Bob Uecker, the clubhouse wit who turned his tales of inadequacy as a significant league catcher into a comic book narrative that enlivened his second profession as a sportswriter and promoting government, died Thursday. He was 90.
His household introduced the dying in an announcement launched by Milwaukee Brewerssaying he has been handled for small cell lung most cancers since early 2023.
Uecker proved a no brainer throughout his six seasons as a starter within the Sixties. He made a profession batting average of just .197hit 14 residence runs and drove in 74 runs. As a profession reliever, he by no means began greater than 62 video games in a season for Milwaukee and the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals or Philadelphia Phillies.
“To final so long as I did with the abilities I had was a triumph of the human spirit,” Uecker wrote in Catcher within the Wry (1982), his memoir with Mickey Herskovitz.
He instructed self-deprecating tales—some true, some not—as if he solely performed baseball to assemble materials for stand-up comedy.
“I used to be named the minor league participant of the 12 months as soon as,” he stated. “Sadly, I had been within the main for 2 years on the time.”
However Uecker’s in-depth data of the sport, gained principally from the bench and benches, was evident throughout his radio broadcasts for the Brewers, the place he began in 1971. as a recreation voice.
Uecker was beloved in Milwaukee, however was nationally identified for his comedian turns within the common Miller Lite beer advert marketing campaign within the Eighties and his function as Harry Doyle, the fictional voice of the previous Cleveland Indians, within the comedian movie Main League ( 1989).
Miller Lite adverts have been constructed round a debate over whether or not the low-calorie beer tasted nice or not, and featured many sports activities celebrities.
In his most famous adUecker slipped to a seat within the stadium field. However when an usher interrupted him to say he was within the incorrect seat, Uecker replied: “Oh, I must be within the entrance row!” As an alternative, he was ushered to a seat in a distant a part of the stadium.
“Good seats, eh, mate?” he referred to as right into a sea of empty seats.
The sight of Uecker perched at such a distance grew to become such part of his picture that in 2014 a statue of him was positioned within the far reaches of the higher deck of Brewers Stadium.
Along with calling Brewers video games for 54 years, he labored as an analyst for ABC Sports activities in 1976. within the Monday Evening Baseball franchise, the place he remained till 1982.
A full obituary will seem quickly.
