Bob Uecker, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers who after a short playing career earned the moniker “Mr. Baseball” and honours 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 colourful 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 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.
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Even as his celebrity status grew nationwide, Uecker savoured the opportunity to continue calling games to fans in his hometown.
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“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 honoured 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 favourite guests, making more than 100 appearances.
Carson was the one who dubbed Uecker “Mr. Baseball.” And the name stuck.
[NOTE: The video below contains foul language. Watch at your own discretion.]
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 colour 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.
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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 honour. 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.
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