Who Cares?

Without looking, who is the best men's tennis player in the world right now? Who's leading the NHL in goals?

I'll give you both answers: Roger Federer and 3 guys tied at the top (Alexander Ovechkin, Martin Saint Louis, and Teemu Selanne).

Why don't you or I care?

It's because there are ZERO interesting Americans in these sports anymore. Of the top 5 NHL points leaders (goals + assists), 0 are American. Of the top 5 goaltenders, 0 are American.

In Mennis (Men's tennis), 1 American is in the top 5 (Andy Roddick).

This dude Roger Federer has thrust himself (love that phrase...just picturing a dude thrusting haphazardly...) into the conversation of 'best tennis player ever' and no one even realizes this is happening. The dude has won 10 of the big events (I refuse to call them Grand Slams because a grand slam happens in baseball. These are simply tournaments with high prestige and large payouts but I digress). Not only that, but the dude just went through the whole Australian Open without losing a set. Not one set! He's sniffing Pete Sampras' record for 14 big tournaments. And yet, completely uninteresting. Why?

For hockey, they screwed up. They screwed up really badly. Here's how:

1) They expanded WAY too much
2) They overestimated their popularity
3) They followed the NHL model of believing that the sport was enough to sell itself (as opposed to NBA and MLB that sells stars)
4) They let the union kick their a$$es for years so they had an absurd salary structure
5) The game isn't even close to the beautiful international game with wider rinks and free flowing and creative play. No matter what they do, they can't get past this. They've tried to make things better this year but to no avail, they still allow clutching and grabbing and all the other things that ruin the flow of the sport.

So, they lost the casual fan. Crazy hockey fans are and always will be there. Godspeed. One of them might respond to this all salty and angry. This is impossible to argue with though, the casual hockey fan is gone. My dad and I for years went to the New Years Day Washington Capitals Game. One year, we both realized that it just wasn't fun anymore. The game on the ice stunk. Too many stoppages, too pre-occupied with stopping fights, and just boring. The amazing skill of the players was lost.

As for mennis, I used to love watching the McCenroe/Connors type dudes in big tourneys. I was all about it. Now? I just don't care. I'm not alone either. Mennis needs Americans to be good. There are 2 in the top 10 (Roddick and James Blake) but 99% of sports fans don't know blake from the guy that does their taxes. I can watch a golf tourney now and then. My favorite thing to watch is the Ryder Cup. Mennis has one of those too but no one cares about it. That needs to be the big thing and the US needs to do well in it. Showcase the American stars.

None of this will happen. I don't think there was a point to this blog. It's what I was thinking about just now so I started writing. Sometimes, you get sh*tty blogs.