A backup catcher whose claim to fame in six seasons (one of which with the Atlanta Braves) on the field was hitting two home runs off Sandy Koufax, Bob Uecker went on to become Johnny Carson’s favorite guest and star in movies and on TV, while being the voice of the Brewers for 56 years, Uecker is quite possibly the most well known and loved baseball personality of my lifetime.
The best play-by-play announcer in the game called his final out
Uecker was a better player than he let on with a six-year career that started that ended with the Braves, but he was instinctively the perfect broadcaster. A Milwaukee native, he loved the city and became the radio voice of the Brewers. He was a natural, calling the game as it happened, reacting to it instinctively, and never blaming the players when things went wrong because he knew how hard it was to play the game at the Major League level.
Vin Scully is the poet laureate of baseball and its most recognizable voice, but Bob Uecker was the voice of every fan. I know fans who would listen to Uecker instead of their team’s broadcast when their team played the Brewers.
In 2001, the Radio Hall of Fame made Uecker the first (and only) former-player-turned-broadcaster inducted into The Radio Hall of Fame. Two years later, baseball caught up and gave him the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. He gave his acceptance speech the way he called games, without a script. It was Uecker at his best: unscripted, hilarious, and on target.
More Than a Baseball Icon
To gauge the impact of the man Johnny Carson dubbed Mister Baseball, one need only look at the way his passing is being reported. In addition to the expected reports on all forms of sports media, sites as diverse as politically oriented news source The Hill, WHIO TV in Ohio, Grunge, and Biz Times also wrote of his passing. And two months ago, CBS sat down with Uecker, not on a show about sports, but their Sunday Morning news magazine.
That’s a Wrap
After appearing on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Uecker appeared in a long list of commercials, starred in two Major League movies, Mister Belvedere, Homeward Bound II, and hosted Saturday Night Live. Those performances introduced him to fans outside the game and cemented his catchphrases in the national vocabulary.
I’ve tried and failed to think of a comparable personality to Uke. Yogi Berra came to mind, and the way Ernie Banks is revered in Chicago is next-level love, but no one spans the same breadth of fandom as Uecker.
The baseball world mourns today, Mister Baseball passed away.