What a difference a year makes. In February 2005, Jose Canseco’s tell-all book about steroid use blew a hole in the successful veneer Major League Baseball had been carefully rebuilding since the disastrous 1994 strike. A San Francisco grand jury was listening to testimony from a number of baseball’s most prominent players, and Congress was about ready to hold hearings on steroid use in the sport. Storm clouds were brewing and questions were being asked about the integrity of the game.

But as spring training gets underway this year, it seems all the ugliness brought about by illegal performance enhancing in baseball has vanished. It’s pitchers and catchers time again. You don’t hear about Rafael Palmiero, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, or even Canseco anymore. The players and owners agreed to a new testing program that involves stiffer penalties if a player gets caught using an illegal substance and have whitewashed whatever problem existed, not that the public cared much.

In 2005, the Yankees set a franchise record by selling more than four million tickets, and five other teams reported sales of more than three million tickets. People also flocked to ballparks in record numbers in the minor leagues.

MLB is the most resilient of businesses. No matter how much the owners and players inflict public relations damage on the game, fans forgive the two sides and continue to head out to the ballpark in droves. Just look at what happened after the Balco grand jury, Canseco’s book, and the Congressional committee hearings.

MLB’s marketing partners did not leave. It was business as usual. Just after the Canseco news broke, General Motors signed a three-year, multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with the league. If it had a weak public image because of alleged steroid abuse by some players, why are companies pumping millions of dollars into baseball advertising? None of MLB’s corporate partners pulled their advertising money out of the industry because of the steroids scandal.

Why were cable operators like Comcast and Time Warner so eager to partner with the Mets and Cleveland Indians in new regional sports networks? Why did ESPN sign a new national cable contract last fall that might be worth about a half a billion dollars and includes additional money for exclusive broadband and cellular phone rights.

MLB still might create another small cable package and will probably renew its FOX contract in a matter of weeks and get another billion dollars over a five- or six-year period from Ruppert Murdoch’s network.

If people were really fed up, the Washington D. C. City Council would not be handing MLB a $600 million stadium for the Nationals. Satellite radio networks, along with cable TV and over-the-air networks would be demanding changes in their contracts or just canceling them. Cities and states would be demanding changes in their leases with teams at taxpayer-funded stadiums. In fact, MLB is more prosperous than ever.

It seems nothing can kill baseball. Fans and customers attended games at record numbers last season, and there’ no sign of that abating. In fact, MLB and its Players’ Association are finally branching out globally in staging an international tournament. The World Baseball Classic may not be much of a draw in America, but officials are trying to make inroads in Europe and Africa that will pay dividends in merchandising and may get baseball programs off the ground on those continents.

How did MLB, which was down and out in 1994 when the owners and players couldn’t agree to a new collective bar gaining agreement and forced the cancellation of the World Series, rebound? It’s pretty simple. Americans love their baseball, and are willing to overlook just about anything so long as their heroes take the field.

Fans complained about the 1994 strike, but went back to the parks because McGwire, Sosa, and Barry Bonds were hitting home runs, Cal Ripken didn’t take a day off, and the Yankees became a dynasty again. The New York-Boston rivalry also heated up and in 2004, the Red Sox finally won a title. The Chicago Cubs also got good. Having successful teams in three of the nation’s biggest markets is the best way to ensure big profits.

It helped that the sports press forgave the owners and players quickly and resumed their roles as cheerleaders. The proliferation of sports talk radio has brought a heightened awareness to the game, along withMLB.com, which lost a lot of money initially, but has become a major asset for the baseball industry and is the fastest growing Internet TV-broadband site on the Web.

Of course, as teams open spring training camps in the coming weeks, there are some indications that the owners and players may be ready to resume their hostilities. The current CBA is done on December 19, 2006, and the players are already hanging onto licensing money just in case there is a labor action.

There doesn’t seem to be a major issue that could trigger a labor action next December. But this is baseball, where the owners and players have a long history of distrust. Commissioner Bud Selig and his assistant, Bob Dupuy, have never taken contraction off the table and could revisit that issue during the negotiations as a bargaining chip.

Even if some form of labor strife hits in 2007, it would be no big deal. The younger generation of fans has come to understand that it’s how business is conducted, and no matter what the owners and players do to harm their industry, people still want to be associated with the sport. Americans want their baseball and are willing to spend billions of dollars to see it. That’s why the game is richer and more popular than ever.