The 2009 Major League Baseball season opens April 5, and that gives me a full month to get properly geared up for the start of another big-league campaign. With the possible exception of the strike-compromised 1995 season, it has never been a problem for me to ratchet up my level of anticipation for the start of a season commensurate with a passion I generally have for the game as it’s played at the highest competitive level.

But quite frankly, it’s become an issue this year. My enthusiasm level is running a little low, and I suspect I’m not alone in some of the apathy for baseball that I am feeling with spring training underway and Opening Day around the corner.

The game may seem as popular as ever with Major League Baseball falling just short of setting an attendance record for a fourth year in a row in 2008, along with seven teams breaking individual attendance marks and 10 franchises scaling the magic 3-million attendance barrier.

But with a downturn in the economy that became evident last September and may have resulted in the game falling short of a new attendance record, when all signs at mid-season pointed to a new standard; it might be a stretch for the game to make a run at new attendance marks this season—particularly with the economic downturn of last September now a full-blown recession. It remains to be seen what the full effects of the financial fallout will be—but it has put a damper on the coming season, for sure.

With the possible exception of two new stadiums in New York, the triumphant return of Ken Griffey Jr. to Seattle, renewed enthusiasm for baseball in Tampa Bay and possibly even the arrival of the new MLB in-house TV network, there hasn’t been much positive news happen since the end of last season to inspire enthusiasm for a new season.

The unexpected appearance of the Rays (in place of the New York Yankees) in post-season play was inspiring for other small-market clubs and those of us who often cheer for the underdog, but the 2008 post-season was otherwise very uninspiring. Record-low TV ratings for the World Series spoke partly to the low national profile of the participants, partly to yet another Fall Classic sorely lacking in drama.

It also spoke to MLB’s inability to properly market post-season baseball—to market it with the future of the game in mind, not with the intent to squeeze every last dollar out of a network all too willing to pay up. Shame on Major League Baseball for the way it continues to cheapen its product by selling out to TV, which cares more about the fringe fan who might tune in on a TV game occasionally at the expense of the loyal, paying customer who is asked to attend games live, often in treacherous weather conditions at any hour of the night.

Is it not possible for Major League Baseball, in all its wisdom, to just say ‘no’ to TV, to have post-season games more closely assimilate regular-season conditions? Can we not play the odd World Series game on a weekend afternoon so real fans can see a meaningful game in conditions that connect baseball to its rich past? Can we not schedule playoff games to start at 7 p.m., so games no longer begin at the normal bedtime of the next generation of the game’s fans? The 2008 World Series, which combined atrocious late-October weather and absurd starting times, was an embarrassment to baseball. And yet, there’s a strong likelihood that the 2009 season won’t end until November—or just this side of Christmas.

It’s apparent that the most recent World Series did little to inspire true baseball fans, and the rest of the off-season has done little to build hope and excitement in a new baseball season. Not with the Yankees signing every major free agent in sight—and spending recklessly against the backdrop of a staggered economy, with thousands and thousands losing jobs around them. Not with the revelation of Alex Rodriguez, who we were duped into believing was the game’s greatest natural player, admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs. Not with Barry Bonds still in the news every other day, and the sordid steroid issue still lingering. Not with Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden resigning amid charges of skimming bonuses to unsuspecting young Latin players.

Almost every off-season issue centered on money, or cheating, or the potential for financial gain through unscrupulous means, and there seems no end to the greed that has consumed baseball at its highest, most-visible level. It’s not unfair to say I have become a little disillusioned with our great game, and I wonder how many others have as well.

Meanwhile, the World Baseball Classic starts Thursday. This is a tremendous concept, one that I actively pushed for in my role of editor at Baseball America the better part of 20 years ago. The event has a tremendous upside in terms of spreading the game’s popularity and goodwill globally, and stoking strong national emotions in a baseball context. Yet almost all we’ve been hearing about for the last two months are players dropping out of the event or big-league teams forbidding their players from participating. That’s unfortunate as every defection of a star player makes the event a little more illegitimate.

And yet, if the Classic comes close to reaching its enormous potential, or approaches some of the drama that we saw in the inaugural event three years ago as it culminates in the championship game on March 23, it may provide the lift I’m looking for to get me jump-started or totally wired into the 2009 season.

In the end, though, my ultimate ability to fully embrace the 2009 major league season may lie in the fate of Manny Ramirez—that’s if he’s even signed by the start of the season.

I openly admit I am not a Ramirez fan. While I fully respect his tremendous hitting ability and acknowledge that he’s probably the best righthanded bat in the game today, my ability to appreciate his extraordinary skill is trumped by the sideshow. Manny is a carnival act. His physical appearance and the lackadaisical way he presents himself at the plate, on the bases and in the field speak to that, and it’s readily apparent that he has little or no respect or appreciation for the game and its rich history. In his own self-centered way, it’s all about taking from the game and not giving back, nothing more.

What Ramirez did in his final days in Boston to force the Red Sox to trade him, to enable him to opt out of the two options in his contract that would have paid him $20 million per year is well chronicled. He quit on a team, all with the misguided intent of getting a more lucrative deal elsewhere. It was both shameful and repulsive—both to me and the millions of other fans who respect baseball for its integrity.

Thankfully, no team—not yet, at least—has bought into Manny’s scheme to come out ahead financially on a deal that would pay him more than he would have received had he remained in Boston, though the Los Angeles Dodgers appear to have offered him a better deal on multiple occasions—only for Manny, in his infinite greed, to turn down every offer when other free agents this winter have faced the music in a troubled economy, and signed for much less, and many others, both in and out of the game, have lost their jobs altogether.

Frankly, my ability to embrace the 2009 major league season in ways I have enjoyed baseball in seasons past may all hinge on the outcome of Manny’s contract stalemate. If Manny profits in any way from his escapade—which, in effect, is also a way of saying that the team that signs him condones his atrocious behavior that led to his departure from the Red Sox—then I will find it difficult to maintain my faith in the game, and my enthusiasm for the 2009 season will be impacted accordingly.

But if Ramirez has no takers—in other words, if no team signs him to a deal worth as much as $20 million annually—then I’m in, and April 5 can’t come fast enough.