That was B.C.: before cable.

Fox Broadcasting, with its weekly series, remains baseball's last national network bastion. And audience ratings are declining annually.

Viewership so far this year is down 14 percent from 2009.

Even coverage of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry can't stop the slide. A recent telecast was 23 percent below the audience figures over a game last spring.

Local cable outlets, like FSN Rocky Mountain, have made baseball almost a daily menu item, while ESPN continues to increase its weekly baseball diet.

Meanwhile, competition from the 18-month-old MLB Network, which airs three live games weekly, is further diluting the Fox audience.

Reports are circulating that Fox, in an effort to increase is audience, will occasionally move into prime time.

The network's current contract with Major League Baseball, which includes the World Series and one League Championship Series, expires in three years.

That expiration could signal the end of network baseball coverage, which began in the late 1940s — TV's stone age era.