PITTSBURGH - They are the sounds of summer, their voices narrating the daily procession of a sport whose traditions and habits, much like a cherished heirloom, are handed down from generation to generation of Americans.

The days of famed baseball announcers Harry Caray, Mel Allen, Jack Buck and Bob Prince have segued into those of Skip Caray, Jon Miller, Bob Uecker and Marty Brennaman, but the ritual never changes. Sit on a porch swing or an easy chair, slide into a car seat or a poolside chaise lounge, flip on the radio and listen to the pleasantly paced passage of another season.

But it's unlikely Harold Arlin, the first play-by-play man 84 years ago on Pittsburgh's KDKA radio, envisioned technology quite like this. Harry Caray might have uttered a "Holy Cow!" had he cradled a wallet-sized XM satellite radio that enables fans to listen to every game, all season, no matter their location.

Driving in the Dakotas? Backpacking in the Smokies? Catching rays on Virginia Beach? It makes no difference - with a $12.95 monthly subscription and an XM radio that costs as little as $39, baseball is always there, always available, always on, with no 50,000-watt radio powerhouse needed for reception.

Holy cow, for sure.

"If we had that kind of technology when I was growing up ... I would have been in heaven," said Pirates announcer Steve Blass, a 1971 World Series star who grew up a huge Indians fan in Canaan, Conn. "I would have been all over it."

Indeed, displaced fans - those living away from their favorite teams - are all over it, now that they can regularly hear all their team's games. Major league baseball has sold full-season Internet radio and TV packages for several years, attracting a combined 850,000 subscribers last season, but a computer and online service are required. And a TV set and cable or satellite connection are needed for the daily package of televised games on MLB Extra Innings.

Not so with XM radios, which can be easily moved from car to house to boat to cottage - even to the ballpark, where fans can listen to one game while watching another.

Thanks to satellite radio, Dordt College history professor Paul Fessler is reunited daily with his beloved New York Mets, though he lives in faraway Sioux Center, Iowa. Jay Gough, a loans operation supervisor in Lexington, Ky., no longer worries if he can pick up that day's Reds game via WLW in Cincinnati. And David Nelms, a steel detailer in McGee's Crossroads, N.C, has gone from having no games available on local radio to having every game every day.

"For the displaced fan, this is utopia," XM spokesman David Butler said.

XM Satellite Radio's $650 million, 11-year deal with the major leagues cost nearly three times as much as rival Sirius' $220 million, seven-year agreement with the NFL, but XM is convinced it has a more valuable and desired product.

That's because industry analysts view the NFL as an appointment sport that fans clear their calendars to enjoy each Sunday or Monday, mostly on TV. But baseball, because of its leisurely pace and natural breaks in the action, has long been considered the perfect sport for radio - with the added bonus of nearly 10 times as many games each season as football.

"Baseball is one of the only sports where it is better to hear it on radio than see it on TV," said Carter Webb, a computer programmer in Columbia, S.C. "There is something about hearing the call and developing a mental picture of the situation as it is happening."

Even to longtime fans, it is a chance to hear never-before-experienced announcers. This is Vin Scully's 56th season behind a Dodgers mike, but the first in which fans from coast to coast can tune in on a regular basis.

Scully, whose three innings per game are a simulcast of his TV play-by-play call, isn't the only veteran voice who suddenly has a much wider audience. So do regionally popular announcers such as Minnesota's Herb Carneal (44 seasons), Kansas City's Denny Matthews (37 seasons), the Brewers' Uecker (35 seasons), the Cardinals' Mike Shannon (34 seasons), the Reds' Brennaman (32 seasons, or twice as many as son Thom, now with the Diamondbacks) and the Athletics' Bill King (25 seasons).