Thursday, April 14, 2005

XM Radio a baseball fans dream

Growing up a baseball geek in the midwest I loved listening to the Cubs, Sox, Brewers and even the hated Cardinals on the radio. Some nights when the winds blew just right I could here Ernie Harwell calling the Tigers or Marty Brenneman calling the Reds. Other nights Indians or Twins games might come in. It was always exciting to listen to another teams version of Vince and Lou.

Growing up a Cub fan, Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau were my guides to the season. Most kids watched on tv listening to Jack or later Harry. I did that occassionally, but listening to a game on the radio was the best. I don't wanna go Bob Costas on you and talk about how much better the game was when we were younger. The innocence and all the rest... blah blah blah... But baseball on the radio was and is fantastic!

XM Satellite Radio had baseball/radio geeks like me in mind when they agreed to broadcast all MLB games in 2005. Not only do they broadcast every game they have a 24/7 baseball station XM 175 MLB HomePlate.

A couple of weeks ago I broke down and went to Best Buy and bought an XM receiver. I bought a kit for the car and a boom box for use at home. XM is the coolest thing! I am on the road alot for work. I usually drive. While driving the past few weeks I have caught parts of games from Atlanta(Chippy on the call), New York, Florida, San Franciso, and Tampa(it was the only game on at the time). I dreamed of being able to listen to Yankee/Red Sox games when I was a kid. If it wasn't the NBC Game of the Week, we waited for the boxscore the next day. Now I can drive around the midwest surfing between a Dodger game in LA and a Washington Nationals game at RFK. Isn't technology amazing!

The fact that I can listen to any big league game throughout the season without the blackout rules that apply to DirecTV's MLBEXtra Innings or mlb.com is just awesome. If you are a baseball fan and cannot get enough baseball, checkout XM. If you are a Cub fan outside of the midwest XM will give you the opportunity to listen to Pat and Ron during all home games.

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