Russia covers more time zones than the US but effectively shuts down for Russian World Cup games, India has twice the population of the US and will do the same for Test Cricket.
It's a matter of national culture. America has Football and Baseball ingrained in their Culture, other countries have other sports.
America does the same thing with Baseball as it does with football, As you say, it's an international sport, but holds a domestic competition to unilaterally declare their own "World Champions".
And you can't even argue that American Baseball teams are the best in the world, I note The World Baseball Classic is being decided between the DUTCH(!) and Puerto Rico....LOL!
Russia and India don’t have a lot to hang their hat on. We have a history of winning wars, saving the world for democracy, and technical and social innovation to be proud of.
It is a matter of culture, but not the way you think. We have a much wider culture than any sport can ever encompass. There’s just no way we’ll shut down for any sport ever. Even for the Super Bowl, most watched event in America, we march on.
They control the league, they control the champion, they can call them whatever they want. And if that bothers people, especially people from other countries GOOD. We declare whatever WORLD CHAMPIONS we want. Football, baseball, ANYTHING. Even sports we don’t like. Because we’re America and we get to do that. WORLD CHAMPIONS. And the more it bothers you the more WORLD CHAMPIONS we’ll declare.