Houston Astros TV Announcer Bill Brown Returns to Sedalia for Book Signing

The Division Playoffs are happening in the Major Leagues, and KSIS had an opportunity to not only bring St. Louis Cardinals Baseball on the radio, but even get some insight from Houston Astros TV Announcer Bill Brown on Thursday (October 11).

Bill Brown is from Sedalia and graduated from Smith-Cotton in 1965.  He even married another Sedalian, Dianne Dugan, and comes back to Sedalia  to visit friends and family.

The Houston Astros have had Brown as play-by-play on television since 1987, and he just celebrated his 26th year with the team.  Brown said that he enjoys bringing the games to the fans of Houston and that his partner Jim Deshaies have great times in the booth.  Even with the recent two seasons in a row of 100 loss seasons for the Astros.

I had the chance to ask him about his favorite call. "Since I'm on the television side and Major League Baseball usually takes over the broadcasting of playoffs and key games, I have not been able to do those, but calling Craig Biggio's 3,000th hit had to be it," he said.

Brown went into detail about how he has normally been off the cuff and that it was not until he talked with former announcer Wayne Hagan that he suggested that because of the historical note that he should script some of Biggio's historical hit.  This and much more is documented in his book "My Baseball Journey: a Sportscaster's Story."

Brown also talked about some of the great interviews that he did and some of those came with the Big Red Machine of the Cincinnati Reds when he was employed there.  You may be surprised that when he asked he named Pete Rose as one of this favorites.

Over the course of 26 years in Major Leagues, you can imagine that Bill Brown has seen a lot of history from Craig Biggio's 3,000th hit, to the lineup known as the Killer B's, to even the night six Houston Astros pitchers pitched a no-hitter against the New York Yankees in the cathedral known as Yankee Stadium.

The neat thing about this book is that the purchase of the book helps the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias.  On the cover of the book is a boy named Zach Hamm, who has this disorder.  Brown said, "Zach Hamm is a twelve-year-old boy that is missing toes, has trouble sweating and continues to go about his life as if it's no big deal.  He truly is an inspiration."

There is a whole chapter in the book that talks about Hamm and his life with Ectodermal Dysplasias, which are rare birth disorders which cause abnormal development of the hair, teeth, nails and sweat glands.  Bill Brown decided that when he did write a fitting book, that it would go to charity and the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias would benefit from it.

Brown is in Sedalia and will be signing copies of his book at Reader's World in the State Fair Shopping Center on Friday from 4-6 p.m.  I hope you get a chance and talk with him about his book, his journey, baseball, and be sure to ask about his relationship with Zach Hamm.  I have not finished the book, but I'm looking forward to hearing more about Bill Brown's journey as a broadcaster.  Even if you're not a broadcaster, you'll relate to a lot of his stories that occurred in Sedalia and even learn some things that occur behind the scenes of Major League Baseball.

For more information visit mybaseballjourney.com