I’m not exactly a sports fan, but that doesn’t stop me from foaming at the mouth whenever I hear that “[insert team name here] are now the World Champions!!!”

You often hear this in the United States, where sports like baseball, basketball, and American football are extremely popular. So what’s my beef? None of those sports’ championships include teams from around the world. (The Toronto Blue Jays hardly count.) Most sports fans would default to the usual claim that US athletes and teams are automatically the best in the world, which is both arrogant and ignorant. If you’re not playing against worldwide teams…then how do you know? You can make up any excuse you want, but at the end of the day, it’s still circumspect, as you’ve got no real proof. It’s not the US is sweeping the Olympics, so that should tell you something.

At least some American sports institutions are starting to realize that there’s top players outside of our nation’s borders; for example, look at the amount of Japanese players that MLB has assimilated in recent years. And need I mention Yao Ming? Personally, I think some real world championships (other than the Olympics, of course) would make sports a hell of a lot more interesting.