If ever there was one of a kind, Bob Uecker was it
TOM HAUDRICOURT, SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL SENTINEL • JAN. 16, 2025
There will never be another Bob Uecker.
The phrase “one of a kind” is sometimes misapplied with iconic figures, but not with Ueck. He was as unique as they come, and so permanently ingrained in the psyches of Brewers baseball fans that news of his death Thursday left a profound sadness that to certain degrees will never dissipate.
Managers, coaches, players, staff and fans have come and gone since the Brewers arrived in Milwaukee in April 1970. But Ueck was always there, a constant behind the microphone in the club’s radio booth, a soothing and often hilarious voice that carried devoted listeners through both long, losing summers and exhilarating, playoff-bound campaigns, of which there have been many in recent years.
Why did Ueck form such an everlasting bond with Brewers fans? For beginners,
he was a born-and-bred Milwaukeean. A true Cheeser who understood the locals and what mattered most to them, beginning with a down-home approach to broadcasts, vast knowledge of the game and enough humor to get them through tough nights at the park.
But, more than anything, Ueck grabbed onto you with nonstop self-deprecation that made him seem like one of us. Not some hot-shot, Hall of Famer who looked down his prominent nose at you. Just one of the guys, someone you could envision having a beer with, an everyman who grew on you every time he was on the air.
Latching on to his modest playing career, including a lifetime .200 batting average over six seasons with the Braves, both in Milwaukee and Atlanta, as well as the Cardinals and Phillies, as the fulcrum to a budding career in comedy, Ueck was in constant demand
across the entertainment spectrum, including movies (he stole the show in “Major League”) and television.
But, as he reminded us many times, he always came back to baseball. And, more specifically, the Brewers. He had opportunities to go elsewhere — George Steinbrenner once tried to steal him away to the Yankees — but never had any intention of leaving his hometown team.
Ueck cracked up Johnny Carson so much he was invited to appear nearly 100 times on “The Tonight Show”, turning straight lines from the host into comedy gold with his trademark deadpan delivery. It was Carson who dubbed him “Mr. Baseball,” initially intended to poke fun at his career but later worn proudly as a badge of honor by the former catcher.
Uecker hit only 14 home runs in 843 plate appearances in the majors but one came off legendary Los Angeles Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax on July 24, 1965 at
Dodger Stadium.
“Every time I saw Sandy Koufax after that, I apologized to him,” Ueck often joked. “I thought for sure it would keep him out of the Hall of Fame.”
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, if you ever feel in need of a laugh, or dozens of them, go to YouTube and call up Ueck’s 2003 speech in Cooperstown as he accepted the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. It was a master class in side-splitting self-deprecation as he took the captive audience step by step through his time as a player.
When Ueck initially was contacted by a Hall of Fame representative, he was told he’d have 10 minutes to give his acceptance speech.
“I can’t do my act in 10 minutes,” Ueck replied, insisting he’d need at least twice that.
Thankfully for all involved, including a national TV audience, Ueck was
OPPOSITE: Bob Uecker jokes with the 50-mile riders at the downtown starting line of Uecker’s Ride for the Arts. More than 13,000 bicyclists participated in the 2-mile, 5-mile, 30-mile or 50-mile courses to benefit the United Performing Arts Fund campaign. UPAF expected to raise more than $200,000 from entry fees and amounts pledged of the efforts of the riders.
DALE GULDAN / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
clubhouse after clinching the division title until Ueck made it down from the radio booth.
“There is no one who epitomizes a champion the way this man does right here,” Murphy exclaimed after gathering his jubilant players.
“What an example for us to be with every single day. Bob Uecker!”
In true Ueck fashion, as he was being doused with bubbly from all angles, he announced with a smile, “I peed my pants.” Nobody was sure if he was kidding.
around to say his goodbyes, letting some know he probably wouldn’t see them again.
Christian Yelich, who had grown particularly close to Ueck, was demonstrably emotional after their private conversation.
“There is no one who epitomizes a champion the way this man does right here.”
PAT MURPHY
End of 2024 Brewers season painful for those close to Bob Uecker
The mood was completely different when Ueck paid his final visit to the home clubhouse on Oct. 3. The Brewers had just lost in devastating fashion to the New York Mets to get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, and it was as quiet as a library as players tried to process the ninth-inning turnaround that ended what had been an otherwise uplifting year.
That stunning defeat was not the primary reason certain players were left in tears late that night. An ailing Ueck, who knew he didn’t have much time left, went
“It’s special, every time he’s around,” Yelich told reporters quietly, choking back tears. “We shouldn’t take it for granted. He’s the man. He means a lot to this place. Anybody who has spent any kind of time with him knows how special Bob is.”
Though his health was deteriorating at the end of the 2024 season, Uecker insisted on calling some of the action of the Brewers’ series against the Mets. That put him behind the mic in the ninth inning of Game 3 when Pete Alonso broke the hearts of home fans with a dramatic home run that ended Milwaukee’s season.
“He tried to do Game 2 and did the (pregame) ‘Pat Murphy Show’ but came upstairs but decided he didn’t have the energy to do it,” said longtime broadcast partner Jeff Levering. “But he insisted on doing his normal routine for Game 3.
“Knowing what he had been dealing with, just to get out of bed every day and come to the ballpark and perform the way he does and be ‘on’ the way he is, that’s the
RIGHT: Bob Uecker holds a coho salmon with Carole Caine at the Bob Uecker Invitational, June 24, 1999. BOB RIEPENHOFF / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
OPPOSITE: Former Milwaukee Braves star Andy Pafko plays his squeeze-box during a ceremony on April 14, 2003, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first game the Milwaukee Braves played at Milwaukee County Stadium. Also attending were a handful of former Braves, including from left, Johnny Logan, Bob Uecker, Felix Mantilla — center, next to Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle — and Jack Dettmer, sitting. Also on hand were several Milwaukee Brewers. The ceremony was held at the Milwaukee Braves Historical Association monument near Helfaer Field, the former site of County Stadium. GARY PORTER / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
LEFT: Bob Uecker, left, and Harry Dalton congratulate one another after they were inducted into the Brewers Walk of Fame outside American Family Field on July 24, 2003. JEFFREY PHELPS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
get on the road because that’s when he threw batting practice, most of the time.”
Asked if that meant Uecker deserved some of the credit for Yount surpassing 3,000 hits for his career, No. 19 got in a dig of his own, saying, “I’m surprised I got 3,000 hits with him being my mentor. That’s not that easy.”
Aside from the many funny tales told by both Uecker and those on hand to honor him, Molitor made sure people understood exactly why he has been in the radio booth for five decades.
“He’s incredibly good at his job,” Molitor said. “I think the team and the city and the state, the listening area, you don’t want to take for granted how special it is to have that guy as the point man in portraying what the game is about. Brewers fans have been incredibly fortunate to have him in that position for an amazing 50 years.
Or, as Selig put it, “For the city of Milwaukee, Bob is the Brewers.”
Uecker has said many times one of the things that keeps him going is the daily interaction with players, who always have treated him as one of their own. That’s not easy to do when you’ve spanned as many generations as he has, but as a sign of how beloved Uecker still is in the clubhouse, the team presented him with a special pair of Air Jordans with a logo of him instead of Michael Jordan flying through the air to dunk a basketball.
That “Air Uecker” theme was concocted by former Brewers pitcher Gio Gonzalez in
2019 and made into T-shirts by traveling secretary Dan Larrea, a new version of which the players and staff wore during the pregame workout Saturday.
Uecker once again was asked how
much longer he planned to call Brewers games, and he repeated an answer he has given many times, but with an added twist.
“I don’t want to be in a spot where I’m going to embarrass myself on the air or embarrass the organization,” Uecker said. “So, I always wear a diaper.” Why would anyone want this man to stop doing what he does best?
50 years ago this week, Atlanta Braves insisted they weren’t cutting Bob Uecker as punishment
JR RADCLIFFE, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL • APRIL 6, 2018
Atlanta’s loss turned out to be Milwaukee’s half-century gain, and maybe a nightclub incident had something to do with it. Or was it a nightclub act?
It’s been 50 years since the moment that essentially marked the end of Bob Uecker’s playing career, after the Atlanta Braves elected not to make him part of the big-league club coming out of spring training in 1968.
In an Associated Press report that appeared April 3, 1968, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Braves manager Luman Harris was quoted as saying a nightclub incident had nothing to do with the decision, though it left Uecker, then age 33, with a cut in his eye “when he was hit by a beer bottle during a row
in a West Palm Beach cocktail lounge.”
It seems like a more-than-perfect farewell to his playing days, which are remembered humorously
nightclub act as a result of the incident.
“My nightclub routine may have been what cost me the job,” he said.
One-liners like that have become
“My nightclub routine may have been what cost me the job.”
BOB UECKER
today through the slant of Uecker’s storytelling.
According to the article (and hardly surprisingly), Uecker was regarded as the funniest man on the Braves’ team. He was asked if he might develop a
part of the Milwaukee Brewers lexicon thanks to Uecker’s work as the franchise’s radio voice. He began play-byplay duties in 1971 and remains a beloved sports personality in Milwaukee and beyond.
Just look to the statue of his likeness outside Miller Park — or the one perched in the very last row of the upper deck — as proof.
Uecker’s career includes serving as host of syndicated television shows, as announcer at WWF WrestleMania, as the centerpiece of Miller Lite commercials and as actor in TV show “Mr. Belvedere” and the canonical “Major League” movies. He may be just as remembered nationally for his appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” as his work during games, though his easygoing storytelling approach and familiar home run call are sacred experiences for Brewers fans.
Uecker, 84, was inducted into the
/ MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
OPPOSITE: A 1964 photo of new catcher Ed Bailey trying on a Braves shirt and cap during a press luncheon. Some of his new teammates were, from left, Denis Menke, Eddie Matthews, Lee Maye and Bob Uecker. Helping Bailey don the shirt was Gene Oliver. SHERMAN A. GESSERT JR.
There were many highlights, not the least of which was Doc Severinsen and his band providing the musical entertainment.
Yount, who could not attend because he was in Italy at a family wedding, sent a video so funny and professionally produced, it could become a YouTube sensation.
During that video, Yount points to the
ruins of the Coliseum in Rome and tells Uecker, “You’ve been around so long, you probably played there.”
Asked about that video salute, Uecker said, “I can’t believe his National Guard unit is in Italy. That was really funny.”
There also was a video montage of Uecker’s career, both in baseball and the entertainment industry, in which it struck you just how varied and successful his
life has been.
Finally came time for the unveiling of the statue, which depicts Uecker at an earlier age, standing and dressed casually, with hands in his pants pockets.
Uecker, who got a bit choked up at the end of the ceremony, thinking of son Steve who died earlier this year, summed up the entire festivities when he said, “It’s been a great day.”
LEFT: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and his wife Sue are seated on stage with Henry Aaron and a host of others to dedicate the Bob Uecker bronze sculpture that will stand outside of Miller Park. GARY PORTER / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
strike on the left-handed batting Winker. 0-1 delivery, Jesse hit it foul. Two strikes on him.
Boy, you talk about taking the air out of a building, wow. That one did it. Well, they got a shot here. Bottom half. Two strikes on Winker, Devin Williams coming back. Upstairs, he missed. One ball and two strikes. David Peterson is up for New York, Brewers get one more shot. The pitch. Hit in the air, foul and out of play again.
Ball one, strike two. Big home run by Peter Alonso, wow. The pitch. Winker got hit again on that right arm, and he’s aboard now. Hit by a pitch from Williams. Starling Marte is going to be the batter.
Well, the Crew gets a shot. Devin Williams, who has been as tough as anybody ever — runner goes, and the throw is gonna be late. Winker in there with a stolen base. So hit by a pitch, stolen base for Winker. And the Mets move on.
Gonna see what is going on with Winker, he is out at second base, behind the bag, and is going to be checked out by one of the New York trainers here. I don’t know if he got kicked in the head on the play at second base. He’s telling (Carlos) Mendoza, the New York manager out there, along with the trainer, that he’s all right. It looked like he got kicked in the head. The throw from Gary Sánchez was a little bit high, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong
OPPOSITE: Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick can’t make a catch on a home run hit by New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the NL wild-card series Oct. 3, 2024, at American Family Field. BENNY SIEU / IMAGN IMAGES
LEFT: Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Devin Williams reacts in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the National League wild-card series against the New York Mets on Oct. 3, 2024.
BENNY SIEU / IMAGN IMAGES
