Editing Baseball (section)

=== Asia ===
[[File:Afghan girl playing baseball in 2002.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|An Afghan girl playing baseball in August 2002]]
In East Asia, baseball is among the most popular sports in Japan,<ref>{{cite news |author=Hernandez, Dylan |date=March 21, 2017 |title=World Baseball Classic keeps sport relevant in Japan |url=http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-us-japan-hernandez-20170321-story.html |access-date=April 26, 2018 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> Taiwan<ref>{{Cite news |title=A Cultural Exploration of Baseball in Taiwan |url=https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3729 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240704221715/https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3729 |archive-date=July 4, 2024 |access-date=2025-01-10 |work=[[CommonWealth Magazine (Taiwan)|CommonWealth Magazine]] |language=zh-TW |url-status=live }}</ref> and South Korea.<ref>{{Cite web |title=South Korea baseball history |url=https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/south-korea-baseball-history |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=MLB.com |language=en}}</ref> In Japan, where baseball is inarguably the [[Baseball in Japan|leading spectator team sport]], combined revenue for the twelve teams in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the body that oversees both the Central and Pacific Leagues, was estimated at $1&nbsp;billion in 2007. Total NPB attendance for the year was approximately 20&nbsp;million. While in the preceding two decades, MLB attendance grew by 50 percent and revenue nearly tripled, the comparable NPB figures were stagnant. There are concerns that MLB's growing interest in acquiring star Japanese players will hurt the game in their home country.<ref name=RW>{{Cite news|author=Whiting, Robert|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2007/04/11/baseball/is-the-mlb-destroying-japans-national-pastime/|title=Is the MLB Destroying Japan's National Pastime?|date=April 11, 2007|access-date=February 8, 2009|work=[[The Japan Times]]}}</ref> Revenue figures are not released for the country's amateur system. Similarly, according to one official pronouncement, the sport's governing authority "has never taken into account attendance&nbsp;... because its greatest interest has always been the development of athletes".<ref>González Echevarría (2001), p. 366.</ref> In Taiwan, baseball is one of the [[Baseball in Taiwan|most widely spectated sports, in TV and person]].<ref name="Taiwan Culture Portal">{{Cite web |last=Yeh |first=Joseph |date=September 30, 2008 |title=Taiwan Baseball a new rallying point for national pride |url=http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=918&Itemid=157 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712193311/http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=918&Itemid=157 |archive-date=July 12, 2015 |access-date= May 1, 2022}}</ref>

Baseball has [[Baseball in China|grown significantly in China]] in recent years, with MLB estimating in 2019 that there are 21 million active fans in the country.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Feature: China sees growing youthful exuberance on baseball diamond -Xinhua |url=https://english.news.cn/20231024/88327d19144e4ada846036e80a00365d/c.html |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=english.news.cn}}</ref>