NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - My eight-year old, despite attending more regular season baseball games than most adults, has never seen more than a few innings of a World Series game.

Their start times are too close to her bed time. The last pitch is well after even I should be sound asleep.

But despite denying Allison a chance to see the fall classic, and no matter how much productivity is lost to sleep-deprivation, I have to admit it is a good thing for the sport to play past the witching hour as often as not.

The common belief is that games lose viewers by going so late. But the minute-by-minute numbers show something else entirely, even for viewers in the eastern and central time zones, and even for younger viewers.

During the weekend games of the 2003 World Series, those that could have most reasonably had earlier starts, the ratings for the viewers age 2 to 17 actually reached a peak at or near 11 p.m. ET, in two of the three games. (The other game was a blowout anyway.)

The weakest ratings among young viewers were early in the games.

Part of that is because the end of a game is generally more exciting than the beginning. Part is because many kids who go to bed early don't bother to even start watching a game.

But part of it is because even kids have demands on their time earlier in the evening or the afternoons (think after-school activities, play dates, and if you're a lucky parent, homework).

The ratings for the afternoon and early-evening postseason games from earlier rounds show the same type of results -- more kids watch later at night than in the day.

The question is still there though -- is baseball giving up hooking the next generation of young fans by putting its premier event out of the reach of many of them.

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"It's a legitimate question and it is something we do look at," said Chris Tully, senior vice president of broadcasting for Major League Baseball. "The answer is we put them (World Series games) in prime time to get older fans, to get young fans, to get casual fans and to get avid fans. That's where you find them in larger numbers than elsewhere.

Of course the percentage of kids watching the games is far less than the percentage of adults -- less than 10 percent. That's unfortunate for the game's long-term prospects. But it's probably more due to competition from video games or other sports or the other demands in an packed-full schedule that many kids have, than it is the start time of the games.

The National Basketball Association, which gets better regular-season ratings with youngsters than baseball, starts its postseason games even later than Major League Baseball.

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And even the mighty National Football League starts Monday Night Football later than the World Series, and is pushing back the start times for the Sunday afternoon games as well in an effort to grab the greatest viewership.

This year's Game 7 of the World Series is set for Fenway Park on Oct 31. Given the length of games, November baseball is a distinct possibility for only the second time in its history (the first was when Sept. 11 pushed back the entire season by a week.)

While teachers in New England and the greater Midwest might not be happy about November baseball, Tully would be thrilled.

"If we get past midnight of game 7, there are few things I'm sure of, but I'm sure a lot of people will be watching," he said.

Regular readers of this column know that I'm a fan of the Yankees, not the team that so effectively beat them in the just completed American League Championship Series.

The reason I'm wearing that team's cap in the photo above is the result of a lost bet to a Boston-fan colleague, who had to wear a Yankees cap for a week last year (and hopefully next year).

The reason the photo is in this column is a boss who I believe is jealous of the Yankees' success since we started working together in 1995.

But due to a Massachusetts-born wife, who during 11 years of marriage has cheered for the Yankees more often than she would have liked, I have this to say: Go Sox!