While sales of luxury goods such as jewelry and fragrances are expected to drop 20 percent in the first two quarters of 2009, one luxury item continues to sell: baseball tickets. Attendance is down only 5.2% compared with the same number of home games at each park a year ago, a number which encourages MLB Commissioner Bud Selig: "I think clubs, overall, have been extremely sensitive to the economic environment in this country, and I'm proud of the way they have reacted."

Twelve of the 30 MLB teams have actually seen an increase in their attendance and those who have not have been hoisted by their own petard, like the Yankees who infamously attempted to charge $2,500 for premium seats.

Baseball has survived the Civil War, the Black Sox scandal, two World Wars, the Great Depression and the steroid era so perhaps it is not surprising that during our current recession Bud Selig can brag "I think you won't be able to recognize baseball in the next five to 10 years. That's how fast we're growing."

Yet the continued prosperity of the game surprises me.  Baseball is an almost perfect sport--the stats, the prospects, the gossip, the trade rumors, the tradition--the latest issue of Baseball America reads like US Weekly for guys. The only problem is the game itself.  Let's face it baseball fans, watching a game can be a little dull.  Even Stephen King, the man who literally penned the book on what it means to be a Red Sox fan, was caught reading a book during a Red Sox playoff game last year.

I've been to about a dozen baseball games in my life and have sat everywhere from behind home plate, where the sun shone directly in my face the entire game, making the whole experience uncomfortable, to the outfield bleachers and the upper deck, where I found it nearly impossible to keep track of a three inch sphere when perched nearly 500 feet away.

If there is one luxury I will cut during a recession, it is my annual pilgrimage to a big league game.  I can understand why 3 million more people each week are going out to the movies this year compared to last. Movies are escapist fare and a good one like Taken can take you on a non-stop two hour thrill ride and make you forget your economic woes like a really good high. But baseball? Who has ever described baseball as a thrill ride? And when a pitcher like Dice-K throws more balls to his first baseman to keep the runner honest than to his catcher, the only thing I feel like escaping from is the game itself.