RIP Milo.

He had his fans and he had his critics, but I don't think anyone can say he wasn't the biggest Houston Astros fan this city has ever had in the broadcaster booth. I dealt with him for parts of two decades and he was always the consummate professional, doing whatever was needed for the job at hand.

It is unfortunate he couldn't have lived another month and perhaps witness one more Astros playoff battle. I'm sure the team will honor him in some way next month though.

(09-17-2015 03:28 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I'm sure the team will honor him in some way next month though.

I hope they do that by shaking off their current funk, winning some games down the stretch and hosting a playoff series.

As you said, RIP Milo.

Soon after the passing of Gene Elston who I thought better conveyed what was going on in the ballgame. Still, it is great to be able to announce baseball for over 60 years.

A true legend and many fond memories.

(09-17-2015 04:42 PM)75src Wrote:  Soon after the passing of Gene Elston who I thought better conveyed what was going on in the ballgame. Still, it is great to be able to announce baseball for over 60 years.

That's what I have been saying. Not that Milo wasn't fun but Gene Elston was a genius and I think he broadcast HERE longer than Milo.

Gene Elston and Lowell Passe were a very good team for the Colt 45s and then the Astros during the beginning of major league teams here in Houston. The Colts were the first 100 major league team in Houston. Every town in Texas carried all the games locally on a radio affiliate.

You could walk around in the neighborhood and never miss a play as so many people would have the game on outside while they did gardening or talked to neighbors.

With Gene Elston you always knew the score and if you turned on late his inflection was such that you could usually tell whether we were winning or losing and whether it was close or not.

Gene Elston was one of a kind.

(09-21-2015 04:16 PM)bbaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2015 04:42 PM)75src Wrote:  Soon after the passing of Gene Elston who I thought better conveyed what was going on in the ballgame. Still, it is great to be able to announce baseball for over 60 years.

That's what I have been saying. Not that Milo wasn't fun but Gene Elston was a genius and I think he broadcast HERE longer than Milo.

Gene Elston and Lowell Passe were a very good team for the Colt 45s and then the Astros during the beginning of major league teams here in Houston. The Colts were the first 100 major league team in Houston. Every town in Texas carried all the games locally on a radio affiliate.

You could walk around in the neighborhood and never miss a play as so many people would have the game on outside while they did gardening or talked to neighbors.

With Gene Elston you always knew the score and if you turned on late his inflection was such that you could usually tell whether we were winning or losing and whether it was close or not.

Gene Elston was one of a kind.

Gene Elston had a great radio voice. I've spoken frequently on this board about Jack Buck, and I tend to have a 'high bar' for baseball broadcasters. Gene Elston was an excellent announcer, and was a real pleasure to listen to.

Milo was pretty uncomplimentary of Lance after he left.

As a native of St. Louis, who moved to NOLA at 14 and then Houston at 18, I listened to both Elston and Hamilton for many years. I really liked Elston despite my affinity for the Cardinals. Hamilton really grated at first, but gradually I came to appreciate his passion for the 'Stros. He always laid his feelings out there for all to see.

When Pujols hit the homer in the 2005 NLCS to bring the series back to St. Louis, he despondently said, "He hit it over the railroad tracks." He was just as crushed as the fans in the stands who were absolutely silent.

I later found out he had personal as well as professional reasons to hate the Cardinals. But He was one of the last of the old school story teller broadcasters. May he rest in peace.

(09-22-2015 12:06 AM)NolaOwl Wrote:  When Pujols hit the homer in the 2005 NLCS to ring the series back to St. Louis, he despondently said, "He hit it over the railroad tracks." He was just as crushed as the fans in the stands who were absolutely silent.

I still wonder if the ball Pujols hit ever came down.

I grew up listening to Elston and Loel Passe. Two very different styles. It was almost like listening to 2 different games when they alternated play-by-play.

I wasn't particularly fond of Milo's style at first, but grew to like it.

However, my favorites for the Astros were the former players, Dierker, Deshaies and Ashby.

And before one of the Parliament police jumps in to right the wrong, I am well aware I'm mixing play-by-play and color commentators.

(09-22-2015 12:06 AM)NolaOwl Wrote:  When Pujols hit the homer in the 2005 NLCS to ring the series back to St. Louis, he despondently said, "He hit it over the railroad tracks." He was just as crushed as the fans in the stands who were absolutely silent.

We lost that game, but won that series. People often forget that.

Of course, losing that game meant that to win the NLCS we had to pitch Roy Oswalt in NLCS Game 6 instead of WS Game 1. If Oswalt could have been our Game 1 starter, that World Series might have looked a bit different. So while the Pujols home run did not cost us the NL pennant, it may have cost us our best shot at the World Series crown.

(09-22-2015 12:06 AM)NolaOwl Wrote:  Hamilton really grated at first, but gradually I came to appreciate his passion for the 'Stros. He always laid his feelings out there for all to see.

I seem to have missed Milo ... but according to his Wikipedia page, he succeeded the announcer I grew up listening to: Bob Prince in Pittsburgh. And as with many who follow a legend, it apparetnly did not go well, in part (it seems) because he was too restrained:

Quote:Any announcer would have had difficulty following the deeply entrenched Prince, who had been part of the Pirates' broadcast team since 1948 and who had been the Pirates' top announcer since 1954. Hamilton was the subject of biting criticism by sportswriters and by fans. Most of them were used to Prince's folksy style, and they thought that Hamilton was too restrained. One writer derided Hamilton's style as "broadcast-school professionalism.

(09-22-2015 12:06 AM)NolaOwl Wrote:  I later found out he had personal as well as professional reasons to hate the Cardinals.

Milo's Wikipedia page (linked above) details quite a few incidents where he and Harry Caray didn't get along, dating back to the 1954 season with the Cardinals. Ouch!!

I'd rank Greg Lucas as my favorite baseball play-by-play guy because he was the Rangers' TV play-by-play guy the year that I did stats for Rangers TV. Really enjoyed working with him, and we remain good friends today.

Aside from that one biased opinion, I'd rate Vin Scully first, Gene Elston a very close second, and Marty Brennaman third. Brennaman is my favorite basketball play-by-play guy. He was the voice of the Squires for part of the time when I was in Norfolk in the navy. Scully and Elston pretty much called things down the middle, which I prefer. Brennaman is more of a cheerleader, but I think he is the best at that approach of anyone I know. Gene Elston's son and I were in the navy together, so I have some personal contacts there, too. I remember Gene back to the old Mutual game of the day when I was a child, and always enjoyed his style.

Milo wasn't really a favorite of mine, too much of a home teamer, but I have to say that he was always extremely nice to me personally, so this loss certainly hits me hard.

I used to listen to Gene Elston and Lowell Passe broadcast Astros games in high school and college while doing homework around the kitchen table at our house, as I lived at home and commuted to Rice. My first week in Fort Worth after graduation I spent in the Holiday Inn Mid-town right off University Blvd. It wasn't the best hotel, and is gone now. No hotels had radios then, nor was there cable TV. So evenings in a new town where I knew no one weren't much fun. I had no money to speak of as I had to wait two weeks for my first check. I ended up sitting in my car by the railroad track there listening to Gene and Lowell broadcast Astros games on KMOX, a powerful St. Louis AM station. It really helped with my homesickness. I would have quit and come back home except for my interest in aviation and aircraft design, which landed me a job at the Bomber Plant working on the F-16 program. I just could not see myself ever getting involved in the "all bidness" back home. Seemed exceptionally boring to me. And it turned out I made the right decision because 5 years later I would have been looking for another job in Fort Worth anyway, due to the oil price drop of the early eighties.

(09-22-2015 10:02 PM)WeatherfordOwl Wrote:  I used to listen to Gene Elston and Lowell Passe broadcast Astros games in high school and college while doing homework around the kitchen table at our house, as I lived at home and commuted to Rice. My first week in Fort Worth after graduation I spent in the Holiday Inn Mid-town right off University Blvd. It wasn't the best hotel, and is gone now. No hotels had radios then, nor was there cable TV. So evenings in a new town where I knew no one weren't much fun. I had no money to speak of as I had to wait two weeks for my first check. I ended up sitting in my car by the railroad track there listening to Gene and Lowell broadcast Astros games on KMOX, a powerful St. Louis AM station. It really helped with my homesickness. I would have quit and come back home except for my interest in aviation and aircraft design, which landed me a job at the Bomber Plant working on the F-16 program. I just could not see myself ever getting involved in the "all bidness" back home. Seemed exceptionally boring to me. And it turned out I made the right decision because 5 years later I would have been looking for another job in Fort Worth anyway, due to the oil price drop of the early eighties.

WO,

KMOX was the Cardinals flagship in the 1960's and 1970's . . . .
some other powerful station perhaps?

Another Hall of Famer with Houston ties passed away this morning too. RIP Yogi Berra.

In honor of his wit and wisdom, I offer that no one goes to Heaven nowadays. It's too crowded.

And one more.... Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.

(09-23-2015 07:24 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Another Hall of Famer with Houston ties passed away this morning too. RIP Yogi Berra.

In honor of his wit and wisdom, I offer that no one goes to Heaven nowadays. It's too crowded.

And one more.... Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.

Yogi has been there for me my whole life...<sad>