Shakin: More boom or recession for baseball?

Reporting from Las Vegas—It’s the symbolism, stupid.

As Americans lose their jobs and homes at a frequency unseen in decades, baseball convenes Monday for its annual holiday shopping spree in Las Vegas.

The setting, according to the hotel website: “Contentment and opulence are the hallmarks of your Bellagio hotel luxury experience.” The pitch, according to baseball executives from the commissioner on down: Believe us, times are tough.

The retort is the same one Congress used on the auto executives that flew to Washington in private jets: It’s hard to believe you amid all that luxury.

It’s not the economy. It’s the symbolism.

The General Motors boss could have walked to Washington, and his company still would be suffering. Baseball could hold the winter meetings in a dorm at UNLV, and the Angels still could make Mark Teixeira a millionaire 150 times over.

Teixeira hasn’t signed. Neither has CC Sabathia, or Manny Ramirez, or Francisco Rodriguez, or Rafael Furcal, or more than 150 other free agents.

Yet any evidence that the economy is dampening salaries appears strictly anecdotal, at least so far.