Alan Ashby to be inducted into Houston Baseball Media Wall of Honor
HOUSTON, TX - Alan Ashby, longtime Astros player and broadcaster, has been voted in as the 2024 inductee into the Houston Baseball Media Wall of Honor. The Astros will recognize Ashby at Minute Maid Park in a pregame ceremony on Sept. 23, 2024, prior to the Astros game vs. the Mariners.
Each season, a current or former Houston media member is inducted into the Houston Baseball Media Wall of Honor for significant and lasting contributions to the landscape of Houston baseball through their work in journalism or broadcasting. This year, Ashby was nominated and elected by the Houston media and will be inducted by the Astros in recognition of his long and impactful career in the industry.
Ashby called 12 seasons of Astros baseball across two stints in the broadcast booth, first on radio (1998-2005) then on television (2013-16). He spent his first eight seasons on radio alongside his on-air partner, Hall of Famer Milo Hamilton. While on radio, Ashby was on air for memorable years in club history, including the Astros 102-win season in 1998, the Astrodome¡¯s final season in 1999, and the opening of Minute Maid Park in 2000. Ashby was also in the booth for the 2004 ALDS and ALCS, which marked the club¡¯s first postseason series victory, and the Astros first World Series run in 2005. Overall, he called 38 Astros postseason games on radio.
After a six-season stint in the Blue Jays broadcast booth, Ashby returned to Houston in 2013 for the Astros first season as an AL club. He remained on air for the Astros through the 2016 season, calling the Major League debuts of franchise icons George Springer, Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers Jr. and Alex Bregman. Ashby was also on air in 2015, when the Astros snapped their 10-year postseason drought.
Prior to his broadcasting career, Ashby spent 11 of his 17 Major League seasons as a catcher with the Astros from 1979-89, during which he was a part of three postseason teams. He appeared in 965 games as an Astro and still leads all catchers in franchise history in homers (69), while ranking second in games, hits, runs, doubles and RBI.
Ashby currently resides in Houston, which has been his home since 1979.
On Sept, 23, the Astros will induct Ashby in a pregame ceremony on the field and will present him with a duplicate of the plaque that will be added to the Houston Baseball Wall of Honor in the Milo Hamilton Press Box at Minute Maid Park. His plaque will join those previous inductees Gene Elston (2008), Neil Hohlfeld (2009), Mickey Herskowitz (2010), Bill Brown (2011), Milo Hamilton (2012), Rene C¨¢rdenas (2013), Alex Trevi?o (2014), Harry Shattuck (2015), Mark Berman (2016), Bob Allen (2017), Karen Warren (2018), Larry Dierker (2019), Kevin Eschenfelder (2020), Jamie Hildreth (2022) and Phil Boudreaux (2023).