Baseball is one of the most popular sports in North America, and still growing. The 30 major league teams drew a total of 79.5 million people in 2007, up 4.5 percent from 76 million in 2006.
It's also popular in other pockets throughout the world, but has not maintained enough of a hold on the world to continue to be played in the Olympics. The fact that the major-league players don't play in the Olympics is a major factor. Most competitive baseball is played in North America, the Caribbean and in the Far East. It lags elsewhere in the world.
