Sports. USA vs the World. Good news, bad news

Sports wise, at least professionally, the USA reigns supreme in a few areas. Certainly the NFL is far and away the pinnacle of American style football. But that's just it. For whatever reasons, no other country around the world even bothers to attempt to play such a sport.

Major League Baseball sits on top of their own mountain. Though the Japanese and various "Latin American" countries have their leagues, it appears the ultimate goal of most of their players is to somehow, some way, make it to the "majors". Of course, the ever-present money factor comes into play, but still, few would doubt Bud Selig's bunch represents the highest level of play.

The USA gets a "dream team" together every 4 years for the Olympics in basketball, and they've had great success against international competition. But that's an anomaly because other countries assemble their own version of an All-Star team. Though there are many "regular season" pro leagues abroad, particularly in Europe, from top to bottom the NBA is light years ahead of all of them in talent.

Hockey's a different animal. While most NHL teams are based in America, most of their players are NOT American. Canadians remain prevalent, and countries such as Sweden and Russia might well argue their leagues are every bit as talent-laden and competitive as anything that's going on in the new world. Sure, many of them want to play in the NHL. But again, it's about the money and the perks that go with it.

Soccer? Well, despite the media blitz and uber hype surrounding the USA's venture into the World Cup again, the Americans still aren't that competitive on the world stage. And now that they've been bounced by Belgium in the first "knock-out" game, it's entirely probable all the quadrennial futbol maniacs will go back into hibernation until 2018. Has soccer finally caught on in the United States? Definitely, in ages 5 through maybe 12. The soccer moms and soccer vans are everywhere. Alas, shortly after puberty, the answer is a resounding NO, particularly amongst the boys. Other higher profile sports capture the attention of players talented enough to compete in them. Soccer is good, but being a baseball, basketball, or football stud is much better. Did I mention what human instinct kicks in shortly after puberty? Nevermind. Connect your own dots.

Now for the truly bad news. Tennis. On the world stage, the USA is beyond terrible. They're almost non-existent. Consider the current pro tennis rankings-----

Amongst the men, the US has but one ranked in the top 50. That's John Isner at #11. He was recently bounced at Wimbledon and has never won a major tournament. After Isner, it drops down to Sam Querry at #67, Donald Young at #69, Steve Johnson at #70, and Bradley Klahn at #75. Quick question -- after Isner, have you ever even heard of any of these guys?

The women's side doesn't look much better. Sure, Serena Williams is still #1 in the world, but it appears she might be starting a decline that could become precipitous. In other words, she could go downhill fast. Serena will be 32 next month, and that's getting up there in pro tennis years. Consider her sister Venus, merely a year older. Once a dominating player herself, she apparently hit the wall a while back and is no longer even ranked in the top 30 world-wide. The next generation of screamers is running the poor old gal ragged on the courts. And it's only going to get worse.

Further consider Serena's recent record in the majors. Though she went into the Australian Open with an astounding 22 match winning streak, hence #1, she was eliminated in the 4th round. In tennis, that means she didn't make the Sweet Sixteen. At the French Open a few months later, she was blistered in straight sets by a relatively unknown player in merely the 2nd round.

This time around at Wimbledon, she got knocked out in the 3rd round by yet another relative unknown. Father Time is against her and the young boomers keep on relentlessly coming from all over the world. What her and Venus once did to the established "stars", the young upstarts of today are doing to THEM. They come, they rise, they peak, they fall, and they finally have to quit. Such is the nature of all sports, but time seems to speed up in pro tennis.

On an odd note, though both had already been eliminated from singles competition, Serena and Venus had to "retire" from their doubles match because something was obviously wrong with Serena. She couldn't catch balls that were bounced to her by ball boys/girls to serve, struggled to bend over and pick them up, fumbled them, looked like she was about to fall over while trying to serve, and wound up weakly bouncing -- BOUNCING -- a couple serves into the net. She finally got one over the net, but it looked like a lob serve a fifth grader might offer. Hardly what one would expect from Serena, who typically has one of the fiercest serves in the world. And she wobbled some more.

Finally, the medical people decided to check on her. Her blood pressure was taken while Venus looked anxiously on. No systolic and diastolic numbers were given, but they would determine Serena had some sort of "virus". I never knew a simple blood pressure check could diagnose such a thing.

To yours truly, it looked like she was either seriously drunk or stoned to the max. Forget the blood pressure cuff -- take a blood sample, and let the lab techs determine what's what. Sick people don't act like that. They want to lay down somewhere or maybe need to throw up. But they're not THAT "out of here" disoriented.

Regardless, American ladies' tennis is in much the same plight as their male counterparts. When Serena's inevitable fall comes, and it will be soon, the rest of the landscape is quite bare. Sloan Stephens checks in at #18. Beyond her, Christina McHale is #48, and Coco Vandenweghe is #51 in the world. Ever hear of the latter two? Me neither.

The moral of the story? Americans should appreciate the NFL, MLB, the NBA and NHL. They have much more to choose from in pro sports than any other country.

Just don't get your hopes up for being a soccer or tennis power anytime soon, OK? Cuz it ain't gonna happen. And now that Tiger appears to be on the back side of his bell curve, pro golf has become a free-for-all as well. Also much more interesting in my humble opinion. The endless replays of Tiger highlights have almost, but not quite, gone away. They will in time.

Maybe it's better that way. When one country, team, or individual starts thinking they're above it all -- bad things happening usually aren't far behind. Need I remind you of what havoc such tyrants as Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Congress, editors, and your typical ex can wreak in your life?

Better to stick with what you know. Only a couple months until the NFL swings into full gear again. Bring it on.....