As seen on the radio

I don't often read in bed anymore, another lost pastime swallowed up into the sensory overload brought on by digital cable and sleep timers on the TV. But tonight, as I spread out in the center of our queen-size bed, my fiancee away for the night, I began my weekly ritual wherein I meander, page-by-page, through the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.

Just past the letters to the editor and the contributors page came Steve Rushin's column, which, once I finished reading, made me put the magazine down and give in to yet another diversion -- the computer in my lap, my lap still in bed. I couldn't put this off until morning. If XM Satellite Radio hasn't already begun thinking of how to use this column in advertising its product, it will soon. I was debating the purchase myself, strictly on the strength of having 15 baseball games a day at my earlobes, but I hesitated when consulting the Sunday circulars and discovering the awful truth about such technology these days: You can't have it all. Baseball is on XM, but the NFL is on Sirius. XM has CNN, MSNBC and the Weather Channel, but Sirius has ESPN and Notre Dame sports. And, sadly, XM has right-wing blowhards and football and basketball from the ACC, Pac 10 and Big Ten. But to read Rushin's experiences from one week of surfing the satellites pretty much sold me. In fact, I picked up my TV remote and turned the Indians-Angels game I was watching (with my MLB Extra Innings package) to the Dodgers-Padres matchup to hear Vin Scully tell me Mark Sweeney's degree from the University of Maine.

Clearly, though Rushin didn't tune into a Pirates game, or he might not have been misled by Dan Gladden on a Twins broadcast. For it was in Pittsburgh along the Allegheny that the aluminum beer bottle was developed and marketed, not the Twin Cities of the Mississippi.

But maybe he did and just got confused. If I had 15 ballgames per day, at least five days a week, at my disposal, I might mix up some of the minutiae too.

In a week or so, I'll probably know.