Fewer are tuning in to World Series

It was this time of year many autumns ago when the voice of my favorite teacher, Mr. Groves, rang through the classroom at Mount Jordan Junior High School.

"Mr. Benson," he said, "come up here to my desk."

Only I didn't actually hear the words, I just saw his mouth moving, on account of the earphone attached to the transistor radio in my pocket.

I might have gotten away with the wire leading to my ear, but when it was time to study quietly the transistor wasn't as silent as it was supposed to be.

I've never been much of a criminal, and this was no exception.

I was listening to the World Series. The Giants were playing the Yankees. Back in the '60s, everybody tuned into the World Series — or attempted to. It was as big a deal as the deer hunt.

I thought about the day I got busted by Mr. Groves the other night when I idly wondered how the 2009 World Series game was going.

My son, Tanner, pulled out his iPod Touch and within seconds told me the inning, the pitch count, how many men were on base and the score.

Times certainly do change. In 1962, everybody wanted to plug into the Series — well, other than schoolteachers — and few could. In 2009, everybody can and few do.

Since baseball is all about statistics, here's a statistic:

More Americans watched the World Series on television in 1962, when the population of the country was 180 million and the games were played in the daytime, than are watching on television today, when the population is 304 million and the games are played during prime time.

According to a TV Guide Web site, in the 1960s, an average of between 22 million and 30 million viewers watched each game of the World Series.

Last year, the average was 13 million viewers per game.

This year, the average TV audience is projected to shoot up closer to 17 million per game, largely due to the fact the Yankees are in the Series for the first time since 2001. But, still, that's several million less than tuned in almost half a century ago.

In the 1960s, between 50 percent and 60 percent of all televisions that were turned on were watching the World Series, according to the Nielsen Ratings. In the 2000s, it's less than 20 percent. Last year was 14 percent.

The apex for World Series TV watching came in 1978, when the Yankees played the Dodgers and an average of 44,278,950 viewers — one of every five Americans — tuned in for each game.