Making Airwaves: 60 Years at Milo's Microphone

by Milo Hamilton, Dan Schlossberg

Millions of sports fans know the dulcet tones of Milo Hamilton's melodious voice. They remember his call of baseball's most magic the home run that made Hank Aaron the new home run king in 1974. However, he was also behind the mike when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run in 1961, when Stan Musial hit five home runs in one day, and when Nate Colbert duplicated Musial's feat two decades later. Now in his seventh decade at the baseball mike, Hamilton was the oldest active announcer who worked the entire 162-game schedule in 2005. He still has not lost his youthful enthusiasm. Hamilton has called 11 no-hitters and two World Series, often in tandem with such broadcast legends as Jack Buck, Jack Brickhouse, and Bob Elson. Those pairings did not always prove to be perfect. In the book, Hamilton speaks frankly about his tenuous relationship with Harry Caray when the two were paired together in St. Louis during the mid-1950's and again in Chicago during the early 1980's. He also discusses his rocky relationship with former Astros broadcaster and manager Larry Dierker. The talented but brash Hamilton was certainly known to sometimes make waves in addition to airwaves, but his work was so well-received that he was enshrined into the broadcasters' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. He received an even more unexpected honor eight years later - election to the exclusive Radio Hall of Fame, of which only seven other baseball broadcasters belong. He has truly managed to work his way up from humble origins. After listening to Ronald (Dutch) Reagan during his schoolboy days in Iowa, Hamilton got his first broadcast gig as a his commanding officer in the Navy needed someone to announce a game in Guam, just after the end of the Second World War. After admitting that he played baseball and knew something about the game, he was placed behind the WXLI microphone on the Armed Forces Radio Service. He got his big league break with the lowly St. Louis Browns in 1953. It was not easy, but he knew how to make a bad team sound good. When the Browns headed to Baltimore, Hamilton moved into the Cardinals broadcast booth for a year. He then worked for the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Cubs again before becoming the Voice of the Houston Astros in 1985. He is now in his 21st season with the team. The story he tells in Making 60 Years at Milo's Microphone is a profile in courage, a tale of talent and determination, and a behind-the-scenes look at seven decades of baseball history.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

226 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[Harry Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend was kind enough to absorb what were presumably extortionate shipping and import fees to get a copy of this book (a signed one, no less!) to me in the UK. I have fond memories of quietly listening to Milo's radio broadcasts in bed at hours at which my parents thought I was sleeping.

This personal connection with the author no doubt helped me to enjoy some of the detours the book takes. At times Milo seems perhaps overly keen to tell his side of the story about a feud that must be long-forgotten for all but a few people, but it is always done with the level of finesse and wit that would be expected of a man who made his living telling stories. For something which is branded with the red-brick colour scheme of the 2000s Astros, relatively little time is spent with the Astros themselves, although this does not take away from the book: tales of 're-creating' a baseball game entirely by reading descriptions of plays sent by telegram (for example) are much more interesting than the rather more polished broadcast environments of the late 20th and early 21st century.

It would be difficult for someone with a career like Milo's to write an uninteresting book. Nevertheless, I found myself consistently charmed by this one, and I feel that would be true to some extent regardless of my Astros fandom.

[Kraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milo Hamilton was a baseball play-by-play announcer that worked with numerous teams, including the Cardinals, Cubs, Pirates, Braves and Astros. He experienced world series winners, losing teams, Hank Aaron's most famous home run and other milestones of baseball history. He worked with many famous partners. He details the problems with Harry Carey, showing a dark side of Carey that is not usually focused on. He replaced Bob Prince in Pittsburgh and reveals the dark side of Prince, as Prince was petty in the wake of his firing.

In the end, Hamilton was inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown and broadcast halls of fame.

The story is well-written and interesting. Hamilton fills in many pieces to the puzzle that was major league baseball over numerous decades.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Milo. He's the only voice for the Astros I've known.