I never understood XM. Why would someone pay for the radio when you already have AM and FM for free? Are these people just signing up to listen to Howard Stern, and if so, why?
When I bought my new car in April, it came with a three-month XM trial. I wasn’t even going to turn it on. Why bother? But as I learned how to navigate the complicated system of buttons that is my entertainment system, I ended up surfing through the XM band.
Wait, is that every MLB game? Live? Every day?
Oh, damn.
Guess who handed over her credit card info to XM?
I grew up with baseball games playing in the background, the distant crowd noise providing the soundtrack to my childhood summers. My grandmother would even turn the radio on at night because sometimes, in the wee small hours, she could lie in bed in Philadelphia and catch replays of the Red Sox games being broadcast from Boston (AM reception still baffles me). I’m sure that my mother would have done the same if my father didn’t protest.
My 3-year-old already loves baseball. Unlike the preoccupied grownups, he listens to every word. He knows every team and every stadium. He knows more than his share of broadcaster catch phrases and the significance of key plays. He’s chosen his own favorite team, one that’s completely separate from his father’s or mine. And in some way, I feel like it connects him to the baseball-loving Grammy and Great-Grandmom that he never knew and yet is so clearly related to. So for him, I’ll pay XM the money.