The Astros yesterday announced their TV and radio broadcast teams for the '13 season. Bill Brown will be joined in the TV booth by former MLBers Alan Ashby and Geoff Blum, while the radio crew will consist of Robert Ford and former MLBer Steve Sparks. The '13 season will be Brown's 27th as the Astros' primary TV play-by-play voice. Ashby will serve as color analyst while working with Brown, but also will fill in for Brown in handling the play-by-play duties. Blum will serve as color analyst when Ashby handles play-by-play. Ford prior to joining the Astros served as the radio pre- and postgame host for Royals games on K.C.-based KCSP-AM. Sparks has served as a pre- and postgame TV analyst for Astros games over the last several seasons (Astros). In Houston, David Barron noted Ashby spent eight years as an Astros broadcaster before his "abrupt dismissal" after the '05 season. Ashby returns as "part of the on-air team for the Astros' new television affiliate, Comcast SportsNet Houston." His return "resolves the disappointment that followed the decision by owner Drayton McLane not to retain him for the 2006 season, when he hoped to assume the radio road game duties" relinquished by Milo Hamilton. Games on new flagship station KBME-AM will be called by Ford, who "makes his major league play-by-play debut after stints with three minor league clubs and four years" with the Royals' flagship station. Ford, who has not called a baseball game since '08, will be the team's "third lead radio play-by-play voice" (CHRON.com, 2/13).
