Bob Uecker spent more than 50 years as the Milwaukee Brewers’ play-by-play announcer. (Photo by Jeffrey Phelps/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Bob Uecker didn’t have to stretch much to play quick-witted broadcaster Harry Doyle in the movie “Major League.” Milwaukee Brewers fans happily listened to that act for more than 50 years.
Uecker, whose humor made him a celebrity far outside of the baseball world, died Thursday at 90 years old, the Brewers announced. Uecker was the play-by-play voice of the Milwaukee Brewers dating to 1971, one of the longest runs by a broadcaster with one team in MLB history.
Fans outside of Wisconsin also knew Uecker, who rose to a level of fame rarely experienced by baseball radio broadcasters. He was on their TVs, appearing with Johnny Carson regularly on “The Tonight Show,” having a starring role in the 1980s sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” or on Miller Lite commercials that are still memorable decades after they aired. Many fans still recite Uecker’s best lines from his character in “Major League.”
But at his core, Uecker wasn’t a national star. He was Milwaukee, his hometown. Year after year, he came back to call games on WTMJ radio for what was usually a losing Brewers team. When the Brewers were bad, he could carry an entire season with his entertaining stories between play-by-play. On the rare occasions when the Brewers were good, he elevated the games with his work as a broadcaster. Uecker’s broadcasting earned him the prestigious Ford Frick Award in 2003, and he was presented with the honor at Hall of Fame weekend in Cooperstown. His speech at the Hall of Fame was legendary.
Uecker was given the nickname “Mr. Baseball” as a tongue-in-cheek nod to his mediocre playing career. But after a lifetime entertaining baseball fans, the nickname was actually quite fitting.
Bob Uecker was a broadcasting legend
Many of Uecker’s self-deprecating jokes were derived from his major-league career. He hit .200 over his six seasons playing catcher with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals. One of his 14 major-league homers came off great Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax. In typical Uecker form, he said he worried that homer would keep Koufax out of the Hall of Fame. Uecker also homered off Hall of Famers Ferguson Jenkins and Gaylord Perry.
One of Uecker’s favorite jokes was about his signing with the Braves in 1956. He would say he signed for $3,000, which upset his father because he didn’t have that kind of money to pay the Braves. No matter how many times he told the joke, it always got a laugh.
Uecker’s stories came out when he was on the broadcast and the game was out of hand. He started broadcasting Brewers games in 1971, the team’s second year in Milwaukee. He was still calling their games more than 50 years later, albeit on a limited schedule once he reached his 80s. His style of mixing wit with excellent broadcasting when the game dictated it never changed. He had his go-to jokes (about catching Phil Niekro’s knuckleball, his advice was “to wait until it stopped rolling and just pick it up”), but he could go many games without repeating a story.
Many Wisconsinites grew up listening to Uecker call games on transistor radios. It was tradition during the baseball season. Ask a Brewers fan of a certain age about Uecker’s call of a ninth-inning Easter Sunday comeback in 1987, the team’s 12th straight win to start the season, and they’ll probably recall exactly where they were. Uecker is the biggest, most popular figure in Brewers history — and second place isn’t close.
At various points in his career, Uecker could’ve left Milwaukee for a bigger market. He did work for ABC and NBC, calling multiple postseason games, including some World Series contests. He didn’t have a formal contract with the Brewers for most of his career, just a series of handshake deals with team owners Bud Selig and Mark Attanasio. Yet he always stayed.
Milwaukee was happy to share their legend with the rest of the country.
Bob Uecker, during his time as St. Louis Cardinals catcher, clowns around during a workout by playing tuba near the bleachers at Busch Stadium before the start of Game 2 of the 1964 World Series. (AP Photo)
Uecker gained fame through Johnny Carson
Uecker became famous beyond baseball mostly because of Carson. Uecker got a big break when he opened for comedian Don Rickles at musician Al Hirt’s nightclub in Atlanta in 1969. Hirt set him up to appear as a guest on Carson’s show, via CBS News. That led to more than 100 appearances on Carson through the years. Carson is credited with giving Uecker the “Mr. Baseball” nickname.
That opened doors for Uecker. The Miller Lite commercials (“I must be in the front row,” when Uecker is ushered out of his wrong seat, is his enduring line from them) were a huge success. Uecker then took his fame to another level playing Doyle in the 1989 film “Major League.” Spend enough time at a ballpark, and you’ll inevitably hear his famous, old line: “Juuust a bit outside.”
Despite all the fame outside the game, Uecker was a baseball lifer who happened to have a gift for comedy. That’s why he kept broadcasting on radio in one of the smallest markets in the majors, calling games for a team that hasn’t been to the World Series since 1982. He kept calling games through health scares that included two heart surgeries. He was so popular among Brewers players that they voted him a full playoff share of $123,000 from their postseason run in 2018. Uecker donated the money to charity. Few broadcasters are as synonymous with a sports franchise, and Uecker has a statue outside the Brewers’ stadium.
“I still enjoy doing the games,” he said in a 2020 interview with Bob Costas. “I still pull for us [the Brewers], every day. Every day. The other things that I’ve done, it always came back to baseball. I never wanted to do anything else.”
Baseball fans are happy Uecker never got too big for the sport. Brewers fans are happy he was never too big for Milwaukee.