That you now have that world baseball championship and teams like Netherlands competing in it doesn't speak bad for the sport of baseball as well.
As for baseball, one might check and see what is the largest team sport played by Youth in the USA, checking some stats, I came up with baseball.
Baseball, MLB also has all of these farms teams, Minor League out there, widespread, Tacoma, El Paso, Pawtucket, Indianapolis.
It is true, the World Series doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.
Still, in observing soccer in the World, if you look at Latin America, you have countries that are looked upon as being more of your “beisbol” hotbeds than “futbol”, soccer.
Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic obviously, Nicaragua and really even Honduras and Venezuela are perceived that way.
It would be difficult to see the hulking baseball structure to truly come down. Half-century later? Maybe. It certainly seems baseball is not that big of a deal anymore but I do think the sport continues to have some “hotbeds” for the sport. Maybe unrelated, but women’s softball seems popular for girls as well.
And I know of one of the “minor league” teams that just built a baseball-specific stadium moving out of the old “fairgrounds” stadium. Just saying.
ESPN always playing that college world series too. The coverage was nearly not the same before.
That you now have that world baseball championship and teams like Netherlands competing in it doesn't speak bad for the sport of baseball as well.