Los Angeles Dodgers: Believe in the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx Yet?

As much as I hate to say it, I'm starting to get creeped out by the Sports Illustrated "Cover Jinx".

On May 23, Sports Illustrated hit the newsstands with Matt Kemp and Magic Johnson on the cover of the magazine. At the time, Matt Kemp was already on the disabled list, but would eventually return to the lineup this past Tuesday.

There was some mention of the SI cover jinx here and there, but just like the "Madden Curse," nobody puts too much serious thought into it.

On Wednesday night, in Kemp's second game back from the DL, Andre Ethier hit a two-out double that scored Kemp all the way from first base. As Kemp rounded third he appeared to have a slight limp. At that moment my heart dropped and I knew he was hurt again.

As Kemp threw a fit of rage in the dugout due to the disappointment of being re-injured, I jumped online and started researching this so-called cover jinx. The results are astounding.

Here are just a few recent selections of the many examples giving some validity to this jinx:

• March 26, 2012: Albert Pujols is featured and subsequently goes 111 at-bats without a home run.
• February 17 & 23: Jeremy Lin is on the cover and has season-ending surgery on his knee a couple months later.
• June 2010: Stephen Strasburg's emergence as a star is on the cover and shortly after he became injured and had to have Tommy John surgery.

I'm going to stop the examples right there. If you care to look up the eerie history of the jinx yourself, check out the Wikipedia entry which provides a long list of, well, let's just say unlucky events.

If you need something more official (which is always recommended), CNNSI.com actually has their own page dedicated to the cover jinx.

Kemp is scheduled to have an MRI on his left hamstring on Thursday.

There's no such thing as a curse, right?

Joe Chacon is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and a Staff Writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.