Panic. A matter of timing

Sports fans see it every year. When their home teams in various sports loses a few games, especially when they're supposed to be pretty good -- the local scribes and talking heads that follow them will always bring up the panic question. Is it time yet? Personally, yours truly has always found this notion quite silly, if not outright laughable, for a couple reasons.

First, in any professional "league" sport, at the end of the season there can only be one champion. In one form or another, all the rest have to lose somewhere along the way. If all the fans of all the losing teams decided to panic, 95% of Americans and most Canadians would be whacked out on Xanax, or other medicinal goodies. That doesn't appear to have happened, at least not to a large degree. Ahem.

Secondly, franchises such as the Detroit Lions would have ceased to exist long ago. Why? They wouldn't have any fans. If after 50+ years of futility, the Honolulu blue and silver faithful were prone to jumping out of tall buildings every time their team crashed and burned, that particular species would have already been extinct for decades. Obviously, that hasn't happened. The throngs of Lions' fans are very much alive and semi-well. No Xanax for them, but lots of beer. How many Ford Field draft beers equal one anti-depressant pill anyway? Beats me, but I'm pretty sure the pharmaceuticals are a whole lot cheaper. Nevertheless, hats off to a species that has not only survived the worst of times, but actually seems to be growing in numbers. They're breeding -- multiplying, buying even more Lions' gear. Infants in strollers are commonly seen wearing a mini-Lions jersey. Little do the adorable little tykes know their parents have set them upon the path to certain doom in the sports world. So innocent, and corrupted already. It doesn't seem fair.

However, it could well be there comes a time when sports fans should indeed panic.

The NHL playoffs are over. The LA Kings are the champs. Same with the NBA and the San Antonio Spurs. The US Golf Open recently concluded. A German, Martin Kaymer, won it. A few days ago, the French Tennis Open wrapped up. Russian Maria Sharapova took the ladies' honors and Spaniard Rafael Nadal the mens'. The NFL won't get serious for another two months. The American soccer faithful -- evidently there are some -- are jubilant because the US finally, FINALLY, defeated Ghana? This is a cause for celebration? Please. Even their head coach has publicly stated the US team has no shot at winning the World Cup. NASCAR will have a race almost every week, but that doesn't get interesting until the "Chase" starts, which is several months away.

So what are we serious sports fans left with in the meantime?

Baseball. Perhaps there's a reason they call it the dog days of summer. Most people have always thought that was about the players slogging through the heat day after day while grinding out a long season.

But it's also about sports fans. No hockey, no basketball, no college or pro football for a couple months?

If there was ever a time to panic -- it's now......