Milwaukee Brewers icon Bob Uecker passes away at 90

The beloved broadcaster, actor, and player was on Brewers radio for 54 years

It is a day that Brewer fans collectively knew would come, but one that few are prepared to deal with: Bob Uecker, the beloved voice of the Brewers for 54 years, has died. He was 90.

Few figures in baseball history were as beloved as Uecker, whose career in baseball began as a minor league catcher in 1956 and lasted until he last called a baseball game in October 2024, 68 years later. During that time, his incomparable wit and his hilarious self-deprecation of his less-than-stellar playing career made him one of the most popular broadcasters in the country. His popularity led to other media opportunities, including a six-year run on the sitcom Mr. Belvedere and his beloved role as broadcaster Harry Doyle in the Major League films.

Born in Milwaukee in 1934, Uecker graduated from Boys Tech High School and served in the U.S. Army from 1954-56. He signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Braves upon leaving the service and made his professional debut that year with the Eau Claire Bears. After several years in the minors, he made his major league debut in 1962 with the Braves and hit his first career home run off of Diomedes Olivo in a loss to Pittsburgh on the last day of the season. After two years as Milwaukee’s backup catcher, he was traded to St. Louis.

As Tim McCarver’s backup, Uecker played sparingly, but he won a World Series as a member of the 1964 Cardinals (though he did not play in the series). After two years in St. Louis, Uecker played for a season and a half with the Phillies and was traded back to the Braves (now in Atlanta) in June of 1967. He spent much of his time back catching Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, which is the source for one of Uecker’s most famous witticisms: “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”

Uecker retired as a player after the 1967 season. In those six years, he hit .200 with 14 home runs in 297 games, but held the distinction of homering off of future Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax, Ferguson Jenkins, and Gaylord Perry, something he surely did not let any of them forget.

After a short run as a scout, Uecker moved into broadcasting in 1969 in Atlanta, and returned home to do Brewer broadcasts in 1971. While he was the Brewers’ primary radio announcer during that time, he also did national television broadcasts from the 1970s into the 1990s (which sometimes created a very funny dynamic with the more stoic Howard Cosell), and he had a couple of prominent appearances as a broadcaster at WrestleMania in the late 1980s, one of which led to a “confrontation” with Andre the Giant.

Uecker’s many years as the radio voice of the Brewers made him the sound of summer for many Wisconsin families. His trademark home run call “get up, get up, get outta here, gone!” resides over Bernie’s Dugout beyond the left field wall at American Family Field. In 2003, the National Baseball Hall of Fame honored Uecker with the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor a broadcaster can receive.

He was not just famous in the baseball world, though. Uecker appeared around 100 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and his success there led to other opportunities. He could be seen in several national television commercials for Miller Lite, most famously the “Uecker seats” commercial (which also has a memorial at American Family Field).

In 1985, Uecker was given the opportunity to play a prominent role on the TV sitcom Mr. Belvedere, on which he appeared in all 118 episodes from 1985-1990. In 1989, Uecker’s most beloved acting role came as Harry Doyle, the announcer for the Cleveland Indians of Major League (which was filmed at County Stadium in Milwaukee), a role which he reprised in two sequels.

As he reached his 80s, age and a series of health complications reduced Uecker’s workload, but he never stopped doing games and remained remarkably sharp even as he approached—and surpassed—his 90^th birthday.

I would encourage everyone to seek out some of the documentaries made about Bob Uecker that fully showcase his wit (here is one that MLB Network produced in 2014). There is no shortage of famous Uecker stories, like how he once shagged fly balls with a sousaphone, or how he is holding hands with the famously intimidating Bob Gibson in the official team photo of the 1964 Cardinals. Here’s a bigger list, but a small sample of quotes attributed to Uecker, in addition to the knuckleball one above:

• “I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $3,000. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up.”
• “People don’t know this but I helped the Cardinals win the pennant. I came down with hepatitis. The trainer injected me with it.”
• “I led the league in go get ‘em next time.”
• “I hit a grand slam off Ron Herbel and when his manager Herman Franks came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel’s suitcase.”

Uecker holds a special place for Wisconsin baseball fans because he was ours. A Milwaukee kid who stayed with a moribund franchise despite his own major accomplishments that surely could have gotten him full-time work in a “more desirable” city. Alongside Robin Yount, Bob Uecker is the Milwaukee Brewers. This is a sad day for the city, the state, and the entire league, but let us celebrate this man who gave us so much life.