Got the news this morning that Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker, had passed away at age 90.
Doesn't seem possible. Thought he would just keep going forever.
Milwaukee Brewer baseball broadcasts will never be the same. Uecker called games since 1971, through the bad times and the good times and everything in between. Granted, he reduced his workload to home games, and last summer occasional home games. But he was still entertaining us with stories to the end of the season.
Maybe he didn't give the score as often as you wanted. Maybe you wondered the purpose of the stories. But it was pure Uecker each and every game.
He built a national audience via 100 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He had a successful run with six seasons on an ABC comedy ("Mr. Belvedere"). He stole the show as Harry Doyle in the movie "Major League" -- set in Cleveland but filmed in Milwaukee.
Uecker had many opportunities to leave, but CHOSE to stay in Wisconsin, working in his home town.
We all have Uecker stories or memories. When you could still do it, got him a note while at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis requesting a shout-out to my Grandpa Otto, who always listened to the games. Grandpa was thrilled by it, telling people that he sometimes nodded off during the games, but was awake when he heard his name "from the ballpark!"
Picked up a paperback copy of Uecker's autobiography, Catcher In The Wry, while in college. Years (and years) later, mailed it to him to be signed and thought I would never see it again. Yet it came back with his autograph.
Brewer fans, and even non-fans, lost a Wisconsin treasure today. There will simply never be another like him.
RIP, Ueck. Thanks for the memories
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