Beloved Brewers Broadcaster Bob Uecker Passes Away

“Get up, get up, get out of here, gone!”

“Juuuuuuust a bit outside.”

“I must be in the front row.”

Fans of baseball, television, and the movies are bound to recognize at least one of the above catch phrases. Sadly, the baseball world’s light became a little dimmer this week as the author of those quotes moved on to a better place.

Legendary Milwaukee Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker passed away at the age of 90 as announced by the team on social media on Thursday. He had recently finished his 54th year gracing Wisconsin’s airwaves by calling games for the Crew.

Uecker ended his broadcasting career in the same place he finished it, right in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was born in the city, went to high school in the city, and eventually began his baseball career in the city with the Milwaukee Braves.

Uecker played for three teams in his six-year MLB career: the Braves, both in Milwaukee and then in Atlanta at the end of his career, the Cardinals, where he won a championship, and the Phillies. And his numbers were, well, not the greatest, which he was more than happy to joke about over the years.

Uecker batted a career .200 with 22 doubles and 14 homers in 297 games. As a catcher, he also had 27 errors and 47 passed balls in his career.

One of his most famous quotes about baseball was in reference to that last stat. His advice on trying to catch Phil Niekro’s knuckleball: “Wait until it stops rolling, then go to the backstop and pick it up.”

But Uecker didn’t get famous because of his playing career, it was everything he did afterward. In 1971, four years after his final MLB season and the second year after baseball returned to Milwaukee in the form of the Brewers, he took the job as lead broadcaster for his hometown team.

That kicked off a career as one of the most prolific broadcasters in MLB history. That career included national tv broadcasts on ABC and NBC and even paired him with fellow famed broadcaster Bob Costas on World Series calls.

Baseball, though, was only one way that Bob Uecker’s humor and wit was introduced to the masses.

Shortly after Uecker began his career as the Brewers’ radio announcer, he also found his way to television screens across America. It wasn’t to call baseball games, though, and was on a program that few probably expected.

Uecker became a regular guest on the Johnny Carson show, which, as it turned out, his sense of humor was a perfect fit for. He was so good as a guest on the show that he would make over 100 appearances.

Eventually that led him to the world of acting. In television, he was most well known for his role as George Owens on the show Mr. Belvedere. Uecker appeared in all 118 episodes of the 80s sitcom.

Movie fans know him as a different character, probably his most famous one. Uecker portrayed Cleveland Indians announcer Harry Doyle in the movie Major League, one of the most popular baseball comedies of all time. He also returned as the same character for its sequel.

Uecker would appear in other tv shows and movies, but his first love was always baseball and the Brewers. If there was a famous moment in the team’s history, Ueck was likely the one calling it.

Whether it was Juan Nieves’ no-hitter in 1987, the Brewers breaking a decades-long streak missing the playoffs in 2008, Milwaukee walking off the Diamondbacks in a winner-take-all NLDS game in 2011, Uecker was there on the mic. In 2003, he earned the ultimate honor for his talents.

That year, Uecker was award the Ford C. Frick award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, given every year to a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball. And in true Bob Uecker fashion, his now famous speech at the ceremony had everyone in attendance rolling in laughter.

Uecker was beloved by not only fans but all of the players on the team. He was a regular presence in the clubhouse and on the field before games. When he was around, players always stopped to chat or listen to stories, and probably laugh a lot too.

In recent years, Uecker had reduced his workload behind the mic. He had been limited to only calling home games to take away the stress of travel. It turns out there was a good reason for that.

After Uecker’s passing, his family revealed that he had been privately fighting a battle with small cell lung cancer since 2023. That makes it all the more amazing that his love of baseball and the Brewers was so strong that he continued to show up and call games for Milwaukee.

Uecker was beloved by many while he lived and that was even more evident after his passing. Affection came pouring immediately after the news broke from fans to players and coaches to the entertainment industry. At his statue outside American Family Field in Milwaukee, fans paid their respects with flowers, memorabilia, and of course cans of Miller Lite.

Brewers broadcasts will never be the same without Uecker at the mic. We should all consider ourselves lucky, though, that we were able to spend decades listening to one of the greatest broadcasters in baseball history.