Well, the points you made weren't particularly relevant. Its not like baseball is only played in America and Japan, they could have completed left out the regions where the sports are popular with no real impact.
There's certainly questions as to how they came to the numbers, which I pointed out, in my response, it's a discussion board and I'm discussing, sorry that you are so sensitive to having your position critiqued..
Ok, so my kids play baseball and soccer, but don't follow any teams. Are they fans of the sport? I don't follow any NFL teams but get together with friends to watch games. Am I a fan of the sport even if I'm not a fan of any particular team?
I think it's being lose with the term fan, but that's fine when identifying the popularity of a sport rather than a team.