I am not certain about it but I will check it out.They are basically ok but being as insular as they really are it is a bit frustrating trying to explain to many of them that there is a sport of RL in the first place let alone the differences between RL and RU.

Baseball is big in Japan (as a song once said) so I would argue it is more exaggerated American patriotism more than anything else - 'we are America, how could it possibly be BETTER anywhere else?!' Team America is quite good at capturing and mocking that insularity. British people can get it too though - see those who only go to English pubs for English food and drink on their foreign holidays!

Ice hockey is naturally big in Scandinavia and Russia way - there was that thing of the USA not winning gold in the winter Olympics since the 70s or so, I seem to remember when they were last on. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean leagues in other countries are better - I imagine the NHL is most financially lucrative - but to automatically call the league champions 'world champions' is just American insecurity in action as they strive for identity, being a relatively young nation compared to some.

IIRC South Korea won the gold medal the last time baseball was an Olympic sport, in fact the USA only won 1 gold medal out of the 5 Olympics that baseball was an Olympic sport.

Something like 28% of the MLB rosters in 2013 were made up of players who were born outside the US.

Weren't most of the 2008 US baseball squad from the minor leagues and college? Certainly pretty sure they don't go the same route as the basketball and pick an all-star Dream Team.

Either way up, there's very little doubt that the MLB is the strongest league in the world by some distance.

Yes