Ever since Babe Ruth toddled around the bases, grim predictions have been made about the future of baseball. Over time, the national pastime has become too laid-back, too idyllic. Last year’s World Series television ratings and this season’s batting average were both the lowest in 50 years. Baseball is dying, they say.
But the current World Series is between the game’s leading teams: the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Want to improve your baseball health? Just go to a Milwaukee Brewers game.
There, in Major League Baseball’s smallest market, cheese curds sweat under floodlights, frozen custard is rolled back into batting helmets, local mirrors flow generously, and the second floor of a stadium has the most It has a real Milwaukee feel. It’s the broadcaster they call “Mr. Baseball.” . ”
Bob Uecker, longtime play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers. CBS News
Bob Uecker spent six notable seasons as a catcher in the majors, but never played an inning with the Brewers. But during his half-century as the team’s play-by-play announcer, he served as mayor and mascot for his native city, all the while turning down offers from bigger markets and firing the pitch, so to speak.
In the 1980s, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner tried to poach Uecker. “Steinbrenner sent a few people over to talk to me about joining the Yankees, but I loved Milwaukee. I was born here, I grew up here!” he said.
Uecker began his major league career with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962, after which the team moved to Atlanta. “I was the first player from Milwaukee to sign with the Braves,” he said. “I was also the first Milwaukee native sent to the minor leagues by the Braves!”
Even if Uecker’s on-field inadequacies hampered his playing career, they provided some of his best material in a long and lucrative second career as an actor and comedian. Using his painstaking wit, he appeared on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” more than 40 times.
He said, “I did the ‘Tonight Show’ whenever they wanted me to. I’d leave here on a Sunday afternoon, fly to Los Angeles, do the Monday night show, red-eye and come back here.” “I was going to be here for Tuesday’s show” game. “
Johnny Carson: “Tell me as soon as possible all the teams you’ve ever played for.”
Uecker: “The Braves, the Cardinals, the Phillies, then the Braves again. And in June I…”
Carson’s guest appearances led to a series of notable TV commercials, starring roles on sitcoms, and perhaps most memorably, the role of the ever-electrifying announcer Harry Doyle in the movie Major League. This summer, “Harry Doyle Bobblehead Night” brought Uecker fans in droves at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
When asked about his favorite “Bob Uecker line,” he replied: “‘Come outside for a minute!’” My wife took me there many times! ”
Bob Uecker and 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim. CBS News
Bud Selig, who owned the Brewers before serving as baseball commissioner for 16 years, mistakenly hired Uecker as a scout in 1971. Selig said it’s a “legitimate truth” that Uecker is not a good scout. “The damn scouting report had mashed potatoes written on it. I couldn’t read it. He couldn’t read it either,” he said.
So Selig moved Uecker to the Brewers’ broadcast booth later that year.
There’s even a bronze statue honoring Uecker now, but where else? The last row of the upper deck, behind the pole.
Best seat in the house. CBS News
But despite all the stardom, all the gigs and gags and late night laughs at his own expense, Uecker still thinks of himself as a player, says Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff. He’s part of the team and I think that’s why we welcome him so much, and that’s what makes it cool. ”
According to Uecker, he has a bond with the players on the field. “I played that game too. So I know how hard this game is. I know how hard it is to play this game. The celebration of the game, when we win, that’s it.” Being able to get in the clubhouse and be with those guys is a big part of it.”
But baseball is cruel, and the celebrations don’t last long in Milwaukee. Earlier this month, with the Brewers just two outs away from winning the National League Wild Card Series, the New York Mets came from behind to win with a dramatic home run.
Mr. Uecker did not hide his scars on the radio. “I’ll tell you, it… it kind of stung.”
The Brewers’ first World Series victory will have to wait.
Some speculate that this heartbreaking loss may have been Uecker’s last game as an announcer. But as his 91st birthday approaches, the man people call “Mr. Baseball” says he doesn’t want to imagine his life without baseball.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do if we don’t have baseball. I don’t know what it’s going to be like if we don’t have baseball, you know?” Uecker said. “I graduated high school, joined the Army, and signed a baseball contract. That’s really it!”
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Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: Lauren Burnero.
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