We’ve got the Baseball Trading deadline upon us. It’s almost pennant race time. Here come the NFL training camps, and king college football is coming up also. We just came thru the NBA Draft and the wild spending spree in the NHL.

Weekly we watch the PGA Tour, NASCAR, sometimes Indy car, and do pay attention to Formula 1. There’s alot on the sports menu to pay attention too.

And then there are the other sports out there, and I am not really sure why, or who goes to see them.

NHRA. The National Hot Rod Association. You remember the names Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, things like the Winternationals and Pomona. It’s not just the same sport anymore. There are still great drivers, they still go fast, but the spice that was drag racing has lost its edge.

LPGA…Once upon a time, we knew the stars, Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Anika Sorenstam, Betsy King. They’re all gone. And so are many of their major sponsors. We used to follow the Nabisco Championships and the Dinah Shore open. The stars have been replaced by an international roster of talent. They play good golf, many of them don’t speak English. How do you market something here, when it is dominated by ladies from over there?

PBA….There was Marshall Holman and Earl Anthony, Billy Welu and Don Weber, and and so many other great ‘crankers’ on the pro bowling tour. It was Chris Schenkel on TV describing the action. In certain pockets of America, they still get some support, but they have disappeared off television, no where to be seen nor followed.

WNBA…I guess it served its purpose as a place for the great female college players to go after graduation, but I don’t know many people who know, nor pay attention to the Phoenix Mercury or any of these other teams, and I bet you cannot name a player or two in the entire league.

World Team Tennis….I remember it when it featured a young Martina Navratilova and Ilie Nastase’s temper tantrums. Now it’s scatter gun teams, playing with lots of unknowns, with no real home base of operations.

Pro Beach Volleyball….It had its time of flash, mostly in California, but aside from the summer Olympic games, when Brazil shows up, it is no longer on most people’s radar.

MLS…Soccer is at a fever pitch every four years with what the US World Cup program has become, but most of our attention is paid to Manchester City and Chelsea and FC Barcelona, not so much to the XOLOs, or Chicago Fire, or even our indoor Sockers.

UFC…The blood sport draws popular ratings and big crowds, but is it anything more than cage fighting with intent to injure. The novelty of Ken Shamrock wore off years ago. The next guy is champion only till he fails a drug test.

WWE…Ah the style of Hulk Hogan and all those other name performers. Fans like it, some believe it, so I guess it’s okay, but more times than not, it sure seems like ‘bad theatre’.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. People spend money to go see it, but it surely is off the radar screen. Some people like filet mignon, others are beer and burger guys. Some like Mercedes, others like Mini-Coopers. Something for everyone, even if the majority don’t know, don’t care.

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