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Bob Uecker, Mr. Baseball, 90

T

TheBigA

Bob Uecker, former baseball catcher & broadcaster, passed away at age 90:

sports.yahoo.com

Bob Uecker, longtime voice of the Brewers and a star of 'Major League,' dies at 90

Bob Uecker's career in professional baseball started in 1956.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

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.
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Don CT said:
He really could have been a stand up comedian with his timing.
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That would be a step down for him.

But, gotta appreciate Bob for living by his own rules. He worked in Hollywood and on network baseball games while still working Brewers games for WTMJ radio. In the end, he realized that being at home in Milwaukee with his family and working the Brewers games was his true passion, while occasionally slipping away briefly to do national commercials and shows like Letterman. He also donated his time for local charities. In fact, much of the money he made during the past couple of decades doing commercials was donated to various causes.

Uecker was very dedicated to his job with the Brewers. It was only a decade ago when he stepped back a bit and only did home games. His retirement was very slow, and, even last year, still came in to call a few innings on a number of games, all the way into the playoffs last fall. It was around that time when he acknowledged to a few players, like Christian Yelich, that it might be his last time calling games.

I live in Milwaukee, and can vouch for the massive impact he has had on the city and Wisconsin. WTMJ radio covered it all day yesterday. Here is a pic I took yesterday of his statue outside the stadium, adorned with flowers, baseball items and cans of Miller Lite. LOTS of cans!

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Fighting Irish said:
I live in Milwaukee, and can vouch for the massive impact he has had on the city and Wisconsin. WTMJ radio covered it all day yesterday. Here is a pic I took yesterday of his statue outside the stadium, adorned with flowers, baseball items and cans of Miller Lite. LOTS of cans!
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I was at that stadium last year, and saw the statue. I talked with a lot of fans there that day, and the one thing they all agreed on was that they hate the new name of the place. To them, it will always be Miller Park.
 
Absolutely right. If there was to be a corporate name attached to the stadium (which is typical nowadays) Miller Park was perfect. A brewery, of course, located just a couple miles from the stadium. What better name for the home of a baseball team called the Brewers?

Blame Molson Coors, the company that now owns Miller, for being cheap-ass corporate penny pinchers that couldn't see the value of keeping the name on the stadium. Instead, it came down to a local insurance company, American Family, which likes to plaster their name on as many local venues as they can. They bid for updating the naming rights, while Molson Coors didn't bother. So now, it's American Family Field. 🤮

At least the village of West Milwaukee, to the south of the stadium, kept the Miller Park Way name on perhaps its busiest street, refusing to change it. Milwaukee changed it's portion, mostly a freeway, to Brewers Blvd.

Still, all in all, it's a really good baseball stadium.
 
xkxrx said:
I always enjoyed his appearance on The Tonight Show. He appeared over 100 times.
brewerfanatic.com

Bob Uecker's Best from The Tonight Show

Generations of Brewers fans know the recently deceased legend for his remarkable broadcasting career, but he was once known by the nation for his appearance on one of television's biggest shows.
brewerfanatic.com brewerfanatic.com
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Wow, I just watched Facebook video of one of those appearances, just the other day! It came up in my feed, so I watched it.
 
I was fortunate to have worked with Bob. He had a place in Phoenix and would spend part of the year here during spring training, and he used our studios to record some VO work from time to time. The last time I saw him was the best. He came in to do ADR for a guest appearance on an episode of "Teen Titans Go!" back in 2018. The studio in LA forgot about the AZ time zone thing, (we don't observe Daylight Savings) and Bob showed up an hour early for the session.

So what do you do in that situation?

You shoot the shit for an hour with Mr. Baseball, that's what you do.

We talked about a lot of stuff...his time doing shows before The Tonight Show, what Johnny was like, his time in sitcom world, and of course baseball. A few staff members came in to meet him, including a young morning show producer who grew up in Milwaukee and was literally shaking when he met his hero.

But to me, he was always just "Bob." Warm, down to earth, a real pro when it came to laying down his lines, and a walking encylopedia of baseball. He was also funny as hell.

RIP Bob.
 
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