Golf-world changes and world changes: Padraig Harrington's just the latest example

PINEHURST, N.C. - America is losing their sports. What’s happening here?

First, Padraig Harrington wins the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. That’s his second major this year; his third in the last six majors. Granted, Tiger’s on the shelf, but an Irishman dominating golf?

Second, Lebron James says he may play in Europe. That’s right. He’d skip the NBA to play in Italy or Spain for huge Euros foregoing the once mighty dollar.

I’m watching all this from Pinehurst Resort - the most American and traditional of sports locations. But wait a minute: didn’t a Kiwi win the U.S. Open here?

It’s time for Americans to relax and finally understand that the world economy has come to your sports world. The problem - for status quo Americans - is the world economy. You can interpret it one of two ways: Either we’re slowing down, or the rest of the world is catching up.

These events, however, should be a wake-up call, but not a call to arms. The world is embracing sports. And because sport is big business, the best athletes and the top owners will go where the money is. Even the English Premier League has nearly half its owners as foreigners. Britain’s biggest export, Beckham, is working in the U.S.

Read a great special report in The Economist in the July 31, 2008 issue. It explains the world’s and business’ love affair with sports and its expansion thanks to media technology.

Despite this natural occurrence, Americans do need to pay attention. For too long, we Americans have paid more attention to sports compared to our standard of living. And for good reason: We’re the greatest country in the world with the greatest athletes performing for our entertainment for the biggest pay-outs in the world. We’ve taken that for granted.

Sports were once an escape from our jobs and the mundane stuff that allowed us to live in the American lifestyle. We need to realize that sports are part of our economic fabric.

The golfer of the year is an Irishman. Paddy Harrington lives in a country that only a generation ago was nearly a third world country. Ireland’s biggest export was their skilled and educated workers. That’s no longer the case. The Celtic Tiger economy is the envy of the world. Granted, the current economic slowdown will hurt the Irish, but it’s not going to send them back to the early 1980s.

Read a great book called “The Pope’s Children: The New Irish Elite” by David McWilliams. Don’t be thrown by the title. McWilliams explains how Ireland found its economic swing in the modern world. They took their educated work force and invested in them to keep them there. Next, they stopped fighting for a unified Ireland. The violence subsided and businesses began to prosper.

The Irish have prospered so much, they’ve become Americans. They consume more and now have the same rate of diseases we have such as diabetes. They also enjoy their leisure-time sports.

Am I saying that the newly formed Irish economy led to Paddy Harrington’s player of the year award? It certainly helped, although it’s hard to quantify. When was the last time an Irishman was the world’s top golfer? Could you refute this? Absolutely and I’ll listen.

Let’s look at the Lebron situation. He might bolt Cleveland and the NBA for $50 million Euros. When asked on ESPN even Kobe Bryant said he’d take that deal too. Who’s to say they both won’t become expats? Horrors! You can see David Stern’s eyeballs rolling in the back of his head.

Does this sound goofy? It shouldn’t. Right now the dollar is weak compared to the euro. Plus teams in Spain or Italy will not only pay those salaries in better exchanged Euros but they’ll pay Lebron and Kobe all their expenses too. That makes the deal even sweeter than what Jay Z and the Nets could whip up. Think about this: Europe, the bastion of Socialism, has no NBA salary cap which makes that continent more free-market than America - at least in sports

We’ve seen it already. A number of good NHL players opted for contracts in their homeland of Russia - where petro dollars are flowing. Tiger tends to skip PGA events to play in Germany, Dubai or Asia. You don’t think he’d accept other invites overseas rather than the Quad Cities?

This trend only continues if again we lose Olympic gold in basketball? Imagine the outcry from the sofas and cell phones on sports talk radio. Brazil and Argentina have showed us up before. What’s worse is that Brazil will only get stronger as they drill for what is considered the world’s newest oil find off their coast. I can see Lebron running the beaches of Ipanema.

How can we stem the flow of athletic talent away from America?

We can wake-up economically. Take your nose out of the BA, YAC, and GIR stats for a short while and start paying attention to the two candidates running for president and anyone who says they’re running for congress.

I’m not going to tell you how to vote. But remember these things.

First, we have a huge federal deficit thanks to tax cuts with no spending cuts - not to mention two wars. We also are a nation of spenders and not savers. More money in our savings accounts would keep us from borrowing money from China and Dubai. If we keep going, the Yankees will be owned by a sheik.

Second, our education system - especially in science - lags behind India and China, the two countries that win more gold medals when it comes to creating jobs.

Third, we have major financial crisis looming as Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt with baby-boomers retiring in droves. If nothing is done, our children and grandchildren won’t have enough money to watch or attend sporting events in America because they will be costly and the only athletes available will be in their 80s. Maybe Randy Johnson can top Cy Young’s 511 wins after all.

I’m not saying that worldwide sports expansion must be stopped. Heck no, this is all good. I see Major League Baseball expanding or merging into Mexico and Japan. The NBA will eventually adopt international rules so we can compete with the same criteria. I think sport has no choice to move in that direction with the Information Age.

But what I don’t want to hear is the belly-aching from sports fans who are sitting on their butts with nachos and extra cheese when their American games get exported or invaded.