Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is proud of what he calls a "wonderful year." "It was a difficult year, but a wonderful year," he said in an interview with MLB.com. Like a majority of businesses, economic struggles reached the game of baseball, but it wasn't fundamentally changed by the recession. "There were a lot of clubs that had difficulty, some were significantly impacted," Selig said. "But in terms of management, in terms of the popularity of the sport, which is just enormous, it was a remarkable year in a lot of ways. We launched a [television] channel which had remarkable success, [MLB.com] continued to do very well, we draw 73, 74 million people. It's a great tribute to the sport. "[The decline in attendance] was fractional. If you take out the two New York ballparks' reduced capacity, we're down about five percent. There isn't a business, there isn't an entity in America who would be unhappy being down only five percent in this economy. You bet, I'm very proud of that. "It's been a great year. Given the economic environment that we live in and all the great concerns and trepidation that we had late last year, into January, February and March, the year turned out remarkably well. It was a difficult year, but a wonderful year. "On the field, it was fabulous. A great year, beginning to end. We had more competitive balance. It was just a terrific year, under the worst circumstances since the Great Depression. That's the point you have to keep in mind."