Bob Uecker, the longtime voice of the Milwaukee Brewers and Hall of Famer as a broadcaster, has died. Uecker, affectionately known as “Mr. Baseball” for his self-deprecating humor about his six-year playing career, passed away less than two weeks before what would have been his 91st birthday.
In a statement released by the Brewers, the Uecker family said that he had been battling small-cell lung cancer since 2023. “Even in the face of this challenge, his enthusiasm for life was always present, never allowing his spirit to falter,” the family said.
“It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of Bob. To many, he was an announcer and entertainer whose humor and voice transcended the game, but to us, he was so much more,” his family said in a statement. “He brought joy to countless listeners through his wit, charisma, and love for baseball, Milwaukee, and all of Wisconsin, creating a legacy that will forever be cherished.
Although Uecker is best known for his years as a broadcaster and frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Uecker’s baseball life started as a player with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962. He spent six years in Major League Baseball, playing also for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, and then (again) the Braves in Atlanta.
Uecker was a backup catcher, appearing in 297 games in those six seasons. Uecker was known as a good defensive backstop, but, as he would often joke about, he wasn’t much of a hitter. He hit .200 on those in 843 career plate appearances. He was known to quip, “Every fifth time I would come to bat, it was ‘Katie bar the door.'”
The 6-1, 190-pound Uecker displayed decent power in the minor leagues but hit only fourteen home runs in his six-year MLB career. However, three of those taters were against Hall of Famers (Fergie Jenkins, Sandy Koufax, and Gaylord Perry). He later joked that one of his career highlights was getting intentionally walked by Koufax.
Uecker, of course, became famous as a broadcaster and by making fun of his playing career. He spent 54 years broadcasting games for the Milwaukee Brewers and also had two multi-year runs on national television, doing games for ABC Sports in the late 1970s and for NBC Sports in the late 1990s.
The always-entertaining Uecker appeared on The Tonight Show about 1oo times and is also famous for being one of the lead pitchmen for Miller Lite. In one of the most well-known commercials, Uecker is escorted out of his field-level seat by an usher and says, “I must be in the front row.” The commercial then cuts to a scene of Uecker in one of the highest rows of the upper deck, screaming, “he missed the tag!”
Uecker also appeared on the Silver Screen, playing the fictitious play-by-player announcer Harry Doyle in the movie Major League. Uecker would say that rarely would a day go by where someone wouldn’t say to him, “juuuuuuust a bit outside.”
Besides the Major League franchise, Uecker also had a starring role for six years on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere.
Despite his fame, Uecker never left the Brewers; he always found time to announce games for his hometown team. In 2000, he presided over the ceremony that closed Milwaukee County Stadium.
When the Brewers’ new stadium (Miller Park) opened in 2001, the team sold “Uecker seats” high in the upper deck for $1. The stadium (now known as American Family Field) has two statues in his honor, one of which is behind Section 422, an upper deck section in right field.
In 2003, Uecker was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. In his hilarious 18-minute speech (linked later in this piece), he quipped that he always thought he should have made the Hall of Fame as a player.
Please enjoy this tribute to Mr. Baseball, with many of his funny lines sprinkled throughout the piece.
Cooperstown Cred: Bob Uecker
- 2003: Inducted into the Hall of Fame as the Ford C. Frick Award Winner
- Primary broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers for 54 years
- Broadcaster for ABC Sports from 1976-82
- Broadcaster for NBC Sports from 1995-99
- Inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2001
- 5-time Wisconsin Sportscaster of the Year (inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2011)
- As a player: Milwaukee Braves (1962-63), Cardinals (1964-65), Phillies (1966-67), Atlanta Braves (1967)
- Career: .200 BA, .293 OBP, .287 SLG, 14 HR, 74 RBI in 843 Plate Appearances
- Member of the 1964 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals (did not appear in the Series)
(Cover photo: Walt Disney Television Photo Archives)
Bob Uecker: Early Life and Early Playing Career
Robert George Uecker was born on January 26, 1934, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Gus and Mary Uecker. Gus was a tool and die maker; he played soccer in his native Switzerland. Uecker later joked, “That’s where I got my talent.”
Uecker played baseball and basketball in high school and would ride his bike eight blocks to Borchert Field, home of the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers, where the players included future MLB players and managers Al Dark and Danny Murtaugh.
In 1954, Uecker enlisted in the Army and avoided going overseas by playing military baseball with other soldiers, including a future teammate with the Cardinals, Dick Groat. He signed with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956 for $3,000.
“I signed a very modest $3,000 bonus with the Braves in Milwaukee, and my old man didn’t have that kind of money to put out, but the Braves took it.”
— Bob Uecker, Hall of Fame Induction Speech (2003)
Uecker spent 6+ years in the minor leagues, occasionally displaying hitting skills that later eluded him at the Major League level. In 1958, playing with the Boise Braves in the Pioneer League, Uecker hit .332 with 21 HR and 78 RBI. With the Louisville Colonels in 1961 (AAA-ball), he hit .309 with 14 HR and 57 RBI.
Uecker was 28 when he made his MLB debut with the Braves in April 1962; he was the first Milwaukee native to appear for the Braves.
Uecker appeared in 33 games, hitting .250 in 71 plate appearances as the backup to Del Crandall, a perennial All-Star backstop. Near the end of the season, on September 29, Uecker was catching when future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn set a record with his 327th career victory, the most all-time for a left-handed pitcher. The next day (the last of the season), Uecker hit his first MLB home run.
22-year-old Joe Torre emerged as the Braves’ starting catcher in 1963, with Crandall the backup, leaving no role for Uecker, who spent most of the season in the minor leagues, playing for the Denver Bears.
Besides Spahn, Uecker got the opportunity to play with two other future Hall of Famers with the Braves, Henry Aaron and Eddie Matthews. In an interview last year with Fox Sports’ Tom Rinaldi, Uecker joked that Aaron said the best thing he ever did was to ignore everything Uecker ever said about hitting.
In the offseason after the 1963 campaign, Crandall was traded, but the Braves got veteran catcher Ed Bailey (a five-time All-Star) in return to be Torre’s backup. Uecker was then traded on April 9, 1964, to the St. Louis Cardinals for two minor leaguers.
With the Cardinals in 1964, Uecker hit .198 (with one HR and 6 RBI) in 40 games as the backup to 22-year-old Tim McCarver, who, ironically, would also later become a Hall of Famer as an announcer. His teammates included future Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, N.L. MVP third baseman Ken Boyer, Groat, and All-Star first baseman Bill White, who would later become the President of the National League.
The 1964 Cardinals won the World Series in seven games against the New York Yankees. Uecker never appeared in the Fall Classic, but McCarver credits Uecker for helping the Redbirds win the series simply by keeping the team loose. In his Hall of Fame induction speech, Uecker joked that the next year, when the Cardinals received the World Series rings, they threw his ring into the left field grass, where he finally found it.
Uecker appeared in 50 games in 1965, hitting .228 with a pair of home runs and ten RBI. Another future Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton, made his debut with the Cards in ’65.
After the season, he and White were traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher Pat Corrales, outfielder Alex Johnson, and pitcher Art Mahaffey. Uecker had arguably his best season in 1966. Although he hit just .208, he contributed seven HR and 30 RBI as the short-sided platoon-mate with the left-handed hitting Clay Dalrymple. His teammates included future Hall of Famers Dick Allen, Jim Bunning, and (briefly) Fergie Jenkins.
“I remember (Phillies manager) Gene Mauch doing things to me in Philadelphia. I’d be sitting there, and he says, ‘Grab a bat and stop this rally.’ Send me up there without a bat and tell me to try for a walk. I’d look down to the third base coach for a sign and have him turn his back on me.”
— Bob Uecker, Hall of Fame Induction Speech (2003)
In June 1967, after appearing in just 18 games, Uecker was traded for the third time in his career, this time back to the Braves (who were now in Atlanta) in exchange for utilityman Gene Oliver. In Atlanta, he was reunited with Torre and Aaron.
Known for his defensive abilities, Uecker was specifically tasked with catching 28-year-old knuckleballer Phil Niekro (also a future Hall of Famer). It didn’t go well. In just 62 games, Uecker had 25 passed balls with the Braves; his total of 27 for the year was the most in the National League in the modern era (1901 and beyond).
“I became Phil Niekro’s personal chaser. I found that the best way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling and then pick it up.”
— Bob Uecker, Hall of Fame Induction Speech (2003)
The Braves released Uecker on April 2, 1968.
Bob Uecker’s Post-Playing Career
In 1969, Bob Uecker began his broadcasting career, working for the Braves with Ernie Johnson and Milo Hamilton.
“I remember working first with Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson, and I all was fired up about that too, until I found out that my portion of the broadcast was being used to jam radio free Europe, and I picked up a microphone one day and found that it had no cord on it, so I was talking to nobody.”
— Bob Uecker, Hall of Fame Induction Speech(2003)
He began his career as a comedian in 1969 by opening for Don Rickles at a nightclub in Atlanta. Beginning in 1970, Uecker started appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He says that Carson was the first person to refer to him as “Mr. Baseball.”
In 1970, Uecker went home to Milwaukee to become a scout for the city’s new team, the Brewers. The team owner, future MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, had purchased the squad after they went bankrupt after their first season as the Seattle Pilots. Uecker was initially a scout for the Brewers (“worst scout I ever had,” Selig said) before joining the broadcast booth (for both TV and radio) in September 1971.
Uecker became a national announcer when hired by ABC Sports to contribute to Monday Night Baseball from 1976 to 1982. Initially, he worked with Bob Prince and Warner Wolf but is most famous for his repartee with iconic broadcaster Howard Cosell.
“Cosell in particular had great chemistry with Uecker, playing the straight man while Bob was his comedic foil. Cosell once teased him on the air, saying that he didn’t know what the word “truculent” meant. “Sure I do,” Bob said one night in Minneapolis, “If you had a truck and I borrowed it, that would be a truck-u-lent.” Cosell paused and said to the national audience, “Need I say any more?”
— From Catcher in the Wry (Bob Uecker and Mickey Herskowitz, 1982), reported in Uecker’s SABR bio.
It was during his ABC years that Uecker started doing a series of commercials for Miller Lite, the most famous of which, as previously noted, spawned the classic line, “I must be in the front rowwwwwww.”
Bob Uecker in “Major League”
Bob Uecker became a non-baseball-broadcasting TV star when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 1984 and then in 1985 when he co-starred with Christopher Hewitt in the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere. Uecker played a sportswriter named George Owens, with the British Hewitt starring as Lynn Belvedere, the nursemaid/butler for the family’s three children. The show aired from 1985 to 1990.
Uecker’s most famous on-screen appearance was as broadcaster Harry Doyle in the movie Major League. Uecker, essentially playing a comedic version of himself, was part of a stellar ensemble cast that included Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenguer, Wesley Snipes, Renee Russo, Corbin Bernsen, and a then-unknown Dennis Haysbert (later of TV fame on 24 and other shows and as the pitchman for Allstate).
The plot of the movie is about a woman who inherits the Cleveland Indians from her late husband. Her intention is to make the team so bad that she can move them to Florida’s warmer climate due to awful attendance at the stadium. She tasks her General Manager with assembling a rag-tag bunch of journeymen players, who foil her plot by unexpectedly winning the pennant. Although the Indians are the team in the movie, all of the baseball scenes were shot at Milwaukee’s County Stadium.
For your entertainment, here is the famous “juuuuust a bit outside” clip:
During the movie, Uecker’s character plays to the cliche of the drunken announcer; he’s often seen drinking while calling the games (this used to be a real thing, by the way, announcers drinking during the game).
Although the aforementioned clip is the most famous, my favorite line is when Uecker (playing Doyle) is hosting a radio talk show. His line is this: “Hello again, you Wahoo maniacs. This is Harry Doyle welcoming you to another edition of Teepee Talk. Hey, in case you haven’t noticed, and judging by the attendance, you haven’t, the Indians have actually managed to win a few here and there and are threatening to come out of the cellar.”
Hall of Famer Bob Uecker
Bob Uecker returned to the national TV booth by joining future Hall of Fame announcer Bob Costas and Hall of Fame player Joe Morgan in the NBC broadcast booth. He helped call the 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Series with Costas and Morgan.
In 2003, Uecker became a Hall of Famer; he was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. He was not given that award solely because of his self-deprecating humor but because he had spent decades broadcasting Brewers games and called multiple national games for ABC and NBC Sports.
However, Uecker’s speech, though filled with gratitude, was a stand-up comedy bit, most of it poking fun at himself. Here are just a few more quotes from that hilarious speech.
“I still think, and this is not sour grapes by any means, I still think I should have gone in as a player.”
“This conglomeration of greats that are hear today; a lot of them were teammates but they won’t admit it, but they were.”
“I had a great shoe contract and glove contract with a company that paid me a lot of money to never be seen using their stuff.”
Uecker’s 18-minute acceptance speech at the Hall of Fame speech is worth watching, not just because it will keep you laughing the whole time but because it’s so fun to see the laughter of the Hall of Famers on the stage and also former President George H.W. Bush.
Final Thoughts about Bob Uecker
As Eric Aron noted in his SABR Bio about Bob Uecker, quoting Sports Illustrated’s William Taafe, Uecker is “the man who made mediocrity famous.” Uecker literally made his career by joking about his less-than-stellar MLB career.
Uecker may not have been in the upper echelon of Major League players, but he is still one of just 23,370 people to ever appear on an MLB diamond. That’s still pretty neat for any boy growing up dreaming of being a big leaguer. He has a World Series ring. He played and called friends some of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
One thing I love about Uecker is that, in spite of his fame and potential to become a full-time comedic actor, he always stayed home in Milwaukee and called his hometown’s team’s games for a whopping 54 years.
What a wonderful life. RIP, Bob Uecker. You will be sorely missed.
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