It’s one of the most recognizable voices in sports attached to an iconic call: “Juuuust a bit outside!”
Bob Uecker, the legendary broadcaster appropriately nicknamed “Mr. Baseball,” passed away Thursday at the age of 90.
He had been the radio voice of the Milwaukee Brewers for over 50 years and a pop culture icon outside of the stadium. Before that, he played the game himself – but not well. At least when it came to his hitting.
“He is the most famous career .200 hitter ever,” ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian said. “He is the greatest backup catcher in the history of baseball.”
Uecker had a self-deprecating humor about him. “Must-see television,” Kurkjian described it.
“He was just so beautiful in explaining – making fun of himself, and in doing so, he made everybody laugh,” he said. “Along the way, I went to the Hall of Fame for 10 straight years, I would say, to cover for ESPN, the Hall of Fame induction and his speech was the best speech that I have ever seen, and he winged the whole thing, and it was absolutely hilarious from beginning to end.”
Kurkjian said the most memorable story was when he spoke at a Brewers banquet about 25 years ago. Naturally, Uecker was the master of ceremonies and also – naturally – he winged the whole thing.
“It was so unbelievably funny, where he had everyone howling with laughter from beginning to end,” Kurkjian said. “I’m scared to death because it’s 25 years ago, and I’ve never spoken at a Major League banquet like that before. But Bob set the tone, he prepared the room, and everyone was in such a good mood that by the time I got up to speak, they were ready.”
When you looked on social media at all the dedications to Uecker, there was one theme: Nobody ever took their time with him for granted.
“He’s been so many places, he has done so many things, he’s played with so many great players.”
“I got a text from somebody last night and didn’t have time to check it out that, Hank Aaron and Bob Gibson, when they knew they were on the way out – meaning they were close to dying – made sure that they called Bob Uecker to make sure that he knew that this might be the last time that they get to talk to him,” Kurkjian explained. “Two of the greatest players of all time calling a lifetime .200 hitter.”
The pop culture aspect Uecker brought made those who weren’t involved in the baseball world familiar with his name. This scaled back decades. Some discovered him when he was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Mike Ferrin of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM knows the value Uecker brought to a broadcast, but admitted he knew his comedic value as well.
“The more you got to see him, and you saw him on Carson – and I watched a lot of Carson when I was a kid – that was always kind of the fun thing – he would come on, talk baseball, but basically to just drop jokes,” Ferrin said.
“And one of the things that I loved about it was Carson loved comedy, right?” Ferrin said. “Watching the reaction to that, seen that, you know, when you’re a kid was so much fun.”
As a matter of fact, it was Johnny Carson who gave Uecker the Mr. Baseball nickname that stuck throughout his career.
“As good as a play-by-play guy as he was, I will always think of him as this incredible talk show guest and this actor and performer who did all these amazing things, in addition to being actually, the greatest play-by-play announcer for somebody who played Major League Baseball, right?”
His humor resonated with everybody too. Every era, every role on a big-league team, everyone who came across him. That was the way he essentially just picked on himself.
“There are some great stories about that, but I think it’s because he was self-deprecating,” Ferrin said. “Humor always plays right? Because it makes you relate to the person. I think that that’s why he was so successful, and why people still found him absolutely hilarious, is that almost all of the jokes that he told had were at his expense, and there’s a humility that comes with that.”
Dom Cotroneo often spent time with Uecker. He hosts the pre- and postgame shows on the Brewers Radio Network.
“I think especially these last two years, as it was revealed when he passed, that he had been quietly fighting cancer,” Cotroneo said. “All of us on the broadcast team were the people that knew.
“It was obviously hard to keep that in knowing what he was going through, but it made all those moments he had with him a little more special.”
In October, Uecker’s sign-off following a winner-take-all against the New York Mets, three-time All-Star outfielder Christian Yelich was seen at his locker wiping tears away from his eyes. He had just finished talking to Uecker and admitted he felt he had let him down.
“What I think of, you know, we’ve all seen the video of Yelich, which, you know, practically bawling at the end of Game 3 last year, because he knew too – and we all knew – just can’t say it out there in the world. And when you listen to Bob’s final sign-off, you know he doesn’t want to say goodbye.”
The words Uecker spoke:
“Well, New York, down. They did it,” he said. “And The Crew will, uh, will have it end here tonight.” “I’m telling you. That one — had some sting on it.”
Bob Uecker felt this loss.
“Well, New York, down. They did it. And The Crew will uh, will have it end, here tonight.”
“I’m telling you. That one — had some sting on it.”pic.twitter.com/GUfHasorDz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 4, 2024
Cotroneo said Uecker would come to the ballpark after he would undergo treatment and radiation, and you’d never know it.
“It’s amazing how much he was, quote, unquote, playing hurt.”
The Hall of Fame broadcaster also had a knack for delivery. The jokes, the broadcast and the stories in a way only he could do.
“Bob Uecker was a player that happens to be good at broadcasting, not a broadcaster that used to be a player,” Cotroneo said. “I think there’s a big distinction there. Because he was a player who happened to be good at broadcasting, or because he was a player that was funny, or because he was a player who had a special touch with people that sort of allowed him to be so off the cuff. Because everything happens so quickly in this media world, and he never wanted to be considered part of the media, which is the truth of the matter.”
Cotroneo also mirrored Kurkjian’s admiration for Uecker’s speech at Cooperstown. How he essentially pulled it out of his creative pocket.
“I guarantee you all of that had never been tested or ever been thought about,” Cotroneo said. “He just let it ride. And sometimes, it’s almost like a parallel to sports. And being an actual athlete is like, you have to let it ride. You gotta react to what’s thrown at you. And that’s what Bob’s comedy was so great at.”
Ueck was one of one. There was nobody like him. He was an artist of his craft. Cotroneo said it was like watching Michelangelo sculpt. It was like watching Picasso paint. It was like listening to Bach compose.
“I mean, it was what he did with the microphone on his brain,” he said. “And the cough button, of course, is what made him so special.”
The stories people told about the gem who introduced many to baseball were what he did without a microphone in front of him. There were some adversities that came behind the smiles.
He became an advocate for ALS after his daughter, Leeann, died from complications from the disease. He was often seen wearing an ALS awareness hat at Brewers games. Uecker was sporting one in September during the Brewers’ NL Central championship celebration in September. In 2012, his son, Steve, passed away from an airborne fungal infection.
“It’s a life marked by tragedy that he’s turned into charity as well,” Cotroneo said. “There are so many charity appearances and phone calls that he has made over the years that are not necessarily publicized or during pre-social media days, and even now, in the 2000s, he was still making calls and making visits. The charitable heart that Bob Uecker had for so many foundations that were near and dear to him were amazing and was a model for what any of us can be doing with the rest of our lives.”
“That’s what I’m going to remember most and try to honor his legacy in that way, because he just was so great, obviously, on the air and in comedy and in pop culture, but of course the microphone,” Cotrono said. “The stuff that people didn’t know about is how I’m really going to remember him.”