Brewers/Baseball on XM - Latest: MLB Home Plate available Online

[Brian the Automator]

I'm passing this info on that I received from XM radio in my inbox today:

 

Major League Baseball fans endured the winter and each of their team's offseason transactions - good and bad - and have had a chance to check out their team's 2008 make up during Spring Training.

As the weather begins to heat up so does XM Satellite Radio's MLB coverage. From Opening Day through the World Series, XM, the official satellite radio network of MLB, has fans covered -as they broadcast EVERY GAME, EVERY TEAM, EVERYWHERE. As the countdown to Opening Day begins, here is a list of what XM has on deck for all MLB fans:

"Play Ball!" Channel

What better way to kick off another year of "America's Pastime" than with an amazing audio tribute to the historic game. For 48 hours leading up to Opening Day, XM Radio will broadcast 412 songs about the sport, 27 songs about players, 7 dramatic readings of baseball stories and various classic calls of historic plays - truly an audio euphoria for every baseball fan. From March 29-30, fans will hear non-stop classics on XM Channel 120 such as "Take me out to the Ballgame," "Casey at the Bat," and the Shot Heard Round the World.

Complete MLB Coverage - Every Team, Every Game, Everywhere

XM will continue its complete coverage of Major League Baseball by nationally broadcasting every game in the 2008 MLB regular season and playoffs where fans can stay connected to their favorite teams through their local play-by-play broadcast.

In addition to play-by-play broadcast, XM's MLB line up includes extensive programming with XM Channel 175, "MLB Home Plate," offering baseball junkies in-depth analysis, baseball talk and fantasy tips from respected baseball personalities such as Buck Martinez, Charley Steiner and Kevin Kennedy - 24 hours a day.

On-Air Talent Predictions

With a combined sense of background and knowledge on the subject XM personalities including Charley Steiner, Joe Castellano, Holden Kushner and Ronnie Lane offer their respective predictions for the 2008 season in every major category including: Division Winners, Wild Card Winners, Cy Young Winners, MVPs and Breakout Performers of the Year for each league. Most importantly, they have selected the Pennant winners and World Series Champion with the NL's Chicago Cubs as the most popular pick to win the World Series.

XM hasn't given me anything to post this message. I am a current XM subscriber though, and I have to say that the baseball coverage alone is well worth the monthly XM fee for me.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, I agree. One of the biggest reasons that I renewed my XM subscription this past January was for MLB 175. I really enjoy a lot of their shows, especially Dibble and Kennedy in the afternoons.

[pitchleague]

I much more enjoy the morning show with Buck Martinez and the other guys.

 

Otherwise, I don't see anything "new" in this press release except for the baseball music thing. Are they now going to broadcast all teams' broadcasts regardless of home/away? I'd doubt it.

[Patrick425]

I have XM radio as well. I would say 90% of the time I have channel 175 (MLB Home Plate) on when driving to and from work.

 

However, I have heard these commercials where they talk about "EVERY GAME, EVERY TEAM, EVERYWHERE"; I don't think that's quite an accurate statement. Aside from the Spanish play by play station (174), they have 14 stations dedicated to play by play broadcasting (176-189). There are 30 teams ( as much as 15 games going on at once), so there are going to be times when they can not broadcast "every game".

 

Dibble and Kennedy are interesting to listen too. However, Dibble drives me nuts sometimes. He's such a defender of the players. No matter how much money a player makes or how blatantly clear it is that they are taking some sort of PED (i.e. Bonds), he will find a way to defend them. And Kennedy is always in lock step agreement with him. They never disagree with each other about anything. It would make it a little more interesting if they did. I also find Dibble and Kennedy more interesting when they discuss something like their insight into the life of minor leaguers or discussions regarding youth baseball rather than when they drone on about the Yankees or Red Sox.

 

Overall, I think I prefer Martinez and Patrick in the morning. They are willing to be a little more critical of players, although Patrick comes across as a bit pompous at times. Martinez brings a lot of insight into the discussions.

 

(fixed code --1992)

[Invader3K]

I do like Martinez a lot, I just don't get the chance to catch that show quite as often.

 

Dibble definitely is very "pro players". What can you expect, though? I believe he was a union rep for his team when he was a player, so that's the perspective he's coming from. As far as "droning on about the Red Sox and Yankees", yeah, they do talk about them a lot, but they do touch on the other teams pretty well, too, IMO.

[GAME05]

as a brewer fan living outside of Wisconsin, i couldn't live without XM's baseball coverage.

 

 

one of the nicer things about XM is that unlike ESPN, they don't have to throw hosts on there who are just big personalities with little real knowledge. they don't entirely have to aim for ratings because you're already a subscriber. i'm a big fan of 175.

[RobertR]

However, I have heard these commercials where they talk about "EVERY GAME, EVERY TEAM, EVERYWHERE"; I don't think that's quite an accurate statement. Aside from the Spanish play by play station (174), they have 14 stations dedicated to play by play broadcasting (176-189). There are 30 teams ( as much as 15 games going on at once), so there are going to be times when they can not broadcast "every game".

Unless everybody is playing at night on the East Coast (i.e. never), it's not that difficult to juggle the schedule. Worst case scenario is you just piggyback a West Coast game after an East Coast game.

 

Robert

[Patrick425]

Unless everybody is playing at night on the East Coast (i.e. never),

Wow. I was about to call you out on this, because I thought for sure that there were days when there was a 15 game night schedule with no games on the west coast. I had to go throught the entire schedule. I guess I'm wrong. There is always at least one West coast game (or there is always at least a 3 hour difference in starting times between the 1st game and the last game for any day with a 15 game schedule). So, as rosanne rosannadanna would say..."Nevermind".

[RobertR]

I do note that they don't claim that you'll hear every pitch of every game. Some first games on a piggybacked schedule are bound to run longer than expected.

 

It occurs to me that Friday nights are the likeliest to be affected. The Sunday ESPN game and, usually, an afternoon game on Saturday for at least one major market, are staples of the schedule. But, it occurs to me that the schedulers are likely to make sure that one of the LA teams and/or one of the Oak/SF teams will be in town on a weekend when the other team is out of town. Same for the NY and Chicago teams.

 

Robert

[apirk]

as a brewer fan living outside of Wisconsin, i couldn't live without XM's baseball coverage.

yup

I really like 175 but sometimes the callers into those shows are just terrible.

[Brian the Automator]

Some pretty great news for XM subscribers who listen to XM online via the web.... They've finally added channel 175 to the online version.

[pitchleague]

YES! It's about time. I had wondered why they didn't at least have 175 online when I signed up for online (finally) last month.

[Boy Jeenius]

I just wish I had not signed up on the MLB baseball site too. Now I'm paying for both. Bummer

[Brian the Automator]

I just wish I had not signed up on the MLB baseball site too. Now I'm paying for both. Bummer

Are you talking about feeds for games, or just MLB home plate? XM still won't be broadcasting the actual games online.