Milo Hamilton to announce broadcast retirement

[J.R.]

Hall of Fame announcer Milo Hamilton is expected to announce Wednesday afternoon that 2012 will be his final year as the Astros’ lead radio play-by-play announcer on home games. Hamilton, 84, will continue to be associated with the team in a variety of promotional activities and other duties in 2013 and beyond, but 2012 will be his last year on radio doing Astros games on a regular basis. An Astros official would not confirm the scheduled news conference, and Hamilton declined comment Tuesday afternoon. However, two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed plans for the announcement, and local advertising agencies received notice Tuesday that Hamilton has scheduled his announcement for Wednesday. Hamilton joined the Astros in 1985 in his fourth decade of Major League Baseball broadcasting after stints with the Browns, Cardinals, White Sox, Cubs, Pirates and Braves dating back to 1953. He assumed the unquestioned lead broadcaster’s role in 1987 and this year celebrates his 28th year with the team and his 57th year calling MLB games. Hamilton acknowledged last year he would probably not be in the radio booth when the Astros move in 2013 to the American League but said he probably would be around “in some capacity.”

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros...medium=twitter

[kidcave9]

He will be missed..

[REEKO_HTOWN]

Talk about a major rebuild. This orginazation will be unrecognizable next season

[codell]

He may have deteriorated over the years, but you can't dismiss 65 years of broadcasting regardless.

Good job Milo.

[TheresTheDagger]

Feels almost like Houston getting a expansion franchise.

New owner.
New league.
New announcer.
No recognizable players.

[Fyreball]

Wow, maybe they SHOULD go ahead and change the name of the team. It's gonna be unrecognizable anyways.

65 years of service from Milo. While I wasn't his biggest fans these past few years (having to listen for 3+ innings just to get a score update, him neglecting to call the plays on the field while he was in the middle of a story, etc), he's still one of the guys who make the sport what it is. Thank you Milo.

[pouhe]

Well, there's your Hall of Famer.

[leroy]

There is a god.

I'll happily acknowledge his place in history. But you cannot argue that he's been simply terrible for a long time. I'm not sure I can forgive him for how poorly he called the final out in the 2005 NLCS...marking the Astros first trip to the World Series. He called it like it was the 2nd out in the 3rd inning of a random spring training game. Listening to him drool over every female that comes within 20 ft of the booth is disgusting. Not hearing a score for innings upon innings is just plain annoying. The dramatic pause when a pitch is hit into play is frustrating...

"And here's the pitch...







Let's welcome all the groups that made it out to the park tonight."


I can now renew my "Call up Mike Capps" campaign. He's the radio announcer for the Round Rock Express. He is as good as it gets. If you ever get a chance to listen to him, do so. He calls the game as a fan would dream to.

[tellitlikeitis]

Wow. I was at FanFest this past weekend and Milo said that he was so re-energized that he could call games for 3 more years. 3 more years would have meant that he would have called games for 70 years.

I always enjoyed listening to him, although he was certainly slipping towards the latter stages of his career. I don't like Dave Raymond or Brett Dolan, but I can tolerate them somewhat.

[tellitlikeitis]

And yeah, I listened to him, George Postolos, Brad Mills, and Jeff Luhnow talk about the season. Milo looked pretty bored up on the stand.

[moonsh0t]

I have some fond memories of my parents turning on the radio to listen to Astros games after dinner since they were behind the curve on getting cable so that was the only option if we wanted to catch the game.

One game that stands out in my memory was the DK no hitter. I remember listening to that around the kitchen table, hanging on every word.

Thanks for the good memories Milo.

[Uprising]

Damn. First the Rockets with the changes....now Astros.

Radio just doesn't seem the same.

[Kam]

Good job Crane-o.


Kammyo was hating Milo-lo a lot these days.

[cardpire]

haha. thread is cracking me up. i salute the man, and recognize and respect his past, but he was downright comical to listen to the past couple years. can't say i will miss him at this point. happy trails, milo.

[arkoe]

Love Milo but... this should have happened a decade ago.

[tellitlikeitis]

Whoops, I'm trippin' a bit. 3 more years would have put Milo at 60 years of broadcasting.

[Nook]

I appreciate the fact Milo is one of a dying breed, a lifer that started at an earlier age than anyone today would... Further I appreciate that he has been part of the Astros for over 25 years...

Having said that, he is a bad guy... And I will leave it at that.

[juicystream]

Originally Posted by TheresTheDagger Feels almost like Houston getting a expansion franchise. New owner. New league. New announcer. No recognizable players.

Come on now. Carlos Lee is still here. And lets not forget our longest tenured player, Humberto Quintero.

[DonnyMost]

It was time.

[juicystream]

Originally Posted by DonnyMost It was time.

Past time.