A couple of things:

1) Of course the post represents my opinion. The title of the post started with "I wonder".

2) Regarding baseball: my comment was only about the superiority of their college/pro decision model. The arrangement allows for a meaningful choice between college and professional baseball. Football imprisons some of its stars in an often useless 3-year college model, and basketball embarrasses universities by pretending that "1 and done" is a meaningful university experience.

Baseball has other advantages, too, specifically in the number of games and the demographics of its stars. The greater number of games provides far more revenue opportunities, which translates into bigger salaries for the players. In addition, baseball is the only major traditional American sport with a significant number of Latino stars. This is important because the Hispanic population is a fast-growing demographic in the US. It also positions baseball to be more prepared than the other major American sports to compete for fan attention alongside increasing interest in professional soccer, both domestic and international.