Broadcasters

Television Play-By-Play Broadcaster

The 2023 season marks Todd Kalas’ 31^st year as an MLB broadcaster and seventh as the Astros play-by-play voice on television. The Astros have advanced to the ALCS or further in each of Todd’s first six seasons with the club. Kalas has won three Lone Star Emmys in the last three seasons for his work on Astros telecasts.

Prior to joining the Astros in 2017, Todd spent the previous 19 seasons (1998-2016) as part of the Tampa Bay Rays TV broadcast team. While his primary duties for the Rays were as pre- and postgame host and in-game reporter, Todd also handled play-by-play duties for hundreds of Rays games on both television and radio during his time there.

Known for his distinctive voice and personality, Todd grew to be a popular figure with Rays fans as a result of his work on the broadcasts and was a three-time Suncoast Emmy award winner. Prior to joining the Rays, Todd worked with the New York Mets radio (1992-93) and Philadelphia Phillies television (1994-96) broadcast teams.

A native Houstonian, Todd was born at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston while his father, Harry Kalas, served as an Astros broadcaster from 1965-70. Harry would later call Phillies games from 1971-2009 en route to a Hall of Fame career. When the Phillies and Rays met in the 2008 World Series, Todd and his father called an inning together on radio during Game One of the Fall Classic.

Todd graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University and began his baseball career with the Louisville Redbirds in 1991.

In past years, Todd has called college football, basketball and baseball games and has been a studio host for NHL and NBA teams.

Todd and his wife, Michele, reside in Houston.

Television Color Broadcaster

Geoff Blum returns for his 11th season with the Astros TV broadcast team in 2023, which will be his eighth as the everyday color analyst for Astros telecasts. Geoff, who retired after 14 Major League seasons as an infielder (1999-2012), made the transition from the playing field to the broadcast booth in 2013. Geoff has won two Lone Star Emmys for his work on Astros broadcasts.

During his playing career, Geoff had two stints with the Astros, totaling five seasons in Houston (2002-03, 2008-10). Over the course of his tenure with the Astros, Geoff hit .259 with 228 RBI, 46 homers, 77 doubles and a .711 OPS.

A switch-hitter, Geoff was known as one of the top pinch-hitters and utility players in baseball, appearing at all four infield positions in nine straight years (2000-08). He appeared in the postseason three times in his career (2005-06, 2011).

Geoff was originally drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1994 June Draft. Prior to his professional career, Geoff was a standout at the University of California, Berkeley. He also played a season in the Cape Cod League.

Geoff and his wife, Kory, have four daughters: Mia Lea and triplets Ava, Audrey, and Kayla.

Television Sideline Reporter

Julia Morales returns for her 11th season as the Astros TV sideline reporter. As a reporter and anchor for Space City Home Network, Julia serves as the primary in-game reporter on Houston Astros telecasts. She has three Lone Star Emmys for her work covering the Astros.

Before moving to Houston, Julia worked as a sports reporter for Time Warner Cable News, formerly YNN in Austin, covering a wide range of events, including the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series, and the College Baseball WS.

Prior to joining the Time Warner Cable sports crew, Julia was the weekend sports anchor/reporter for KYTX-TV in Tyler, TX. Julia began her television career at KTEN-TV in Denison, Texas.

A native of Crandall, TX, Julia spent two years as a “World Famous Kilgore College Rangerette” before graduating from UT Austin, where she was a member of Texas Pom for the Longhorns’ 2005 National Championship season.

Julia and husband Matt had their first baby in 2020 with the birth of daughter Valerie Rose.

Julia is extremely passionate about animals and serves on the Board of Directors for Houston Pets Alive!, a no-kill animal rescue. She and Matt foster rescue dogs in the offseason.

Radio Play-By-Play Broadcaster

Robert Ford was named to the Astros radio broadcast team to work alongside Steve Sparks as the play-by-play commentator on Feb. 13, 2013. He enters his 11th season as the radio voice of the Astros. In their 10 seasons, the duo of Robert and Steve have called seven postseasons, including six ALCS and four World Series. The 92 postseason games that they have called in that span are the most in the Majors. This past offseason, Robert was named the 2022 Texas Sportscaster of the Year.

Prior to joining the Astros, Robert had served as the radio pre- and postgame host for Kansas City Royals games on 610 AM KCSP, the Royals flagship station, since 2009.

Robert has seven years of experience broadcasting minor league baseball, having called more than 800 games during stints with the Binghamton Mets, Kalamazoo Kings and Yakima Bears. In that span, Robert was twice named Frontier League Broadcaster of the Year (2003 and 2004). He also has extensive play-by-play experience in college basketball, including calling games for ESPN in recent years.

Robert is a 2001 graduate of Syracuse University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. Robert has twice been a finalist for the Esurance MLB Award for “Best Call, TV/Radio,” including in 2017 for his call of Alex Bregman’s walk-off RBI single in Game 5 of the World Series.

Robert lives in Houston and has a daughter, Elena.

Radio Broadcaster

Steve Sparks was named to the Astros radio broadcast team to work alongside Robert Ford as the color commentator on Feb. 13, 2013. He enters his 11th season on the Astros radio broadcast. Since 2015, Steve and partner Robert have called six ALCS’ and four World Series. The 92 postseason games that they have called in that span are the most in the Majors.

A knuckleballer in his playing days, Steve pitched in the Major Leagues in parts of nine seasons (1995-2004) for the Brewers, Angels, Tigers, A’s and Diamondbacks. His best season was in 2001 while with Detroit when he went 14-9 in 35 appearances (33 starts) with a 3.65 ERA while leading the Majors in complete games with eight. He also tallied a career high in innings pitched (232.0) that season.

Steve attended Sam Houston State University, where he helped lead the Bearkats to back-to-back Gulf Star Conference baseball titles and an NCAA Division II Regional playoff appearance in 1986 and again in the school’s first year at the Division I level in 1987. On Nov. 3, 2017, Steve was inducted into the Sam Houston Letterman’s Association Hall of Honor.

Radio Broadcast Engineer

Matt Boltz enters his ninth season with the Houston Astros and his 23rd overall in Major League Baseball. Matt is the Radio Broadcast Engineer & Producer for the Astros Radio Network. He generates, maintains, and produces all live audio for the entire Spring Training, regular season & postseason schedule. Since 2015, Matt and the Astros broadcast team have produced more postseason games (92) than any other team in baseball.

In 2020, while MLB was on hold due to the pandemic, Matt started an entertaining Astros podcast, that featured current and former players as guests, with Astros broadcasters serving as hosts. Matt also orchestrates all broadcast material, live commercial inventory, promotions and live interviews with the broadcasters, the front office, the radio flagship and the entire radio network.

His offseason duties include editing and archiving all recorded sound, managing and servicing technical elements and assisting with network affiliate relations. Matt also engineers and produces Astroline, the Astros weekly offseason hot stove radio show which has been on the air since 1988.

Prior to joining the Astros, Matt served as the Radio Producer Engineer for the Chicago Cubs Radio Network from 2001-2014. During that time, he also engineered game broadcasts for WGN Chicago and Northwestern Wildcats basketball and football programs.

Matt resides in Pearland, Texas, with his wife, Melissa, and their two children: Emma Lucille and Theodore Matthew.

Spanish Radio Broadcaster

Francisco Romero enters his 16th season of play-by-play on the Astros Spanish radio network and has called over 2,000 games in his career, including six no-hitters and a perfect game. Francisco and partner Alex Treviño are one of the longest-tenured broadcast duos in the Majors. The two have been a team since 2008, and have called 92 postseason games since 2017, which is the most in baseball in that span.

Prior to coming to Houston, he spent five seasons broadcasting Milwaukee Brewers games in Spanish on Telemundo Wisconsin. His MLB broadcasting experience also includes select Minnesota Twins games over five seasons (2003-08).His Major League broadcast debut was for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Telemundo Arizona in 1999, and he spent two years on Diamondbacks broadcasts from 1999-2000.

Other Major League broadcasting experience includes select games on Spanish Radio with the Cincinnati Reds in 2005. Francisco also spent four seasons as the play-by-play broadcaster and pre- and postgame show producer on Spanish radio broadcasts for the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders of the Pacific Coast League.

Additional sports broadcasting experience includes both football and basketball for the University of Arizona Spanish Radio Network (1999-present), as well as three seasons on the Arizona Cardinals radio halftime report.

In 2015, Francisco and his broadcast partner Alex had the distinction of starting the Spanish broadcast efforts for the Kansas City Royals as they were asked to simulcast for both markets (Houston and Kansas City) during the Royals Hispanic Heritage Celebration while playing the Houston Astros.

Francisco and Alex also currently produce a series of webisodes for the Astros Spanish social media channels.

Francisco has been part of three Spanish broadcast effort debuts (Brewers, Reds and Royals) and is the only Spanish broadcaster to have broadcast games for six different MLB teams (D-backs, Brewers, Twins, Reds, Royals and Astros).

In addition to broadcasting baseball games, Francisco was the English as a Second Language instructor for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago White Sox (extended Spring Training) players from 1998 - 2001.

A graduate of the University of Arizona, Francisco spent 10 years as the sports anchor for the Telemundo affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, as well as one year as general assignment reporter. As a sports anchor/reporter for Telemundo, Francisco has covered some of the most important sports events in the world, such as: MLB World Series and All-Star Games, the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Road to the World Cup, NCAA Basketball Tournaments, NCAA Softball Tournaments, NCAA Baseball Tournaments, NASCAR and Championship Boxing.

In 2005, Francisco was inducted into the High School Media Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Pueblo High School in Tucson, Ariz. Francisco was also elected to the Pueblo High School Warrior Foundation Hall of Fame Class in 2017.

He earned a 2004 Emmy Award from the Rocky Mountain Chapter in the sports reporting category; that same year he also earned the Communicators Award for sports reporting. In 2003, the Arizona Daily Star named him as one of the Top 100 Sports Figures of Southern Arizona. In 2014, the Association of Sports Broadcasters of Nicaragua invited Francisco to speak on MLB broadcasting.

Francisco was ranked No. 3 in the Top 100 Sports Figures of Southern Arizona by the Arizona Daily Star, behind former Astros pitching coach Brent Strom and former Astros bullpen coach Craig Bjornson in 2017.

Spanish Radio Broadcaster

Alex Treviño returns for his 28th season as color analyst on the Astros Spanish radio network. He and partner Francisco Romero have been a team since 2008, making them one of the longest-tenured teams in baseball. The two have called 92 postseason games since 2017, which is the most in the Majors in that span.

Alex joined the Astros broadcast booth in 1996 and has called more than 3,000 Astros games, 12 postseason appearances and four World Series (2005, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022).

Alex’s 27 seasons in the broadcast booth are the most in franchise history by a Spanish broadcaster, besting Orlando Sanchez Diago’s record of 21 years.

A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Alex spent 13 seasons playing in the Majors, primarily as a catcher, including the 1988-90 seasons with the Astros. He also spent time with the Mets, Reds, Braves, Giants and Dodgers. While with the Mets in 1980, he threw out 44% (47 of 106) of attempted base stealers, which was tops in the NL. Later in his career, on June 13, 1986, while with the Dodgers vs. the Padres in San Diego, he was part of history when he and pitcher Fernando Valenzuela formed the first Mexican-born battery in Major League history.

Alex hit a career-high .290 while serving as Houston’s backup catcher in 1989 and hit .364 (32x88) in 25 starts. He played in 939 Major League games and had a .249 lifetime average. Alex’ older brother, Bobby Treviño, played in the Major Leagues as an outfielder for the Angels.

In September 2014, Alex was inducted into the Houston Baseball Media Wall of Honor for his significant and lasting contributions to the landscape of Houston baseball through his work in broadcasting.