It's a smaller percentage of kids playing it, yes, but the pie is bigger, so to speak.
And what exactly are the number of international players compared to, say, the 1950s?
Is the pie really that much bigger? If the stellar atheletes are being diverted to football and basketball, a higher percentage of suburbanite dilettantes will yield future fans, but probably not the same level of talent on the field, I think the real counter point to JCA is better medical techniques- 30 years ago Zimmermann and Strasburg would both have retired or been relegated to mop up due to dead arm
