Impressive lasting that long. I've never actually heard him (that I remember).

Of course, while he says only nice things publicly, privately Scully just scoffs at Hamilton's lack of longevity.

Is Scully's record unbreakable?

Milo is a polarizing announcer. Some people love him; others can't stand him. I know that he made a few enemies in his day, Harry Caray and Vince Cotroneo among them.

There *is* a God! A kind, merciful one.

Anyone who thinks Hawk Harrelson is a terrible announcer should be sentenced to listen to Milo Hamilton for a season, complete with regular doses of No-Doz so you can't take the easy way out and just fall asleep.

I listen to Milo in the car on the way back from campus in the evening. It's an experience. Honestly don't think he's as bad as Jerry Coleman was with the Padres. Not that JC was boring, just that it was often impossible to figure out what was happening on the field.

I did not like Milo at all with the Pirates. Thought he was really boring. Of course I was 15 when he first started in Pittsburgh and I had grown up with Bob Prince. I guess anyone would have been boring in comparison.

I didn't have strong feelings for him one way or another when he did Cub games back in the early '80s. 'Course, I was only 15 in '84: mainly, I loved Sandberg and Caray, and remember every game opening with Van Halen's "Jump."

Sounds like he and Caray hated one another.

Sounds like he and Caray hated one another.

with a passion (Harry that is)-and Skip hated Milo even more for what he (Milo) said about his (Skip's) daddy

Milo is the single worst professional announcer I've ever heard. Take half of Hawk's homer tendencies and mix in completely confusing descriptions. His color guy has to do play by play when Milo messes up calls.

If there was a liner to the shortstop that should have been a single but was caught Milo's call would go something like this:

"Bagwell up now. We really need a hit here. Swing. Oh man. I can't believe that wasn't a hit. What do you have to do to get a hit here?"

Color guy: "What happened there Milo was that Weaver left a slider up over the plate and Bagwell knocked the stitches off it. But Furcal climbed the ladder and took a sure hit away from him."

Good riddance.

milo is horrible and he has been beyond horrible since he got alan ashby fired for doing stupid things like saying the inning, the score or the pitch and interrupting one of milo's stupid irrelevant stories.

the 2 jackasses who are his sidekicks these days are awful, know no baseball, aren't texans, and try to compare baseball to football and golf as often as possible.

but i'm sure crane isn't about to spend any money on anybody GOOD, so astros fans will be stuck with those 2 trolls. not that anyone will be listening anyhow. amazing - just 4 years ago, they had lines of people trying to talk on post game shows. now they are looking for callers

DD is dead on

the color guy he is talking about was alan ashby. which is why milo got him fired.

Alan Ashby is a really good broadcaster.

Milo Hamilton is sort of like John Sterling 30 years from now, supposing Sterling lasts that long (of course, he'd be 100 by then, so he probably won't). But I like him, because I respect experience, if nothing else.

Double secret primey for #9.

Any of you Houston fans remember Loel Passe. He set the standard for awful.

Absolutely couldn't stand him when he did Cub games. Good riddance.

Impressive lasting that long. I've never actually heard him (that I remember).

Yes, you have.

"There's a new home run champion of all time... and it's Henry Aaron!"

primey?

Primey. You should feel honored.

Just the worst announcer in the history of baseball. And, somehow, that's a bit of an understatement.

Impressive lasting that long.

The dark side has sustained him.

I am honored. Thanks.

Has anyone ever been in the twilight of a mediocre career (*) longer than Milo Hamilton?

(*) Here's to you, Rick Bosetti.

When Pirate fans are reminded of Milo, it's to the effect that Milo couldn't catch a break in Pittsburgh because he followed Bob Prince. Nice to see here that he couldn't follow Prince anywhere else, either.

Regarding TFA:

I've read elsewhere that Milo told the Pittsburgh broadcasters in a pregame feature that he would not in fact end his career this year, and wants to announce 3 more years (limited schedule) to get to 70 years in the broadcast booth.

For years I considered Milo a joke. He was never any good, was as exciting as a plate of steamed broccoli and had an entitled and arrogant demeanor. I met him a few times and he was absolutely insufferable whenever a young female was nearby. As he aged, he started losing his ability to see and describe what was happening on the field (like #9 above) and I disliked him even more since he was getting to be unable to do the job. But starting about five or so years ago, I started actually marvelling at his longevity and the fact that he could still enunciate well, be coherent and generally maintain a broadcast. He's the same age as my father and the idea of my dad being able to do what Milo was doing in his mid 80s is impossible. Dad can't eat a bowl of soup without half of it ending up on the floor. So I started to respect him just a wee bit even while still considering him an outdated buffoon.

I ran a 10k race sponsored by the Astros this May and since the team was in LA and Milo no longer traveled, he was the race MC, a duty he performed with both obvious skill and experience as well as complete cluelessnes as to the limits of his own personality. At some point he did a cartoon voice and got a couple of chuckles from the racers waiting to start. They were being polite to an old man. He proceeded to throw in the cartoon voice into every other sentence for the next ten minutes. I was embarrassed for him. One of the racers suggested they take the starting gun and shoot him with it.

I like the two sidekicks just fine and think they might develop some personality with Milo out of the picture. I also agree that Alan Ashby was the best announcer, PBP or color, they ever had on the Astros broadcasts. I liked Dierker when he was on.

insufferable in that he was hitting on the young female? If so, that's both sad and creepy.

No, just insufferable in throwing every ounce of manufactured charm their way. Charm that was outdated sometime around the beginnings of the Manhattan Project. Have you ever heard him interview the player's wives on the broadcasts? He was exactly the same. Hhe was not actually hitting on them, probably just seeking attention the only way he knew how.

I would rather listen to Hawk Harrelson. There are few sounds I can say that about.

There's no fool like an old fool.

Yes, you have.

"There's a new home run champion of all time... and it's Henry Aaron!"

I'm a Dodger fan. I would have been listening to the Dodgers' broadcast, so Vin Scully. Don't know if I ever watched any replays with sound after that.

The last time the Giants were in Houston this year, Giants announcers Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper threw big bags of snacks to fans sitting below the announcers booth. I had no idea why they were doing this until they explained that Milo does this each game only with small bags of snacks. While they were doing their bit, they called Milo over to watch what they were doing. Milo stormed away in a huff (or pretended to). Kruk and Kuip were quite pleased they pissed off Milo.

In any event, I am old enough to remember Milo broadcasting White Sox games in the 1960's. He was pretty bad back then (no enthusiasm at all). Next time I heard him was when he succeeded Bob Prince in Pittsburgh in the late 1970's. Remember those Pirate teams were very "interesting" to say the least. Well, listening to Milo do Pirate games, especially right after Prince, was boring and dull. By the time I next heard Milo do Cubs games (succeeding Jack Brickhouse) in the early 1980's, I think Milo had gotten even worse. He squeezed all the enjoyment out of listening to baseball games. Dear Lord, that was 30 years ago. I cannot imagine how he must sound now.

i really don't remember announcers pre-Milo. and i never liked milo. i really don't remember gene elston. milo was tolerable as long as ash was there. i haven't listened very much to him or his assclown sidekicks for years - i don't want to have to take blood pressure medicine

worrierking

you like those sidekick clowns? you can have em. maybe they can completely ignore all the baseball action and just talk football, golf and assclown #1's stupid kids. they are really gonna pull in all those new astros fans all right

however,

i can't say that milo is the worst, having heard rex hudler - back when he was with the angels and 1 inning was more than enough. mark grace is a teensy weensy limp dingdong. the brennamans are dreadful. brantley is no great shakes but at least he knows some baseball. and john sterling and his female sidekick whose voice is so horrible it could saw through steel - now them is the absolute worst and why on earth the yankeees fans like them so much i do NOT get

BBC, I strongly dislike John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, and I don't know any Yankees fans who like them. At best, friends of mine tolerate Sterling or have gotten used to him because he's done the play-by-play for 23 years now; I don't like his catchphrases and I don't ever again want to hear him follow a Granderson HR with "The Grandyman Can!" Waldman isn't over the top like Sterling, and if I met the two them I'm pretty sure I would hate her less than Sterling -- her voice doesn't bother me because she just sounds, to me, like a familiar type of New York woman. But she's a mystery as a color analyst: she doesn't really know much about baseball, has no baseball anecdotes to share, and has nothing interesting to say. And it's clear Sterling doesn't particularly like her. She seems like someone's perfectly nice aunt who won a contest to be a baseball announcer for a week.

Update:

As expected, Milo is not retiring. He plans to travel to Detroit in 2013 (hasn't called a game from Comerica Park yet), and will work a very limited schedule of home games, a la Jerry Coleman and Ralph Kiner.

Update, one week later:

The existing road radio announcers (Dave Raymond, Brett Dolan) have been unexpectedly relieved of their duties after a seven-year run. Jim Crane is going in a different direction. Milo's official retirement is qualified by saying 2012 was his last year as a "full-time" announcer.

Link

Update, this week:

Milo reacts to the dismissal of Raymond & Dolan: Link

“I’ve been through these things a couple of times, once in Atlanta and once in Chicago,” he said. “The advantages that Brett and Dave will have are that they are very talented and that they will have great tapes to present (to prospective employers).

“Each time for me, I was told in December, approaching Christmas, that my contract wasn’t being renewed, which put me up against it. They now have most of October and up until the first of the year to get their ducks in a row and get their names out there.

“I wish them nothing but the best. This sort of thing happens every year in the broadcasting business. But I really feel that they will be fine, and they have time (to look for new jobs).”

Geez. Milo Hamilton was a pretty good announcer in my book (I haven't heard him lately, so if the years have not been kind I can't comment on that). Don't love him, but certainly a good career and he never detracted from my enjoyment of an event.