agree with dianagram ... Fox is partially culpable ... McCarver is terrible, and the commercial breaks are much longer than the regular season and disrupt the flow of the game.

I haven't listened to McCarver in years. Either find a radio broadcast or turn on the music. So many fine announcers out there, and Fox gives us a guy who makes so many mistakes and contradicts himself so much, it's hard to believe McCarver ever played the game. One theory is that he played his baseball in Kenya, not the United States.

There were other factors also including the fact that the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants do not have the kind of fans nationwide that would follow and watch a series with say the Yankees and the Dodgers, and a lot of people who are totally involved in the Presidential election that are glued to Fox or MSNBC, and some major college football matchups that weekend. More competition is the problem not the announcers.

Isn't it odd that the player pool for the World Series losers is the same size as for the LCS losers?

If baseball is to become all about TV money, and I have no doubt that like the NFL it eventually will be, then it will have got through a total realignment. You would like to make sure that you never have a 'subway series' because only the people in that city care. That suggests that what you really want are 3 league; East, Central, and West with North/South divisions in each. That in turn would get you divisional series like LA vs SF, Yankees vs Braves, Cubs vs Rangers, etc. and would make it more likely you would get a Dodgers/Yankees or Giants/Yankees World series and also allow for World Series like Angels/Red Sox, Giants/Mets, Dodgers/Mets, etc. which aren't possible with the current format. The traditionalists would be offended but they wouldn't stop watching games. Of course it also allows for the possibility of something like a Cubs/Mets or Cubs/Dodgers World Series but I'm afraid no amount of realignment will make that likely.

FOX certainly hurts things. McCarver is an idiot and Buck just seems disinterested.

I know for me, and I didn't watch more than a total of five or six innings, once Verlander stunk it up I lost all interest.

Fox is just awful, from the shameless self-promotion ("Look, the cast of Glee is sitting behind the dugout!") to the check-out-all-the-pores-in-the-pitcher's-face close-up camera shots. The cringeworthy, in-dugout interviews during the game are particularly bad. I'm sure the players and managers would much rather be watching the game than fielding inane questions from Joe Buck. The time spent with Romo and Verlander in Games 3 and 4 went on and on and on. Umm, guys, do you know it's the World Series and there's a game happening? I suppose the one benefit of a four-game series is that we no longer have to suffer through the great baseball insights of Erin Andrews.

I think another thing that makes looking at just World Series ratings relative to the old days misleading is the increased availability of games during the season. As a baseball fan living in Canada I used to tune into the World Series every year because I was starved for opportunities to watch games. Now I can watch any game I want during the year through MLB.tv.

Yes, here comes the Hot Stove, but not after I stay up ridiculously late to watch the Japan Series and then anxiously await the World Baseball Classic. When's that Australian league start...?

One positive about FOX: I thought the super-duper-extra-slo-mo camera was really cool, especially when they showed the pitchers' deliveries.

The extended playoffs lead to lower ratings. By the time the WS finally came, many had lost interest. Instead of building to a big finish, it peters out.