'Mr. Baseball' Bob Uecker passes away at 90

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Nick Bajada
January 16, 2025 (11:27)

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Bob Uecker, the backup catcher turned Hollywood star, and the legendary radio voice of his hometown team for more than five decades, has died. He was 90. Uecker was the play-by-play voice of the Brewers dating to 1971, accounting for one of the longest tenures by any broadcaster with a single team in any sport.

Uecker brought the Brewers to life for generations of fans. And that was just the start of a second career in entertainment that reached far beyond the ballpark.

Uecker was a career .200 hitter but gained fame thanks to his quick wit.

Nicknamed «Mr. Baseball» by «Tonight Show» host Johnny Carson during one of Uecker's 100 or so appearances on late-night TV, he starred in a popular series of Miller Lite commercials, then in the ABC sitcom «Mr. Belvedere» and in the «Major League» film trilogy. He authored two books, hosted «Saturday Night Live» and WrestleMania, and famously graced the pages of Sports Illustrated as a septuagenarian in a speedo.

But Uecker's first love was baseball, and that never changed. Following six seasons in the Major Leagues with the Braves, Cardinals and Phillies, then a failed stint as a Brewers scout, Uecker's voice became one of the sounds of summer in the Midwest.

He joined the Brewers radio team in 1971 and launched a second career in broadcasting that led to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, the Radio Hall of Fame, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame, the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2003 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award.

That's how a .200 hitter gets into Cooperstown.

Bud Selig once put Bob Uecker's impact like this: «The baseball announcer becomes a link to their fans. You go to Harry Caray, or Bob Prince in Pittsburgh, Mel Allen in New York. Vin Scully is legendary, a classic. That's Bob Uecker here.»

There's a lesson for everyone in Uecker's charmed life.

«When I started [broadcasting], it was in the Major Leagues and I was scared to death. But that's the way we did it, and it worked,» Uecker said at his 90th birthday. «The television stuff, the movie stuff, the different appearances, every time I did something, it was a first for me. It was fun. I had a good time and I met a lot of different people in baseball and show business. - Bob Uecker

«Sometimes you say yes to something and then you ask yourself later, 'Why did I do this?' But when you really think about the times you thought about saying no but you said yes, it turned out to be something pretty good. Everything I've done has been pretty good.» - Bob Uecker

We at Blue Jays Central extend our most heartfelt condolences to the Brewers organization, the Uecker family and those who were lucky enough to call him a friend, and we join the countless baseball fans around the world with a heavy heart in light of this morning's news. Rest in peace, Mr. Baseball.

SOURCE: MLB.com

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