On the night the Yankees won the American League pennant, the presidential debate knocked the game off the air in some markets. The World Series is still big, of course, especially this year, when it comes with its own theme song. But it is many years since the World Series was the biggest of them all. Baseball was the sport. But notice that even Selig puts this in past tense.
Theories are boundless.
World Series games once played in sunshine now happen only after dark. Their knowledge of it can't grow. Roger Kahn, author of The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers of Subway Series past, also laments the late starts. The game more than survives. By some measures, it thrives.