NEW YORK — Major League Baseball set an overall spring training attendance record boosted by an increase in games, but the average attendance declined by 7.7 percent as the recession kept crowds down.

The 30 teams combined to draw 3,753,013 for 522 games, the commissioner's office said Wednesday, an average of 7,190. Last year, the teams drew 3,576,825 for 459 games, an average of 7,793.

Spring training was 51 days this year instead of 45 because of the World Baseball Classic, and exhibition games began Feb. 25.

Baseball revised its 2008 spring training attendance total, dropping the 115,300 who watched the Boston Red Sox beat the Dodgers at the Los Angeles Coliseum that March 29. When MLB originally included that crowd a year ago, it said its 2008 total was 3,692,125 and its average was 8,026, topping the previous high of 7,709 set in 1994 before a 7½-month strike.

Spokesman Rich Levin said the Coliseum game was reclassified as a non-spring training exhibition.

MLB is bracing for an overall attendance drop of as much as 7 percent following five straight years of 70 million-plus attendance.