Those who see doom and gloom are out in large numbers this spring, predicting the certain demise of baseball. As usual, they are long on rhetoric and short on facts.

Perhaps they should focus on these documented points:

• Major League Baseball will draw a record 74 million men, women, and children to its games in 2005.
• That figure will surpass the combined attendance total of professional football, basketball, and NASCAR.
• Another 42 million people, also a record, will crowd minor league baseball parks.
• Early season ticket sales at MLB venues are up 7 percent.
• Revenue from baseball will surpass $4.6 billion during the current year.

The reasons for these impressive figures are easy to explain.

Baseball remains the only major professional sport that is remotely affordable to families, with an average ticket price less than half the other premier sports. An average major league baseball ticket is $19.82, still a bargain. Management understands the critical importance of not pricing fans, especially those with low and middle incomes, out of the seats.

Baseball also appreciates the fact that its sport has a long and storied relationship with families, believing that kids are the lifeblood of the game. A family of four might spend as much as $170 attending a Major League Baseball game, including tickets, parking, peanuts, soda, and hot dogs, a hefty sum and barely within reach for many working parents.

What many fans opposed — even feared in 1995 — was the introduction of divisional play and the wild card, which has brought baseball its most compelling seasons in modern memory. Interest soared with 20 of the 30 teams battling for post-season berths as late as Labor Day during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The pace of the game quickened, too, with an average nine-inning game lasting about two hours, 45 minutes or about the same length as other professional games.

The labor agreement of 2004, though far from perfect, provided for an enriched system of revenue sharing for a sport that a decade earlier had precious little sharing of wealth. It gave more teams a legitimate chance to compete; it assured a more equitable playing field. More needs to be done in the next set of negotiations.

One cannot take lightly the potential impact of the steroid controversy, although surveys show that fans are more concerned with the size of player salaries than they are with drugs. The average annual player salary has just passed $2.6 million.

Commissioner Bud Selig understands, as his predecessors did, that his sport is held to a different, and much higher, standard than the other professional sports. His game is rightly called America’s Pastime; its history is revered. In fairness, he thought the strengthened program of 2005 on steroid use when it was announced would be seen as a reason for renewed faith in the integrity of the game. It called for more frequent testing, off-season testing, and greater discipline for first-time offenders.

Then came the damning book by Jose Conseco, in which he named fellow players who allegedly used steroids, and the rush of sustained national outrage. All bets were off after the painful public hearing before a committee of the Congress. Executives from management and labor were pilloried. The pundits, politicians, and the general public were vociferous as they weighed in on the side of a greatly enhanced program of scrutiny and punishment. Management certainly felt compelled to do more, and sooner rather than later, as Selig once again went to bat for zero tolerance.

What the commissioner and the players association must do is place the drug issue atop the next collective bargaining agenda, and hammer out an amended document that is similar in scope to the other professional sports and the Olympics. The agreement must have teeth, and they must be sharp. The average parent who takes his or her kids to games will accept no less. The issue is not going away, with the widespread interest in records, an important part of the game’s lore, and how steroids might have soiled them.

With continued legitimate reform, the doomsayers are certain to disappear.

— Gene A. Budig, former president/chancellor of Illinois State University, West Virginia University and Kansas University, and past president of Major League Baseball’s American League, is a College Board professor in New York. He has written a book, “The Inside Pitch … And More: Baseball’s Business and the Public Trust.”