"Texas native and Houston resident Lance Berkman returned to Minute Maid Park as a visitor for the first time Tuesday, and he was greeted by a stinging series of comments from Hall of Fame broadcaster Milo Hamilton, the voice of the Astros. Berkman heard them replayed on the radio as he was driving around the Houston area.

"Why did you think it wasn't necessary to get in shape your last couple of years as an Astro?" Hamilton asked, rhetorically, while a guest on KBME/790 AM. "And now to a team you didn't even know, a manager you didn't play for, you felt it was your responsibility to get in great shape? And it's paying off. ... Lance, I love you. But wouldn't it have been great to have given that same dedication to the Astros and your owner here that you did in two short months to the Cardinals?"

Berkman called the implications "falsehoods" and "ludicrous."

Hamilton asserted that Berkman didn't rehab his injured knee as diligently as he could have last season and that his workouts this winter were beyond anything he did as an Astro."