Bob Uecker, the Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster with a quick wit and an unending love of the game, died Thursday. He was 90.
Uecker had been battling small cell lung cancer since 2023, his family told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Though Uecker’s day job was as a radio play-by-play man for the Milwaukee Brewers, he became known nationwide for his comedic chops, first as a many-time guest on “The Tonight Show” and later in the “Major League” movie trilogy.
“Saying goodbye to Bob shakes us all. He was so much more than a Milwaukee Brewers icon. He was a national treasure,” the team said in a statement. “We are left with a giant void in our hearts, but also remember the laughter and joy he brought to our lives throughout the years.”
Uecker was honored with the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award in 2003, and he has been inducted into numerous broadcasting halls of fame.
He was also a major league player, though he wouldn’t have made the Hall of Fame for his exploits on the field. From 1962 to 1967, Uecker played catcher for the Milwaukee Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. A career .200 hitter, Uecker’s crowning achievement was winning the World Series with the Cardinals in 1964.
“I make fun of everything I did because it makes people laugh. But it’s still a pretty good thing to be a big leaguer,” Uecker once said. “I was still in a World Series. When I got on the field, there was no messing around. I played hard.”
Born Jan. 26, 1934, in Milwaukee, Uecker grew up on baseball. He lived within walking distance of the home park of the Milwaukee Brewers, a minor league outfit at the time, and attended many games with his family and friends.
“I mean, we were up there all the time,” Uecker told MLB.com in 2015. “After the fifth inning, they’d let you in for nothing. Or we would just climb over the fence.”
Uecker was also a good player himself, and the Braves — who arrived from Boston in 1953 — signed Uecker in 1956. He was a decent power hitter in the minor leagues, but his skills didn’t quite translate at the major league level. However, he developed a reputation as a solid defensive catcher.
It was Uecker’s off-the-field career that made him a household name. After a brief and unfruitful stint as a scout for the major league Milwaukee Brewers in the early 1970s, Uecker moved to the radio booth.
In the press box, his wit and comedic chops became world-renowned. Brewers fans were known to tune in specifically when a game got out of hand, just so they could hear whatever zany stories Uecker would tell during a blowout.
Uecker’s talent drew the attention of Johnny Carson, who invited him onto “The Tonight Show” as “Mr. Baseball” more than 100 times.
“In many ways, I think he’s the funniest man I ever met,” Carson once said of Uecker.
Uecker also starred in a popular series of Miller Lite commercials, the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” and the “Major League” films, where he played a drinking radio announcer.
Perhaps the best-known moment from his showbiz career is one of the commercials, where an usher informs Uecker that he’s in the wrong seat.
“I must be in the front row,” he says confidently. A few seconds later, Uecker is shown in one of the last rows in the upper deck — where a statue of him now sits at the Brewers’ home park.
Uecker continued calling baseball games through the 2024 season. He was even on the call for the Brewers’ soul-crushing loss to the New York Mets in the first round of the playoffs, remarking as he signed off: “I’m telling you, that one had some sting to it.”
Even with his large personality in a sport where straight-laced behavior is often prized, Uecker was beloved by Brewers players as much as fans. When the team made the postseason in 2018, the players voted for Uecker to earn a full playoff payment, worth nearly $123,000. They repeated the tradition in every successive playoff run; Uecker donated the money to charity.
“The connection that he creates with players, the camaraderie that he brings to the clubhouse…He was always accepted as one of us,” Brewers Hall of Famer Robin Yount once said.
“It’s special every time he’s around,” current Brewers star Christian Yelich said after the 2024 season. “You shouldn’t take it for granted.”
