fujairah, perennial threat to decline back into the utter anonymity of the UAE’s second division — and maybe stay there for five, six years.

And a 4-2 final for the guppies? (Beyond “minnows”, for you cliche-hugging soccer fans.) Four goals against a team with several individual players who probably get paid more than the entire Dibba roster? (Say hello, Mirko Vucinic, late of Juventus; and you, too, Thiago Neves, obligatory Brazilian attacker.)

How did this happen?

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When a person moves around, it’s hard to take along exercise equipment. It’s not like you can pack a treadmill or an elliptical or a rowing machine. It’s not practical to bring along 50 pounds of free weights in your carry-on at the airport. (May not even be legal.) You think about these things. “If I move, how will I exercise inside on a cold/hot day?”

So it was with good intentions that someone sent along a video of a man demonstrating 30 exercises you can do anywhere. No gym necessary. Not your own modest one or the professional one in the city.

The trouble with the video?

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You hang around Englishmen long enough, you realize that they do not consider their homeland a cultural monolith. Accents can change every mile or two, lifestyles, too, and a certain level of “tribal-ness” can be found.

A particularly unique area is what they call the “northeast”, the area around the Tyne River, and particularly Newcastle, but also Sunderland. Those cities are far closer to Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scotland) than they are to London or even Liverpool.

Most of the people in the northeast speak with what is known as a Geordie accent, which is so strong that Americans often have trouble understanding it.

Some of England’s best soccer fans live in the region, and the two biggest clubs in the area are Newcastle United and Sunderland. Each is well-supported by fans, and they are arch-rivals in the Tyne-Wear derby.

Greg Lea, one of The National’s England-based correspondents, did a piece this week about strong fan support in Geordie country and success on the pitch.

Not long ago, he argues, the link was fairly solid. If you played before big crowds, you likely had a good team.

Newcastle and Sunderland, however, seem to have lost that connection. Fans continue to show up. Their soccer teams, however, often do not.

To wit:

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I was not old enough to fully appreciate Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees catcher, who died last night at age 90.

He was a really, really good player for about a decade, from 1948 to 1958, and he was named MVP three times during that span, but I wasn’t really paying attention until the 1960s.

By 1963, when the Dodgers swept Berra’s Yankees to win the World Series, I was paying close attention — but Yogi was no longer relevant. He had lost the catching job to Elston Howard and if he got in the lineup it was as a corner outfielder. In that 1963 World Series, he got one at-bat.

It is quite likely, thinking back, that I was aware of Yogi Bear before I was aware of Yogi Berra — whose name was the inspiration for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon bear, circa 1961.

I regularly watched Hanna-Barbera stuff, and I knew all about Yogi’s antics in Jellystone Park. I imagine I was a bit confused, when I found out about this old ballplayer, and wondered why he had a name so similar to that of the cartoon bear.

But those who were born in, say, the 1940s (or earlier) would have known Yogi Berra instantly. The short, squat, homely, almost misshapen catcher who was the soul of the New York Yankees during their run of 10 World Series championships from 1947 through 1962.

Those of us without the benefit of greater years came to know the post-ballplayer Yogi who became famous for malapropisms — which is not quite fair, cosmically, considering no less an authority than baseball historian Bill James ranks Yogi the greatest catcher in baseball history.

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Just about everything trendy in the United States can be found in the UAE. It’s remarkable, really … the assumption by corporate America that the UAE will be a welcoming place for whatever it is they are selling.

And, apparently, usually being right about that.

Whatever It Is They’re Selling usually lands first in Dubai, up the road from Abu Dhabi. And if things go well in Dubai the retailer/store moves down to the capital.

California Pizza Kitchen. Cheesecake Factory. Shake Shack. PF Chang’s. IHOP. Jamba Juice. TGI Fridays.

And now Baja Fresh, the “fast-casual” Mexican chain which had a couple of stores in Dubai … now has one here in Abu Dhabi, near the multiplex theaters in the semi-new and thoroughly sprawling Yas Mall. (Near the Yas Circuit, where they run the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix … on Yas Island.)

We are fans of Baja Fresh. It’s Mexican. And in part because the chain has been known for fresh ingredients. That’s kind of their marketing thing. That and the salsa bar.

And we tested them on the freshness scale, and the crew passed the test, after a rocky start.

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Anyone who follows soccer at all in the Middle East knows about Omar Abdulrahman. Or “Amoury”, as he is known by fans.

Tiny kid, enormous hair, advanced technical skills. Plays for the UAE and Al Ain club.

This is a part of the world where putting a little mustard on every pass is considered a mark of greatness. Well, as long as you can pull it off.

And on the occasion of his 24th birthday, a scouting service compiled nearly 16 minutes of Omar highlights.

Have a look, if you want to see someone at the far end of the “technical” spectrum.

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This is a hoot.

Apparently Matt Cleary got some attention in the States a week ago, when he live-blogged the San Francisco 49ers game with the Minnesota Vikings for a newspaper in Australia.

Why would Australia care?

Because a famous former rugby player from Australia named Jarryd Hayne has made the 49ers roster as a running back/punt returner, and Oz is very curious about this.

And a little amused at the myriad technical aspects of American football which, we should concede, feels like it is run by lawyers.

Here is Cleary’s live blog from the 49ers’ 43-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it is amusing as Cleary bestows nicknames left and right (“Benny R” is a prominent Pittsburgh player whose real name Cleary tired of typing) and is left confused by this or that NFL oddness.

Some of the best bits:

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If Satan played soccer, he would look and behave exactly like Diego Costa.

He would cheat. He would taunt. He would be sneaky evil. He would be a player with some skills who still chose the dark side.

He would scratch and push and kick when God wasn’t looking. He would subvert the rules of a great game and turn it into a sham. And he would wear his evil on his twisted, snarling face. Just like Diego Costa.

I am not sure I can name a player — in any sport — as repulsive on the field of play as is Diego Costa.

Against Arsenal in the Premier League today, as the video shows, Costa …

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I need to scold the newspaper headline writer for this one.

“Matar man of the moment …” is how it started.

And anyone who follows UAE soccer would immediately think of someone other than the man to whom the headline writer was referring.

That would be Ismail Matar, the Al Wahda forward universally considered one of the three best players in UAE history.

But this time, Ismail, 32, was not the hero. For a change, it was little brother Yaser, the defender for Al Jazira. And two days short of his 30th birthday.

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