Even baseball fans who have been following the game for more than a decade may wonder about the fuss surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Three million tickets sold nearly every season, a huge local TV contract, continued popularity in the City of the Angels. Perhaps the only concepts Angelenos can agree on are their preferences for the Dodgers and Lakers.

Why that should be might seem like a mystery — because the Dodgers haven’t won a championships since 1988.

Their renown outstrips their results.

If you understand that … you are well on your way to understanding the status of Liverpool FC in English football.

To hear Liverpool fans talk — and in any gathering of a random half-dozen Brits, you will have at least one Liverpool fan — you would think the the club had won a championship just the other day.

When they haven’t won one since … 1990. Hardly any more recent than the Dodgers’ most recent triumph, in 1988.

If you can imagine getting tired of Dodgers fans talking about ancient history as if it were recent, yammering about Kirk Gibson and Fernando Valenzuela and Sandy Koufax … that is the same effect Liverpool fans have. Always talking about something that happened three or four decades ago. Or more. Unless it is to explain away the failures from 1990-91 forward.

Bill Shankly this, Ian Rush that, Michael Owen, Kenny Dalglish, ad nauseum. All of them united in one respect: None work or play at the club this moment.

So, after nearly a quarter century of not winning the league, during which Manchester United caught them for most titles (at 18) and passed them (now at 20) … they could do it this year. This season, Liverpool might actually be worth all the blathering of their “You’ll Never Walk Alone” bellowing fans.

As we enter the final six weeks of the English Premier League season, Liverpool sits at the top of the standings.

They have done it with attacking football led by Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, and perhaps aided by the fact that they did not play in the Champions League, as did all the other chief contenders for the league title. (The Champions League is a bigger deal to England’s elite than winning the league.)

Liverpool has won eight straight league games, including a 3-0 hammering of Manchester United at Old Trafford, and a 4-0 drubbing of Tottenham today before the adoring throng at Anfield.

Only Liverpool and Manchester City control their destiny. Each wins the league by winning the rest of their games, and they can’t both win out because they meet in Liverpool on April 13, a game that may well decide the title.

Imagine the Dodgers actually winning a World Series. Their fans would still be insufferable, but at least they would have something recent to talk about.

Same deal for Liverpool FC.