Jason
2025-01-16 18:07:46 UTC
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PermalinkMILWAUKEE (AP) — Bob Uecker, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers
who after a short playing career earned the moniker "Mr. Baseball" and
honors from the Hall of Fame, has died. He was 90.
The team announced Uecker died Thursday morning, calling it "one of the
most difficult days in Milwaukee Brewers history." In a statement
released by the club, Uecker’s family said he had battled small cell
lung cancer since early 2023.
“Even in the face of this challenge, his enthusiasm for life was always
present, never allowing his spirit to falter,” the family said.
Uecker was best known as a colorful comedian and broadcaster who earned
his nickname during one of his numerous appearances on Johnny Carson’s
late night show.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Uecker was a beloved member of the
baseball community and a pillar of the sport in Wisconsin.
When the Brewers clinched the NL Central title in 2024, manager Pat
Murphy threw an arm around Uecker in the locker room, pulling him in
tight as players white-knuckled their corks, ready to shower “Mr.
Baseball” in Champagne.
“There is no one — there is no one — who epitomizes a champion the way
this man does right here,” Murphy proclaimed as the players chanted
“UUUUUECK.”
"What an example for us to be with every single day — Bob Uecker."
Uecker signed his first professional contract with the Milwaukee Braves
in 1956 and reached the majors in 1962. He’d last six seasons in the big
leagues as a backup catcher, finishing with a .200 average and 14
homers.
He won a World Series ring with St. Louis in 1964 and also played for
Atlanta and Philadelphia.
“Career highlights? I had two,” he often joked. “I got an intentional
walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.”
Uecker also befriended former Brewers owner and MLB commissioner Bud
Selig, who initially hired him as a scout. Selig liked to joke about how
Uecker’s initial scouting report was stained with mashed potatoes and
gravy.
Selig eventually brought Uecker to the broadcast booth. Uecker became
the voice of the Brewers in 1971, in the second year after the team
moved from Seattle.
Uecker remained with the club from that point on and became one of the
Brewers’ most indelible figures. Brewers manager Craig Counsell grew up
in the Milwaukee area and remembered spending summer days throwing a
baseball against the roof and catching it while listening to Uecker’s
broadcasts.
“There’s no single person in this franchise’s history who has been as
iconic and as important as Bob Uecker,” said Jeff Levering, a member of
the Brewers’ broadcast team since 2015.
Even as his celebrity status grew nationwide, Uecker savored the
opportunity to continue calling games to fans in his hometown.
“To be able to do a game each and every day throughout the summer and
talk to people every day at 6:30 for a night game, you become part of
people’s families,” Uecker once said. “I know that because I get mail
from people that tell me that. That’s part of the reward for being here,
just to be recognized by the way you talk, the way you describe a game,
whatever.”
Uecker was honored by the Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick award in
2003 and spent nearly 20 minutes keeping the Cooperstown, New York,
crowd of about 18,000 in stitches.
“I still — and this is not sour grapes by any means — still think I
should have gone in as a player,” he quipped.
“Ueck” got his big break off the field after opening for Don Rickles at
Al Hirt’s nightclub in Atlanta in 1969. That performance caught Hirt’s
attention, and the musician set him up to appear on “The Tonight Show”
with Johnny Carson. He became one of Carson’s favorite guests, making
more than 100 appearances.
Carson was the one who dubbed Uecker “Mr. Baseball.” And the name stuck.
But Uecker’s comedy was just a part of his abilities. His warm
storytelling and delivery made Uecker a natural to become one of the
first color commentators on network TV broadcasts in the 1970s with ABC.
In the ’90s, he teamed up with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan for the World
Series.
From there, Uecker reached most households as one of the Miller Lite
All-Stars in popular commercials for the beer brand based out of
Milwaukee and Uecker later launched his TV acting career in 1985 on the
ABC sitcom, “Mr. Belvedere.”
Uecker played George Owens during the successful 122-episode run of the
series that lasted six years, as the head of the family and sports
writer in a home that brings in a butler who struggles to adapt to an
American household.
In a bit of casting that kept things pretty close to home, Uecker also
played a prominent role in the movies Major League (1989) and Major
League II (1994) as crass announcer Harry Doyle for a down-and-out
Cleveland Indians franchise that finds a way to become playoff
contenders.
“I’m part of American folklore, I guess,” Uecker told The Associated
Press in 2003. “But I’m not a Hollywood guy. Baseball and broadcasting
are in my blood.”
His wry description of a badly wayward pitch — “Juuuust a bit outside!”
— in the movie is still often-repeated by announcers and fans at
ballparks all over.
Uecker’s acting left some to believe he was more about being funny than
a serious baseball announcer, but his tenure and observations with the
Brewers were spot on, especially when games were tight. Equally
enjoyable were games that weren’t, when Uecker would tell stories about
other major leaguers, his own career and his hobbies as an avid
fisherman and golfer.
“I don’t think anyone wants to hear somebody screwing around when you
got a good game going,” Uecker said. “I think people see ‘Major League’
and they think Harry Doyle and figure that’s what Bob Uecker does. I do
that sometimes, I do. But when we’ve got a good game going, I don’t mess
around.”
In his later years, he took a serious approach to his health, swimming
daily leading up to heart surgery in April 2010. Very soon after the
procedures, doctors said Uecker returned to walking several miles and
was ahead in recovery.
Uecker pushed to return to the booth and began calling games again in
July, saying he bribed the doctors by allowing them to throw out the
first pitch.
“You talk about all the things Bob has done, he never wanted to leave
Milwaukee,” Selig said. “Above all, he made himself into a great
play-by-play announcer. That’s what he did. He’s everything to this
franchise and loves every minute of it.”
Uecker’s own career provided him most of his material. His former
teammates said Uecker would do impressions of other broadcasters on the
bus, but Uecker turned the spotlight on himself after his playing career
was over.
“I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $3,000. That bothered my dad at
the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough,” he said “But he
eventually scraped it up.”
Another classic: “When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs
in the ninth, I looked in the other team’s dugout and they were already
in street clothes.”
Uecker also presided over the stirring ceremony that closed Milwaukee
County Stadium in 2000. When the Brewers’ new stadium opened as Miller
Park in 2001, the team began selling “Uecker Seats” high in the upper
deck and obstructed for a $1.
The stadium, now known as American Family Field, has two statues in
Uecker’s honor. There’s a statue outside the stadium and another one in
the back of Section 422, a nod to the Miller Lite commercial in which he
famously said “I must be in the front row!” while getting taken to one
of the worst seats in the ballpark.
After the Brewers were eliminated from the playoffs in 2024, Uecker's
last season, “Mr. Baseball” made sure to visit the locker room and offer
support to players in a way only he could.
“That was kind of tough. All the other stuff, it is what it is. ...
Talking to Ukie, one on one, was tough,” outfielder Christian Yelich
said at the time. “He means a lot. He means a lot. I’ve gotten to know
him pretty good over the last seven years. ... He’s right over there.
Just a great guy, a great guy.”