Summers in Wisconsin will never be the same.
Bob Uecker died early Thursday. He was 90. The Milwaukee Brewers announced his death this morning, and his family said he had been treated for small cell lung cancer since early 2023.
Uecker was born in Milwaukee on Jan. 26, 1934. As a kid he rode his bike eight blocks to Borchert Field to watch the minor-league Brewers. In 1956 he signed with the hometown Braves for $3,000, and he made the majors in 1962. He caught for the Braves, the Cardinals and the Phillies and won a World Series ring with the 1964 Cardinals. He retired in 1967 with a .200 career batting average, and he got more laughs out of that number than most players get out of .300.
In 1971 he came home to the Brewers radio booth, and he stayed for 54 seasons. His home run call, “Get up, get up, get out of here … gone!” is up in lights at the ballpark. The Baseball Hall of Fame gave him the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting in 2003.
The rest of the country knew him for other things. He made about 100 appearances on “The Tonight Show,” and Johnny Carson is the one who started calling him “Mr. Baseball.” He starred in Miller Lite commercials and in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere,” played announcer Harry Doyle in “Major League” and its sequels, and hosted “Saturday Night Live.”
In one of those Miller Lite ads, an usher tells Uecker he’s in the wrong seat. “I must be in the front row,” he says, and the next shot has him in the last row of the upper deck. The Brewers later put a statue of him up there, among what the club calls the “Uecker seats.” There’s a second statue outside the ballpark. Most broadcasters don’t get one.
The players loved him. When the Brewers made the playoffs in 2018, they voted him a full playoff share, worth $122,957.13 that year. He gave the money to his favorite charities. The players kept up the tradition in later postseasons.
He is survived by his wife, Judy, and his children, Sue Ann and Bob Jr.
He is further survived by millions of fans who, as he did, love the game of baseball.
Godspeed and rest in peace, Mister Baseball.
Summers here will never be the same.
Uecker’s Hall of Fame induction speech
1.16.25
