With the economy in a tailspin, unemployment through the roof, and diehard fans unable to partake in their favorite pastime due to money woes, the New York Mets have made the gracious and humane gesture of lowering the price of some tickets by 15%.

Now, you negative Nellies out there will be quick to point out the losing season, uninspired play, and overall degraded “product on the field” as a good reason to offer a discount. The worst of you likely are saying the Mets have instituted this charitable deduction as a means to stimulate sluggish ticket sales. Well, the whole lot of you can go

According to the Associated Press, the New York Mets have sold out all luxury boxes and at least 25,000 seats for each of the 81 games to be played at Citi Field in 2009.

There are about 10,000 premium seats available now, and per-game tickets go on sale in March. Citi Field’s capacity is 42,000.

Per Mets Executive Vice-President David Howard:

“It’s better than where we were at this point last year,” Howard said Tuesday after a news conference at the Baseball Assistance Team annual dinner. “I think we’ve seen some effects of the economy. I think what we’re seeing now is there is a high degree of interest, but people are definitely shopping price. In some cases, they’re trying to get partners. We’re certainly not going to be spared by economic climate.”

I’m not too good at math, but it appears that the Mets have a few dollars in the till thanks to ticket sales. Can someone out there do the calculations and figure out if there’s enough to pay Manny Ramirez?