Baseball faces depressing home truth: Even it is not recession-proof

NEW YORK: Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, whose sport is coming off a record year, downplayed expectations for the 2009 season, saying the game is no longer recession-proof with too much uncertainty to predict attendance or revenues.

Selig said he was concerned about how the sickly economy - and the severe turmoil facing the three big US automakers - would affect the league's 30 teams. He has cautioned owners to avoid being "too cocky" when setting ticket prices.

"There used to be a theory ... that we seemed almost to be recession proof," Selig told the Reuters Media Summit on Tuesday. "This is different clearly, and so we're going to be very sensitive."