Uecker primed for another go
Broadcaster not ready to hang it up just yet
PHOENIX - Bob Uecker insists he doesn’t think about how much longer he’ll broadcast Milwaukee Brewers games on the radio.
But Ueck is pretty sure he doesn’t want a farewell tour if and when he decides it’s time to walk away.
“The presents would probably be pretty crummy anyway,” he said.
Uecker, of course, was exercising his trademark self-deprecating humor with that remark. But he really has no thoughts at this point of stepping away from the microphone, which is very good news for Brewers fans. The 83-year-old Milwaukeean — yes, he is 83, no matter what reference site claims otherwise — is entering his 47th season in the booth and just might go for 50.
“Who knows? It could be next year or the year after that (when he
retires),” Uecker said. “I really don’t know.”
One factor that won’t come into play is Uecker’s contract. That’s because the man known as “Mr. Baseball” never has worked with a formal agreement, beginning with his first handshake deal with former Brewers owner Bud Selig.
“I’ve never had a contract. Never,” he said. “When (current principal owner) Mark Attanasio came here, that’s the first thing he asked me: ‘Do you want to work the same way you did with Bud?’ I said yeah.
“I don’t need a contract. If you don’t want me back, tell me. If I don’t want to come back, I’ll tell you.”
Uecker cut back on his road schedule considerably last year and plans to do likewise this season. But, if the Brewers are playing at Miller Park, you can bet he will be in his customary seat in the WTMJ radio booth, working games with sidekick Jeff Levering.
“I think I did 110 games (total) last season,” he said. “I’ll probably do about the same this year. I’ll do some road games. I won’t do the West Coast. I might go to Yankee Stadium because it might be the last time.
“Jeff and Lane (Grindle) do such a good job (on trips Uecker misses). It’s time for them.”
Uecker has one loyal listener who always knows when to tune into Brewers’ games long distance. Robin Yount, who became best friends with Uecker during his 20-year, Hall of Fame career in Milwaukee, loves listening in on satellite radio when driving in his car.
“It makes the drive more fun listening to Ueck,” said Yount, who lives in the Phoenix area. “I listen regularly. He’s the best. You hear people say somebody is ‘one of a kind,’ but that’s not always true. With Ueck, it’s true. He is truly one of a kind. That’s not a cliché in his case. I’ve never met anyone else like him.
“There’s no way to replace somebody like that. You can’t do it. Hopefully, it never happens. I know it will one day, but I hope that day is a long time away. I tell people all the time, ‘This is the same guy today that I met in 1974.’ He hasn’t lost a thing. He’s the best.”
One by one, Uecker has seen his radio contemporaries leave the booth. After the 2016 season, fellow Hall of Famers Vin Scully and Dick Enberg retired from calling games for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, respectively.
“They are such good friends,” said Uecker. “I once apologized to Vin because he had to call games I played in. ‘Tricky’ (Enberg) and I go way back. Back when he was with the Angels, I did a pregame show with him about my ‘Passed Ball School.’ I said I was teaching kids to miss the ball on purpose so the game wouldn’t go into extra innings and their parents could go home (Uecker led the National League in passed balls in 1967 despite playing in only 59 games).
“(Angels owner) Gene Autry called, wanting to know what we were talking about. I offered Autry the California franchise for the ‘Passed Ball School’ if he wanted it. It turned out to be a funny deal.
“Enberg has done so many other things — tennis and football and basketball. He has done it all.”
Current Brewers fans might not realize it, but Uecker once called other sports over the radio as well in Milwaukee. He did Marquette basketball broadcasts with Tom Collins and also worked football and basketball games for UW-Milwaukee.
“UWM was actually pretty good in football,” Uecker recalled. “(Safety) Mike Reinfeldt played there (captain of the last team in 1974) and went on to be a big-time safety in the NFL.
“When I think back to all those years, working with all those guys, it was something.”
Uecker always knew baseball, his first true love, was where his broadcasting future would unfold. In 1972, when former Milwaukee Braves teammate and pal Eddie Mathews took over as manager in Atlanta, he offered a coaching position to Uecker, who had just finished his first year in the Brewers radio booth.
“I turned him down,” said Uecker. “I didn’t really have interest in coaching. This broadcasting gig was such a nice thing.”
Over the years, Uecker would venture off into other successful, high-profile endeavors. Remember “Monday Night Baseball” on ABC-TV? The original broadcast crew was Uecker, Bob Prince and Warner Wolf in 1976, and Uecker later shared that booth with broadcast legends Howard Cosell and Keith Jackson.
His impressive list of credits expanded to more than 100 appearances on “The Tonight Show, Starring Johnny Carson,” where the “Mr. Baseball” moniker was born. Uecker also starred on the TV sitcom “Mr. Belvedere,” which ran for 122 episodes; became even more famous in the series of hilarious commercials with the Miller Lite All-Stars; and struck gold again with his memorable turn as broadcaster Harry Doyle in the “Major League” movies.
A national celebrity was born, but Uecker always returned to the Brewers’ radio booth when all was said and done. It was his home, literally and figuratively, personally and professionally.
“The network stuff was fun but coming back to Milwaukee was always best,” he said. “Being born and raised there, it meant so much to me.
“I enjoyed all the other stuff. Whoever thought ‘Major League’ would do what it did? They basically let me do what I wanted. I didn’t have a script. I just looked at the scene, and they’d say, ‘Go!’ ”
Uecker will miss one home series for sure this season — three games against the Cubs from July 28-30. That weekend, Selig, whom Uecker loves to call “Al” to his face, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., a tribute to his successful 22-year stint as baseball commissioner.
“I want to go there and sit back, relax and watch,” he said. “That’s a big day for Buddy.”
Uecker is still renown for his knee-slapping speech at Cooperstown on July 27, 2003, when he was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award for career excellence in broadcasting. Inductees normally are told to get off stage in less than 10 minutes, in part because aging Hall of Famers are sitting there, often under hot and humid conditions, but Uecker was allowed to go twice that long with no complaints.
It was a performance of which any professional comedian would have been proud.
“The day before, Yogi Berra came up to me and said, ‘Ueck, don’t stay up there too long. It’s hot out there,’ ” recalled Uecker. “But (during his speech), I could hear (the Hall of Famers) laughing and yelling, ‘Keep going!’
“I remember (former) President (George H.W.) Bush, sitting there in the front row of the crowd, laughing his ass off. That was great.”
Uecker hasn’t appeared in a movie since “Major League III: Back to the Minors,” a box office bomb in 1998.
“I thought Major League II (in 1994) was pretty good but the third one, we probably shouldn’t have made,” he said, diplomatically.
But is Uecker done making movies? Back home in Milwaukee he has a script on his desk that intrigues him. It’s a baseball film, of course, and he would play a ghost who returns from the past with a specific mission. Suffice it to say his role would be largely comedic, and we’ll leave it at that.
“It’s a decent script,” he said. “I just don’t think I have the time to do it. It depends when they’d do it. I’m in a lot of scenes. I think it would be a good film.”
At this stage, Uecker is hesitant to do anything that draws him away from the radio booth for long. He is intrigued by the Brewers’ rebuilding process and would like to see it through to the other side, which he believes will be successful.
So, Uecker is ready for yet another season, his 62nd overall in the game. No contract. No plans for retirement. And, please, no victory tour.
“I’d never announce it beforehand,” he said. “When I came here, it was no big thing. That’s the way I want to go out.
“I’m not trying to set any records or anything. I still enjoy doing the games. As long as I’m not going to embarrass myself or embarrass the team in any way, I’ll keep doing it. I’d quit immediately if I was doing that.”
Of things to worry about in this world, that would be far down the list.
“There’s no way to replace somebody like that. You can’t do it. Hopefully, it never happens.”
ROBIN YOUNT, ON RADIO BROADCASTER BOB UECKER