If the news that Gary Matthews Jr. and other Major League baseball players have been linked to an ongoing investigation into the sale of illegal prescription and performance-enhancing drugs has anyone convinced it has hurt the business of baseball — they should think again. While the office of the Albany County district attorney, David Soares, is busy tackling the issue of steroids in pro baseball, MLB officials continue to sign lucrative deals.

Governor Crist, a Republican of Florida, may soon secure funding for a Miami-area stadium for the Marlins. Both Florida and Arizona are spending money toward new or renovated spring training facilities, as fans came out to see Grapefruit and Cactus League exhibition games, respectively, in high numbers this year. The Yankees have signed an international marketing deal with Chinese baseball, and DirecTV has a boatload of money that it is ready to give the lords of Baseball starting in 2009.

Indeed, baseball is enjoying an economic growth that is off the charts. Commissioner Bud Selig and his staff have implemented a remarkable business plan that has not been hampered by the ongoing grand jury proceedings in the BALCO doping case or by the Soares investigation. In some ways Selig has it better than two of his peers, the commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodell, and the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, David Stern, who have both had to contend with the recent offfield crises of their players.

Although Selig has the specter of Barry Bonds approaching Henry Aaron’s career home run record while allegations of steroid use continue to dog the Giants’ leftfielder, Bonds still has not been charged in the BALCO case. Bonds may generate talk that he is a cheater, a villain, or worse, but baseball fans continue to tune in. Bonds’s notoriety has even heightened interest in baseball among casual observers, bringing more money into the MLB’s coffers.

Selig also has not expressed concern with the radio rights partnership the Boston Red Sox entered into with broadcaster Entercom Communications Corp. last May. The Red Sox have an option to acquire a minority interest in WRKO (owned by Entercom), which would make Red Sox owners part of a radio group that has seen its share of litigation. Last December, Entercom settled with Attorney General Spitzer, agreeing to pay $4.25 million to resolve a lawsuit brought against the company. Entercom was accused of accepting kickbacks, or payola, in exchange for radio airtime on its music-programmed stations.

And like Selig, apparently few New England residents are concerned with the Red Sox ownership’s dealings with Entercom or other Boston press and broadcast outlets. The Red Sox (together with the NHL’s Boston Bruins, a partner in the New England Sports Network) will severely restrict the use of video highlights garnered from NESN-produced games on local Boston-area television news and sports programs. Still, Red Sox fans seem concerned only with the Red Sox; the stands in Fenway Park will be packed throughout the 2007–08 season.

Already, Selig has put runs up on the board during spring training with the league’s new DirecTV deal. The seven-year, $700 million agreement gives the satellite provider content for its “Extra Innings” out-of-market package and includes a 24-hour Baseball Channel that will launch in 2009. The deal effectively freezes out cable TV operators and their subscribers who have previously enjoyed “Extra Innings” programming on other outlets. But with advancing technology, Internet and cellular opportunities will likely continue to be developed. In 2009, viewers who want access to the “Extra Innings” package or the Baseball Channel should be able to find the programming elsewhere.

The fact is that the cable operators, Dish TV and in Demand, should have made Selig a better offer — that’s just business. Conducting Congressional hearings on the MLB–DirecTV deal is both waste of time and taxpayer money.

Meanwhile, Florida taxpayers might finally give the owner of the Marlins, Jeffrey Loria, the present he’s wanted for years: a new ballpark in the Miami area. In pushing for a new park, Crist (a former attorney for Minor League Baseball) has become the ally that Loria did not have when Governor Bush occupied the Florida State House. Loria is seeking a $60 million tax break over 30 years and is eligible for the incentive should he build a new stadium. Talks between Loria, Miami, and state officials are in progress.

Among MLB’s top priorities is the building of a new ballpark in South Florida. The league has ruled out relocating the Marlins to San Antonio, Texas, and the city’s officials have been told by a consultant to give up the chase for professional baseball or football franchises. Instead, San Antonio will redirect funds to civic projects.

New stadiums are going up in Washington, the Bronx, and Queens; Jackson County, Mo., officials are renovating the Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, and Minnesota should break ground on a new facility sometime during the 2007 calendar year. The owner of the Oakland A’s, Lewis Wolff, has a partnership with Cisco Systems and is in the midst of efforts to build a baseball park that would be flanked by commercial and retail space, and residential offerings in Fremont, Calif., which is south of the team’s current home. The park would have baseball’s smallest capacity and would not be served by Bay Area Rapid Transit — a potential drawback — but Wolff maintains the lack of access to BART won’t impede his success in Fremont. (Oakland A’s fans can currently ride BART to games in Oakland.)

As many owners have done in the past two decades, Wolff is attempting to change the face of his club’s fan base. Wolff, who is targeting a wealthy customer, is willing to give up the rank and file blue-collar fan in the process.

Florida and Arizona seem to be locked in a spring training facility, race, as Arizona works to entice teams that typically play in the Citrus state to go west, and Florida in turn tries to keep its teams from defecting. Baltimore and Cincinnati, for instance, are unhappy with the setups they have in Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota, but Florida officials would, of course, like to keep the two teams in the state.

Internationally, the league is expanding its presence. Baseball will soon expand beyond the strongholds it has in America, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Japan, and South Korea. The new markets will bring in new fans, and, more important, new money.

Thus the business of baseball continues to flourish, which is an intriguing story considering so many left MLB for dead after the 1994–95 players’ strike. These days, it seems baseball is impervious to labor strife, steroids scandals, and other problems that might have led to economic crisis in other entertainment industries. The baseball business is in the best shape of its life as the 2007 season gets under way.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com