Geoffrey Edward Blum (born April 26, 1973) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

who played for the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in ...

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after s ...

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home ve ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

and

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

. He is currently the TV color analyst for the

Early life

Before becoming a professional baseball player, he majored in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

and played for the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club tea ...

baseball team. In 1993, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Brewster Whitecaps The Brewster Whitecaps are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Brewster, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Whitecaps play their home games at Stony Brook ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

and was named a league all-star.

Professional career

Montreal Expos

He began his professional career when he was selected in the seventh round of the amateur draft by the

. During his time with the Expos, he spent the winter of 1995 in the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it ...

with the Hunter Eagles.

Houston Astros

On March 12, 2002, after playing in Montreal for three years, he was traded to the

in exchange for Chris Truby.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays

He was then traded after the 2003 season to

in exchange for Brandon Backe. In 2004, he batted only .215 for the Devil Rays, with a .266 on-base percentage.

San Diego Padres

Blum signed with the

as a free agent on December 9, 2004. He hit .241 in 78 games for the Padres in 2005.

Chicago White Sox

He was traded to the

for a minor leaguer on July 31, 2005. On October 25, 2005, Blum hit a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

against the Astros at

Minute Maid Park Minute Maid Park is a retractable roof stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. It opened in 2000 as the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. It has a seating capacity of 41,168, which includes 5,197 club seats and 63 ...

in the top of the 14th inning that served as the go-ahead run in the eventual victory for the Sox in Game 3 of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

. On April 11, 2008 a monument celebrating the 2005 World Series was unveiled at U.S. Cellular Field in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, featuring bronze statues of five players. Blum is one of them, commemorating his tie-breaking home run. The home run would forever cement his place in White Sox history.

San Diego Padres

He returned to the Padres as a free agent in 2006.

Houston Astros

On November 20, 2007, Blum signed a $1.1 million, one-year contract with the

. The deal also included a club option for 2009. Blum returned to the Astros in 2009 and played mostly 3B for Houston. He hit 10 home runs that season, drove in 49 runs and was known for playing excellent defense at all the infield positions. On October 30, 2009, Blum re-signed with the Astros. The contract was worth $1.5 million for the 2010 season and included a mutual option for 2011, which would be worth $1.65 million that was declined, making him a free agent. Blum suffered a season-ending injury to his elbow in July 2010 while putting on his shirt after a game. He had this to say: "There are probably 90 percent of us in the big leagues that have loose bodies floating around. It just so happens that after the game, it tightened up on me. The shirt had nothing to do with the damn injury."

Arizona Diamondbacks

On November 15, 2010, Blum signed a two-year contract worth $2.7 million with the

. In 2 years with the Diamondbacks, he appeared in a total of 40 games out of 326 possible games due to injury. He was released by the Diamondbacks on July 20, 2012.

Broadcasting career

On January 12, 2013, he was named a color analyst of the

for

Comcast SportsNet Houston AT&T SportsNet Southwest is an American regional sports network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit as part of the AT&T SportsNet brand of networks. It is the only AT&T SportsNet regional network that does not maintain a pro ...

, where he worked with Bill Brown and

Alan Ashby Alan Dean Ashby (born July 8, 1951) is an American former professional baseball catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) and current radio and television sports commentator. A switch hitter, he played for the Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, ...

. In

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, he was teamed with a new play-by-play man in

Todd Kalas Todd Harry Kalas (born December 31, 1965) is an American sportscaster, employed since 2017 as a television play-by-play announcer for Houston Astros baseball. Education Kalas graduated from Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Publi ...

. Blum and Kalas have served as broadcast partners for the Astros (under AT&T SportsNet Southwest) since 2017. He resides in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, Geoff 1973 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada Arizona Diamondbacks players Arizona League Diamondbacks players Baseball players from California California Golden Bears baseball players Chicago White Sox players Corpus Christi Hooks players Gulf Coast Expos players Harrisburg Senators players Houston Astros announcers Houston Astros players Jupiter Hammerheads players Lake Elsinore Storm players Major League Baseball third basemen Montreal Expos players Ottawa Lynx players People from Redwood City, California Reno Aces players Round Rock Express players San Diego Padres players Tampa Bay Devil Rays players Vermont Expos players Visalia Rawhide players West Palm Beach Expos players Brewster Whitecaps players Mat-Su Miners players