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MLB Senior Vice President Marc Mienkaas, who was born to American missionary parents in the African country of Zambia and who went to university in South Africa, having a World Cup on par with what sports like cricket and rugby have in their World Cup.
"I don't think we'll get to the level that soccer has theirs, because it's just a different sport with a different following and all of that. But the fact that you have kids literally all over the world actually playing baseball is huge for us and we really are thrilled about that prospect," he said.
A recent survey of "baseball playing nations" by the International Baseball Federation showed the number of top prospects around the world growing in places that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago.
"Ghana is churning out legitimate major leaguers, while places like Pakistan and India are in an Asian arms race to see which can develop baseball players faster than China or Japan. And those countries have had a huge head start. It's amazing," he said.
Crediting a recent growth in the number of middle class families in India and the number of dot-com era companies that continued to launch and develop there by US educated Indians, baseball grew leaps in bounds in that country in the past few years, leaving many to wonder how the new 'global' game will be received by Americans who are still very used to a game that doesn't say, resemble a sport like hockey where the best players are usually foreigners.
"It'll be interesting to see as time goes on how it will all play out, but we're hoping the World Cup makes it even more interesting for fans."
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