Beloved Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, ‘Mr. Baseball,’ dies at 90

On By Littum

January 16, 2025, 11:00 a.m. ET

MILWAUKEE — Bob Uecker, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers who earned the nickname “Mr. Baseball” and Hall of Fame honors after a brief career, has died. He was 90.

The team announced that Uecker died Thursday morning, calling it “one of the hardest days in Milwaukee Brewers history.” In a statement released by the club, Uecker’s family said he had been battling small cell lung cancer since early 2023.

“Even in the face of this challenge, his enthusiasm for life was always present and he never let his spirit waver,” the family said.

Uecker was best known as a colorful comedian and broadcaster who earned his nickname during one of his numerous appearances on Johnny Carson’s late night show.

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Uecker signed his first professional contract with the Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and reached the majors in 1962. He spent the last six seasons in the big leagues as a backup catcher, finishing with a .200 average and 14 homers.

He won a World Series ring with the St. Louis in 1964 and also played for Atlanta and Philadelphia.

“Career highlights? I had two,” he often joked. “I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a slump against the Mets.”

Uecker also befriended former Brewers owner and MLB commissioner Bud Selig, who initially hired him as a scout. Selig liked to joke about how Uecker’s first scouting report was stained with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Selig eventually brought Uecker to the broadcast booth. Uecker became the voice of the Brewers in 1971, the second year after the team moved from Seattle.

Uecker remained with the club from that point on and became one of the Brewers’ most indelible figures. Brewers manager Craig Counsell grew up in the Milwaukee area and remembered spending summer days throwing a baseball at the roof and catching it while listening to Uecker’s broadcasts.

“There is no single person in the history of this franchise that has been as iconic and as important as Bob Uecker,” said Jeff Levering, a member of the Brewers’ broadcast team since 2015.

Even as his celebrity status grew nationwide, Uecker relished the opportunity to continue calling games for fans in his hometown.

“Being able to play a game every single day all summer and talk to people every day at 6:30 for a night game, you become a part of people’s families,” Uecker once said. “I know because I get mail from people telling me that. That’s part of the reward of being here, just to be recognized by the way you talk, the way you describe a game, no matter what.”

Uecker was honored by the Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award in 2003 and spent nearly 20 minutes holding Cooperstown, New York, at around 18,000 in stitches.

“I still think – and this is by no means sour grapes – still think I should have gone in as a player,” he laughed.

“Ueck” got his big break on the circuit after opening for Don Rickles at Al Hirt’s Atlanta nightclub in 1969. That performance caught Hirt’s attention, and the musician set him up to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He became one of Carson’s favorite guests with more than 100 appearances.

Carson was the one who dubbed Uecker “Mr. Baseball.” And the name stuck.

But Uecker’s comedy was just part of his skill set. His warm storytelling and delivery made him a natural to become one of the first color commentators on network telecasts in the 1970s with ABC. In the 90s, he teamed up with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan for the World Series.

From there, Uecker reached most households as one of the Miller Lite All-Stars in popular commercials for the Milwaukee-based beer brand, and he later launched his TV acting career in 1985 on the ABC sitcom, “Mr. Belvedere.”

Uecker played George Owens during the series’ successful 122-episode run that lasted six years, as the head of the family and a sportswriter in a home that brings in a butler who struggles to adjust to an American household.

In a bit of casting that kept things pretty close to home, Uecker also featured prominently in the films “Major League” (1989) and “Major League II” (1994) as the gruff talker Harry Doyle for a down-and-out Cleveland franchise that finds a way to become a playoff contender.

“I guess I’m part of American folklore,” Uecker told The Associated Press in 2003. “But I’m not a Hollywood guy. Baseball and broadcasting are in my blood.”

His wry description of a badly wayward pitch — “Juuuust a little outside!” — in the movie is still often repeated by speakers and fans at ballparks everywhere.

Uecker’s play left some thinking he was more about being funny than a serious baseball announcer, but his tenure and observations with the Brewers were spot on, especially when the games were close. Just as entertaining were games that weren’t when Uecker told stories about other major leaguers, his own career and his hobbies as an avid fisherman and golfer.

“I don’t think anybody wants to hear somebody screw around when you had a good game,” Uecker said. “I think people watch ‘Major League,’ and they think Harry Doyle and figure that’s what Bob Uecker does. Sometimes I do, I do. But when we have a good fight going on, I’m not messing around.”

In his later years, he took a serious approach to his health, swimming daily leading up to heart surgery in April 2010. Very soon after the procedures, doctors said Uecker was back to walking several miles and was ahead in recovery.

Uecker pushed to return to the booth and began calling games again in July, saying he bribed the doctors by allowing them to throw out the first pitch.

“You talk about all the things Bob has done, he would never leave Milwaukee,” Selig said. “Above all, he made himself a great play-by-play announcer. That’s what he did. He’s everything to this franchise and loves every minute of it.”

Uecker’s own career provided him with most of his material. His former teammates said Uecker would do impressions of other broadcasters on the bus, but Uecker turned the spotlight on himself after his playing career ended.

“I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $3,000. It bothered my dad at the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough,” he said. “But eventually he scraped it up.”

Another classic: “When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs in the ninth, I looked in the other team’s dugout and they were already in street clothes.”

Uecker also presided over the stirring ceremony that closed Milwaukee County Stadium in 2000. When the Brewers’ new stadium opened as Miller Park in 2001, the team began selling “Uecker Seats” high in the upper deck, blocking for a $1.

The stadium, now known as American Family Field, has two statues in Uecker’s honor. There is a statue outside the stadium and another in the back of Section 422, a nod to the Miller Lite commercial in which he famously said, “I gotta be in the front row!” while being taken to one of the worst seats in the ballpark.