Forget the DOJ, this is truly a sign that the sky is falling:
XM will be adding the MLB Home Plate channel (ch 175) to its XM Radio Online internet radio service, starting this Saturday (March 29th).

This marks the first time that the popular baseball talk channel will be available on the internet. XM launched the channel on the sats in 2005.

The move is welcome news for Home Plate fans who have been begging XM (and posting comments on Orbitcast) about adding the channel to XM Radio Online. Combined with the fact that Play Ball will have an exclusive online presence for one day, signals that XM is finally ready to utilize one of its big draws to drive usage of its internet radio service.

And that's a great thing.

If you're already an XM subscriber, you (hopefully) already know that you can listen to XMRO for no charge. Not an XM subscriber? Grab a free, 14-day trial at xmradio.com/mlb, and remember, XM is offering new users of its online radio service an introductory rate of $2.99/month for the first six months.

XM is celebrating the start of baseball season with the return of the "Play Ball!" channel. The microchannel will air all day on March 29th and March 30th on XM Live (ch 120).

And in what looks to be an interesting shift of focus towards the intertubes: XM will be extending the channel for a third day - on March 31st - for online listeners only.

The Play Ball! channel will play more than 400 songs about the game, from "Talkin' Baseball" to the Dropkick Murphys' rocking version of the Boston Red Sox fight song "Tessie."   Between songs, you'll hear vintage audio clips, including classic baseball announcer calls ("The Giants win the pennant!"), comedy routines (George Carlin's "Baseball and Football,"  Garrett Morris as ballplayer "Chico Escuela" on "Saturday Night Live"), clips from the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Baseball Bugs," episodes of XM's "Baseball Confidential" interview show, the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1972 eulogy for Jackie Robinson in Harlem, old-time radio dramas (Vincent Price's "Baseball Murder"), and a lot of other amazingly cool stuff.

The channel weaves the songs and spoken-word content together to create a sort of "theater of the mind" experience that's very, very cool... and very, very un-terrestrial radio.

The psychotic creative mind behind the Play Ball! channel is Lou Brutus (uhm... pictured), who's also the program director for XM's punk channel Fungus (ch 53) and a senior music program director. Brutus, a lifelong baseball fan, has been digging deep into XM's music library, as well as his personal collection of vinyl, reel-to-reels, and CDs, to create the channel.

"I think baseball runs emotionally deeper than any other sport," Brutus said. "The very nature of how the game is played can lift you up, or break your heart, more than any other game.  The Play Ball! channel will make you realize how inspirational baseball has been to all kinds of artists for more than a hundred years. You find songs about baseball in most every genre of music. We are going to play literally hundreds of these songs to celebrate the start of the season, and celebrate the passion that people have for the game."

Former President Bill Clinton made his Final Four picks on James Carville's XM Satellite Radio show "60/20 Sports," picking North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, and his alma mater Georgetown.

The telephone interview, which was taped Thursday night, airs today at 3pm ET/12-noon PT on XM Sports Nation (ch 144).

When Russert asked Clinton which team he thought would ultimately win the NCAA championship, Clinton said, "My heart's with Georgetown, but my head tells me it's going to be Carolina or Memphis. If you look at Carolina, they have been able to run with everybody this year, as well as play that powerful inside game, which is why I kind of favor them."

As for Memphis and head coach Jim Calipari, the former President said, "I've got a high regard for Calipari as a coach, and when I watch the highlights, Memphis just looks a lot quicker than most teams to me."

Clinton also cautioned not to count out Duke: "It's easy to dismiss Duke. Most people don't think they've got any chance because they got whacked by Carolina a couple of times. But, you know, they only lost five games, and Krzyzewski is a great tournament coach. You can't really write them off."

Calling from Pennsylvania, where Hillary Clinton will face Barack Obama in the April 22nd Democratic presidential primary, former President Clinton told Carville with a laugh, "As you know, James, I haven't followed this season as closely as I normally do. I've been otherwise occupied. There are probably going to be some surprises this year that, if I had watched enough games this year, I'd have better judgment about."

Russert asked Clinton:  "If you had to compare your wife and her campaign to an NCAA tournament team, which one would it be?"

Clinton chuckled and replied: "Whichever one has shown the most persistence and just keeps coming back and coming back and coming back. Whichever one was dismissed early and came on late, that's her."

"60/20 Sports" is hosted by 63-year-old Carville and 22-year-old Luke Russert, son of "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert. Today's edition of "60/20 Sports" marks the 2nd anniversary of the weekly, one-hour sports talk program. Bill Clinton was the show's first guest in 2006, and returned for the show's first anniversary in 2007.

If you miss today's show, don't fret, it is available as a podcast every week on iTunes and on XM's website.

Here are a couple of shots of the XM studio at the NHL store in midtown Manhattan.

As reported earlier this week, the NHL Home Ice show "NHL Live" started simulcasting on the cable TV net NHL Network this week. The second-floor studio overlooks the store, so shoppers can see the XM show while they scoop up skates and jerseys and whatnot.

XM's daily "NHL Live" radio show will be televised live and in HD on the NHL Network starting today at 12 noon ET.

This is the first time an XM show will be simulcast by a television network.

"NHL Live" is a 2-hour show that originates from the NHL/XM studios inside the NHL store in Manhattan (pictured above). It can be heard Mondays through Fridays on NHL Home Ice (ch 204).

NHL Network will televise encore presentations of the program daily from 5pm to 7pm ET.

XM is starting off the regular 2008 MLB season next week with three live broadcasts of the Boston-Oakland game, including one broadcast in Japanese.

The Sox will play the A's in front of a sold-out crowd at the Tokyo Dome at 6:05am ET. XM will air both the Red Sox radio broadcast and the A's broadcast - as well as a Japanese-language broadcast - on three separate channels.

For Opening Night on March 30th, the Washington Nationals will play their first game at Nationals Park, their brand-new stadium near the U.S. Capitol. The Nationals will host the Atlanta Braves starting at 8:05pm ET. XM will air the Nationals broadcast, the Braves broadcast, and the ESPN Radio broadcast of the game. MLB Home Plate (ch 175) will also be live from Nationals Park throughout the day.

The traditional Opening Day on March 31th will bring 14 baseball games to the XM lineup, starting with the New York Yankees' season opener against the Toronto Blue Jays at 1:05pm ET. This will be the last Opening Day game at Yankee Stadium - as the Yank's new stadium is expected to be completed in 2009, and will subsequently demolish the old one - and XM's MLB Home Plate channel will also be reporting live from the site.

Check out the MLB on XM schedule for more details...

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) will be joining XM's motorsports coverage lineup starting this Saturday, March 15th.

The first ALMS race of the season, the famed Twelve Hours of Sebring, will run from 10am ET until noon, and then again from 9pm ET until the finish, on XM channel 166 (yes, preempting America Right). Additional races will be heard on XM Sports Nation (ch 144) as well as XM Channel 166 during the season.

XM will also work cooperatively with ALMS on a broad marketing program to reach auto enthusiasts who are the Series' core fans. XM's partners Acura, Chevrolet, Ferrari and Porsche are participants in American Le Mans Series racing (pictured is the #26 XM Satellite Radio Acura driven by Andretti Green Racing).

Check out the schedule for XM's American Le Mans Series coverage here.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is hosting one of his special call-in editions of his XM show on Tuesday night at 8pm ET/5pm PT on XM Sports Nation (ch 144).

For just one hour, Junior will take calls and answer questions from his base of rabid fans across the country. They tend to have a nasty habit of jamming up the phone lines (think Benjamin Bornstein), so it's usually a very entertaining edition of the show.

Highlights of the Tuesday call-in show will air during the regular time slot of "Dale Jr.'s Unrestricted" - this Thursday at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT.

In what some consider the greatest rivalry in all of sports, the Duke men's basketball team will host North Carolina this Saturday, pitting the number-one Tar Heels against the sixth-ranked Blue Devils.

XM will carry three live broadcasts of the game at 9pm ET/6pm PT: XM will air the Duke radio broadcast on XM Channel 190, the UNC feed on XM Channel 192, and the national radio broadcast from ISP Sports on XM Channel 191.

Over on XM Sports Nation (ch 144), host T.J. Rives will broadcast live from "Krzyzewskiville," the tent city outside Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, where students camp out for months to get the best seats for the storied game.

Rives will be live from "K-ville" on Saturday from 12-noon - 2pm ET and 5pm - 8pm ET.

XM Satellite Radio will be airing complete coverage of the Masters Tournament live from Augusta, Georgia from April 7th through April 13th.

This year will mark the 3rd consecutive year that XM has been the satellite radio provider of the Masters, and in fact XM will provide more live radio coverage of the event than any other broadcaster.

XM's Masters Week programming starts on April 7th with Peter Kessler's daily morning show "Making the Turn." XM then will be at Augusta starting on April 8th with the pre-event press conferences at Augusta National Golf Club.

Hear an in-depth preview of the Masters and interviews from the Par 3 Contest on April 9th. And finally live play-by-play coverage can be heard April 10th to 13th, from the first tee to the green jacket ceremony.

Tune in to XM's PGA Tour Channel (ch 146) for all the coverage.