R.I.P. Bob Uecker

Bob Uecker, the backup major league catcher who went on to a long career as a baseball announcer as well as a comedian and actor, passed away in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin on January 16th, 2025. Uecker had been diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2023. He was 90.

Born in Milwaukee on January 26th, 1934, Uecker signed a contract with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956. He made his major league debut with the Braves in 1962 and also played for the Cardinals (he was a member of the 1964 World Series champion Cardinals, though he did not play in the series) and Phillies before ending his playing career with the Atlanta Braves in 1967. All told, Uecker hit .200 with 14 homers and 74 RBIs in 297 games.

In 1971, Uecker began broadcasting radio play by play for the Milwaukee Brewers. In the 1970s and 80s he was a member of national baseball broadcast crews for both ABC and NBC. Uecker had also honed his skills as a standup comedian, appearing on late night talk shows (he made some 100 appearances on the Tonight Show alone) poking fun, with a characteristic deadpan delivery, at his baseball playing career. In the 1980s, Uecker starred in the sitcom Mr. Belvidere, and in a series of humorous Miller Lite beer commercials featuring former athletes.

Perhaps his most well known acting was as baseball play by play man Harry Doyle in the first two Major League movies. Uecker ad libbed his dialog in the films.

With all the other opportunities out there, Uecker stayed in Milwaukee and continued to do baseball play by play. His voice on the radio was a much a part of summers in Wisconsin as Vin Scully’s Dodgers broadcasts in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, Harry Kalas’s in Philadelphia, or Mel Allen’s in New York.

Uecker was inducted into several broadcasting Halls of Fame, but reached the top in baseball in 2003. That year, he received the Ford C. Frick Award, an award given to broadcasters who have made “significant contributions” to the game by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In recent years, Uecker had reduced his workload as a broadcaster for the Brewers, first by eliminating road trips and then gradually cutting back on home games, basically working games as his health allowed. His last broadcast was on October 3rd, 2024, the final game of the National League Wild Card Series between the Mets and Brewers, which turned out to be a 4-2 Mets victory.