Known to the world as “Mr. Baseball”, former Milwaukee Brewers longtime broadcaster Bob Uecker died January 16, 2025 just 10 before his 91st birthday as a result of lung cancer.
He spent over 50 years behind the microphone calling Brewers games…and appearing in films as himself calling games. He called his final game at the end of the Brewers’ game of the 2024 season.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke on Uecker saying, “even with his considerable success in Hollywood, Bob remained fiercely loyal to baseball and to Milwaukee. He loved the game and used his platform to help numerous charitable causes in his hometown and beyond. Bob was the genuine item: always the funniest person in any room he was in, and always an outstanding ambassador for our national pastime. We are grateful for this baseball life like no other, and we will never forget him.”
Last year when the Brewers won the National League Central title, Bob Uecker was in the locker room with the team. Manager Pat Murphy grabbed Eucker close saying, “there is no one — there is no one — who epitomizes a champion the way this man does right here.”
As the news spread of Bob Uecker’s death, fans gathered outside American Family Field to pay their respects with flowers, hats, and cans of Miller Lite beer.
Robert George Uecker was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 26, 1934; 22 years later he signed his first professional baseball contract with the Milwaukee Braves. It would take six years in 1962 for Uecker to make it to the major leagues. He spent six years in the Majors as a back-up catcher. He retired from baseball with a batting average of just .200 and 14 home runs. He spent his short baseball career as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals where earned a World Series ring, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Braves in Milwaukee and Atlanta. Uecker cites his career highlights as earning an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and getting out of a rundown in a game against the New York Mets.
After baseball Brewers owner and then Commissioner bud Selig hired Uecker as a scout. In 1971, Selig put Uecker in the Brewers broadcast booth where he spent the next 54 years.
Fellow Brewers broadcaster Jeff Levering spoke on Uecker saying, “there’s no single person in this franchise’s history who has been as iconic and as important as Bob Uecker.”
Outside of baseball, Uecker got his start in 1969 opening for Don Rickles. He became one of Johnny Carson’s most frequent guests on “The Tonight Show”, making over 100 appearances. It was Carson who donned Uecker “Mr. Baseball”.
An international star, Uecker relished calling the Brewer games; especially in his hometown. He once said, “to be able to do a game each and every day throughout the summer and talk to people every day at 6:30 for a night game, you become part of people’s families.”
In 2003, the Baseball Hall of Fame presented Uecker with the Ford C. Frick Award. His acceptance speech was a near 20 minute comedy routine. His other accolades include induction into the Wisconsin Athletic, the Radio, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, and the National Association of Broadcasters Halls of Fame.
Uecker will forever be linked to the baseball film “Major League” and while Harry Doyle might call a ball thrown in the next time zone “juuuuuuust a bit outside”; Bob Uecker never fooled around when announcing the Brewer games…especially the close ones. “I don’t think anyone wants to hear somebody screwing around when you got a good game going. I think people see ‘Major League’ and they think Harry Doyle and figure that’s what Bob Uecker does. I do that sometimes, I do. But when we’ve got a good game going, I don’t mess around.”
While he is best known for his Miller Lite commercials and broadcaster Harry Doyle in the “Major League” franchise, Uecker also appeared in a number of other productions including as himself in his 1985 debut on “O.C. and Stiggs”, an episode of “Who’s the Boss?”, 118 episodes of “Mr. Belvedere”, the voice of Trixie in “Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco”, and his final performance in 2021 in “Monsters at Work”.
Married and divorced twice, Uecker is survived by his four children Steven, Sue Ann, Leann, and Bob r Jr.
Feature photo credit: Bob Uecker acknowledges the crowd at Miller Park shortly before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the start of Game 1 of the NL Division Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks on October 1st, 2011.