In the wake of the Bush administration’s most recent diplomatic blunders—Jordan, Spain and duh, Iraq—and the ongoing intellectual debate between interventionists and isolationists, it may be time to look at how all of this impacts the sporting world.

The United States remains unique in the world of sports. In no other country, for example, has sport been so closely tied to entertainment—think of cheerleaders and halftime shows. In fact, the entertainment value of sports often overshadows the spectacle itself.

U.S. sporting leagues are also, in effect, monopolies. Governing bodies are allowed to sanction owners and teams. Compare this to European club soccer, where any team, if good enough, can rise to the top league.

The sporting jargon that crosses the boundaries between various sports within the U.S.—“post-season,” “draft,” “MVP”—is rarely, if ever, used anywhere else. In the sporting world at least, the United States remains firmly confined within an isolationist bubble. What is more depressing is that most Americans revel in the comforting warmth of their narrow sporting worlds.

However, North American sports enjoy huge popularity and success in specific regions outside the United States. Basketball and hockey have taken off in Europe. Well, hockey is really a Canadian sport, and one that the eastern Europeans have dominated for some time now. Baseball enjoys enormous popularity in the Caribbean and East Asia. Despite the NFL Europe, football has yet to make the breakthrough. Although Americans are perfectly fine with exporting their sporting culture (two teams from the both the MLB and NBA begin their regular seasons in Japan and you can now vote for the NBA All-Star Game starters on Chinese and Serbo-Croat web sites) importing other peoples’ has met with cultural disdain and passive opposition.

Only tennis and golf have successfully managed to endear themselves equally to both Americans and non-Americans. Soccer, despite recent successes by the U.S. national team, the number of individuals who play it at the junior levels and Freddy Adu, has yet to be accorded the respect of the established sporting culture here. America’s jealousy for its sporting dogma is to blame here. The MLS’s experimental amalgamation of American pro sports (nicknames, playoffs) with soccer has been a disaster. Not only has it not attracted foreign players—over-the-hill stars now prefer Qatar—but talented American players are increasingly looking abroad. The WUSA, despite an enormous fan base and immense star power, floundered. (Well, perhaps that’s gender-related. I mean the WNBA is not much better off, but I’m not really in a position to explore such issues. WGS majors?)

But perhaps I am being too negative. Only last week, I saw two junior high school students playing cricket in the Ramsey Jr. High playground. Perhaps, it’s only a matter of time before Americans will be talking about googlies, Yorkers and chinamen (yes, these are all legitimate cricket terms.) The kid who is today inspired by Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez may find himself flicking to silly point or hooking for the boundary ropes. More likely, this is all wishful thinking on my part.

I’m an ardent adherent of reverse globalization—I believe that America imports as much culture as it exports. However, this trend is unfortunately one-sided in the sporting world. In the end, the biggest losers may be America and its people.