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We’re in a recession, but that hasn’t stopped the New York Yankees from spending lavishly on players for this year’s baseball season, which opens Monday.

The Yankees and New York Mets debut new stadiums while many in baseball fret over what the economic downturn will do to ticket sales.

On the field, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay must prove they have staying power, and the Yankees have gambled again on pricey free agents.

The Mariners welcome back Ken Griffey Jr., and hope to improve on their miserable 2008 season.

To get the total picture of this season, turn inside for a division-by-division analysis, an overview of MLB, a preview of the Mariners and the entire season’s Mariners schedule.

The complete American and National league schedules were published in Thursday’s Spokesman-Review.

Baseball

Replace Wrigley? Sacrilege!

Standing in the plush visitors’ clubhouse of Yankee Stadium, Carlos Zambrano made a plea for Chicago to replace Wrigley Field.

“You come into a ballpark like this and you see great things,” the Cubs’ pitcher said Saturday before his team’s 10-1 exhibition loss at the sparkling ballpark in the Bronx.

“You wish that Chicago’d build a new stadium for the Cubs,” he said.

Built in 1914 and home to the Cubs since 1916, Wrigley Field is the second-oldest major league stadium, trailing only Boston’s Fenway Park (1912).

College baseball

No fooling, final score is 49-1

Cubs great Ernie Banks used to say, “Let’s play two.” But after what happened in the first game of a college doubleheader, both coaches agreed: “Let’s not.”

Eastern Kentucky played Kentucky State on April Fools’ Day in Lexington and the result was no joke: EKU led 49-1 when the teams stopped it after five innings, and they canceled the second game between the Division II schools. The biggest rout in Division II history was a 71-1 victory by St. Francis over Robert Morris in a game on April 2, 1996.