Worst play-by-play announcer in baseball

[Jim3k]

I know he's been announcing in the National Laeague forever and is in the radio hall of fame , but Milo Hamilton of the Astros is my choice for the most uninformative announcer in the game. I say that, of course, without having heard most of them. So if you've got another choice, vote here.

Last week, I was on the road to and from Colorado from California. And here I must confess my A's bias. The A's were playing an interleague series with Houston and we were forced to listen on XM Radio, which only supplies the home team's radio feed (same for ACC basketball). As a result, we listened to the games via the Houston radio crew.

One of their backups (didn't get his name) was pretty good. But Hamilton seemed to think he was a TV announcer. You never--I mean never--got a description of what was happening on the field; he simply assumed you somehow knew. In addition, his use of pronouns just confused the issue. I never could figure out which 'he' was 'he.' And the nonbaseball rambling...ooh!

Hamilton couldn't even describe fielding plays except to once in a while give his private 'blue star' award on his scorecard. He didn't even know the names of the opposing team's players. He often used pet nicknames for the Astros players, too. I figured out that Beej was Craig Biggio, but never got more. He let pitches pass without note. Suddenly the count was 3-2, when all he'd called was the first strike. Once he described a double play as: "double play." A few moments later he said it was a 6-4-3 DP. No players mentioned. How about 'swung on, grounded to NAME, flipped to NAME and' -- you know the basic drill. Player positioning was not in his consideration. Type of pitch thrown? He didn't know or couldn't tell.

Beyond all that, the broadcast was often interrupted by sponsored "scoreboards" during the play by play, talking right over the action. Stupid use of a commercial, IMO. Not done for teams on the West Coast for either league.

So, Milo Hamilton, my vote for worst announcer in baseball goes to you. I'm not too excited by Houston's radio management team, either.

You're over the hill, Bud. Accept that and let someone else do the job. You no longer can.