Houston Sports - Milo Hamilton

Milo Hamilton

Born: September 2, 1927

Sport: Baseball - Announcer (60 MLB seasons, National Radio Hall of Fame, Ford C. Frick Award)

As the baseball season approaches its home stretch and football prepares to take its place as the focal point of the fall calendar, I wanted to take one week to remember a man who shaped my own early impressions of sports.  Living for several years on the outskirts of Houston, I would frequently listen to games on the AM station when they either weren't televised or I couldn't quite get a good picture to see.  To be honest, baseball has been a sport I enjoy watching on TV but have much more regularly listened to on the radio, and the skilled announcers who paint a mental image of what is happening have always been enjoyed and appreciated by yours truly.  Milo Hamilton was one of the preeminent voices of baseball broadcasting for decades before I was even born, and he worked for numerous teams along his long and winding path before concluding his career in Houston.  This week marks what would have been his 99th birthday, and later in the month we'll reach the 11th anniversary of his passing.  Some of the greatest calls in the history of the sport came through his microphone, but for many of us the memory of Milo Hamilton will simply be the voice on the radio that sounded like baseball itself.  Let's dig into his amazing story.

In 1985, Milo Hamilton came to Houston

Leland Milo Hamilton was born in the town of Fairfield, Iowa, at the height of the roaring '20s to Milo and Cleo Hamilton.  By the time he was old enough to remember, however, the Great Depression had settled across the nation and although it affected his family as it did to many throughout the Midwest, they used baseball as an escape from the sometimes-harsh reality around them.  The Hamiltons were St. Louis Cardinals fans, but it was the voice of Chicago-based announcer Bob Elson calling Cubs games that impacted young Milo.  After graduating from Fairfield High School in 1945 he joined the military in the waning days of World War II.  As a member of the Navy Seabees, young Hamilton was stationed in Guam when a Marine lieutenant asked for a volunteer to do a play-by-play call of a baseball tournament between various military teams.  The experience was addicting for him, and Hamilton decided to use the GI Bill to enroll in the journalism school at the University of Iowa once his service commitment was complete.  Along the way he was involved in broadcasting boxing, football, golf, and basketball, plus he did his share of music shows and interviews, but baseball remained his first love.  Graduating with a degree in radio voice in 1950, he continued to take what jobs he could and even recreated games which had already taken place (complete with his own background sound effects to make listeners feel like they were listening to a live event) while also searching for his first big break.  That came three years later, courtesy of the St. Louis Browns baseball team, and despite having limited experience he had prepared well for his first shot at the major leagues.

The first job in professional baseball turned out to be a short gig for Milo Hamilton, as the Browns left St. Louis to become the Baltimore Orioles just one year later and their announcer did not go along with the move.  Instead, he remained in St. Louis to join a booth alongside future legends of broadcasters Jack Buck and Harry Caray, but once again found himself out of work after just one year when the team wanted former player (and yet another Frick Award winner) Joe Garagiola to be involved in announcing games.  Hamilton then moved to Chicago for the 1955 season to call games for the Cubs, and this time he managed to last for three seasons before being replaced at the mic by yet another former player.  After four years away from the game, Hamilton got a chance to work with the man who had helped create his own broadcast style as he was picked up by the Chicago White Sox as Bob Elson's assistant.  Five seasons alongside his mentor helped Hamilton continue to develop as a broadcaster, and the chance finally came to be the primary play-by-play voice of a team when the Milwaukee Braves announced their move to Atlanta in 1966.  Moving to the south for the first time, he was paired with retired Braves player Ernie Johnson and was immediately popular with fans.  Hamilton had one of the most memorable moments of his career during the Braves home opener of the 1974 season when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run to surpass Babe Ruth as the game's all-time leader.  But fans had little else to entice them to come out to the ballpark, and when Hamilton was critical on the air of low attendance the team's ownership decided after the 1975 season that it was time to find someone else.  The Pittsburgh Pirates swooped in and hired Hamilton to replace their own retiring legend, Bob Prince, but local writers and fans didn't appreciate the new calmer approach to broadcasting compared to the homespun style exhibited by Prince.  Although he made it four seasons, it was an uncomfortable stop for Hamilton, and in 1980 he returned to the familiar territory of Chicago for a second stint with the Cubs.  He believed that he was about to assume the lead TV role from Jack Brickhouse upon the latter's retirement in 1981, but everything went sideways when the Cubs hired Harry Caray, with whom Hamilton had developed a contentious relationship.  In 1984, he was shown the door but when an announcer from the Houston Astros named DeWayne Staats was hired to join Carey in the booth, Hamilton quickly replaced him at the Astrodome.

Coming to Houston in 1985 turned out to be the best possible option for Milo Hamilton, as he was accepted by a huge fan base that never asked him to be anything besides what he naturally was.  He spent two seasons behind Gene Elston before taking over as the primary play-by-play radio voice where he remained for another 26 seasons.  It was the longest tenure of his career and became his final stop.  Hamilton covered some of the Astros most memorable moments, including Mike Scott's no-hitter to win the division in 1986, the six-man pitching gem against the New York Yankees in 2003 that resulted in the first no-hitter of its kind, the team's magical 2005 run to the World Series, and Craig Biggio's 3,000th hit in 2007.  By 2006 the aging broadcaster cut down on his travel schedule and only called games at home or at new ballparks.  At the time of his final call in 2012, which was the final home win for Houston as a member of the National League, Hamilton had announced games in 59 different stadiums and had a career tenure that was second only to Vin Scully in duration.  He had already been honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award in 1992, as well as being inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame (1994), the National Radio Hall of Fame (2000), and the Texas Radio Hall of Fame (2002).  Hamilton earned recognition as the 2009 King of Baseball at that year's Baseball Winter Meetings for his lifelong commitment and service to the game, and that was the same year that Houston's mayor had a section of the city's Hamilton Street that runs past their downtown stadium renamed Milo Hamilton Way in his honor.  He has been very generous in giving of his time and talents to worthy causes over the years, and has been credited with raising more than $25 million in contributions to various charities.  Hamilton passed away on September 17, 2015, following a lengthy battle with leukemia and was posthumously honored in 2019 with induction into the inaugural class of the Astros Hall of Fame.

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