Visit with “Mr. Baseball” Bob Uecker trendy blogger

Ever since Babe Ruth was rounding the bases, there have been bleak predictions about the future of baseball: Time has passed for the national pastime, too slowly, too pastorally. Television ratings for last year’s World Series, and batting averages for this season, are at their lowest levels in 50 years. They say baseball is dying.

But regardless of the current World Series between two of the game’s powerhouses, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Want to feel better about the health of baseball players? Just go to a Milwaukee Brewers game.

There, in Major League Baseball’s smallest market, cheese curds sweat under the floodlights, frozen custard turns into batting helmets, Miller’s hometown flows freely, and on the second level of the stadium is the most authentic Milwaukee touch of all: the announcer they call “Mr. Miller”. baseball.”

In six undistinguished seasons as a player in the major leagues, Bob Uecker didn’t pitch for the Brewers. But during his half-century as the team’s play-by-play announcer, he became equal parts mayor and mascot of the city of his birth, while at the same time turning down offers from major markets — cutting corners, so to speak.

In the 1980s Yankees owner George Steinbrenner tried to recruit Uecker. “Steinbrenner sent a couple of people to talk to me about joining the Yankees,” he said, “but I loved Milwaukee. I was born and raised here!”

Uecker began his major league career in 1962 with the Milwaukee Braves before the franchise moved to Atlanta. “I was the first player from Milwaukee to ever sign with the Braves,” he said. “I was also the first Milwaukee native to be sent to the minor leagues by the Braves!”

If anything, Uecker’s flaws on the field hampered his play They provided some of his best material in a long and lucrative second career as an actor and comedian. Using a dry wit, he made more than 40 appearances on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.”

“I did the Tonight Shows, you know, whenever they wanted me to. I’d leave here Sunday afternoon, fly to L.A., do the Monday night show, come back here, and be here for Tuesday’s game,” he said.

Johnny Carson: “Give me, as quickly as you can, all the bands you’ve ever played with.”
Uecker: “The Braves, Cardinals, Phillies, and Braves again. Then, in June, I was with…”

Carson’s guest spots led to a series of high-profile television commercials, as well as a starring role on sitcoms, perhaps most notably as Harry Doyle, the frequent announcer in the “Major League” films. Last summer, at American Family Stadium in Milwaukee, “Harry Doyle Bobblehead Night” had Ucker’s followers coming out in force.

When asked his favorite “Bob Uecker line,” he replied: “amazing A little outside. This is where my wife has put me many times!

Before serving as baseball commissioner for 16 years, Bud Selig owned the Brewers and, in 1971, hired Uecker, misleadingly, as a scout. Selig said it was “legally true” that Ucker was not designed to be a scout. “There were mashed potatoes in the damned scouting report. I couldn’t read it. He couldn’t read it,” he said.

So, Selig moved Uecker to the Brewers’ broadcast booth later that year.

Today there is a statue honoring Oker, where else? In the last row of the upper deck, behind a column.

But for all the stardom, all the partying and gags, and the late-night laughing at his own expense, Uecker still fancies himself a player, says Brewers outfielder Brandon Woodruff: “He tells us about his catching days. He’s one of us. He’s part of the team.” And I think that’s why we embrace him so much, that he’s on this journey with us and that’s what makes it so great.

According to Okyere, he has a close relationship with the players on the field: “I’ve played the game. So, I know how hard it is. I know how hard it is to play this game. The game celebrations, when we win, that’s a big part of it, man, being able to get in To this club and be with them.

But baseball is tough, and in Milwaukee, the celebrations are short-lived. Earlier this month, with the Brewers just two points ahead of the National League Wild Card Series, the New York Mets came from behind in a dramatic home run.

On the radio, Ucker didn’t hide the hurt: “I’m telling you, this guy…had some sting.”

The Brewers’ first World Series title will have to wait.

There is speculation that the heartbreaking loss may have marked Uecker’s final game as a broadcaster. But as his 91st birthday approaches, the man they call “Mr. Baseball” tells us he doesn’t want to imagine his life without it.

“I don’t know what I’d do, you know, without more. If I didn’t think baseball was for me, I don’t know what it would be like, you know? I graduated high school and joined the Army,” Ucker said. And I fell into contact with baseball. That was it, really!

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Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: Lauren Barnello.