Baseball’s funniest voice

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, January 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Finally today, Major League Baseball said goodbye this week to a man known as “Mr. Baseball.” That is quite a nickname for a man, who, by his own admission, was a decidedly forgettable baseball player, and never even coached or managed in the big leagues.

BROWN: WORLD’s Kent Covington now on the career of an unlikely baseball legend.

KENT COVINGTON: By Big League standards, Bob Uecker wasn’t much of a hitter. He was no Gold Glove catcher defensively, and he certainly was not quick on the basepaths. But he was as quick-witted as they come.

In 2003, he told a crowd in Cooperstown, New York:

EUCKER:  I remember Gene Mauch doing things to me at Philadelphia. I'd be sitting there and he'd say, uh, Grab a bat and stop this rally. … Send me up there without a bat and tell me to try for a walk.

In the baseball world, Hall of Famer Yoga Berra may be the king of memorable quotes, but Bob Uecker definitely deserves an honorable mention.

He once remarked “I led the league in 'Go get 'em next time.’”

As he once put it, “I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don't even get printed.”

UECKER:  .200 lifetime batting average in the Major Leagues. Which tied me with another sports great, averaging 200 or better for a 10 year period. Don Carter, one of our top bowlers.

Whatever he lacked in athletic ability, he made up for it with personality. So it surprised no one when he traded the dugout for the broadcasting booth.

Nearly a decade after he broke into the big leagues with his hometown Milwaukee Braves, the Milwaukee Brewers hired Uecker as their play-by-play man in 1971.

UECKER:  I remember working first with Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson. And I was all fired up about that, too. Until I found out that my portion of the broadcast was being used to jam Radio Free Europe. And I picked up a microphone one day and my mic had no cord on it, so I was talking to nobody.

For any entertainer in the 1970s or 80s, there was no more coveted seat, than the armchair directly to the (stage) right of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show coffee mug.

And Bob was a regular in that chair. During one appearance in 1986, he recalled the year his Cardinals team won the World Series 22 years earlier.

UECKER: But it’s not the money that is so important to players, it’s the ring, the championship ring. This is a World Series ring here. The following year when they have the award ceremonies at the ballpark and each player receives their ring. And when they threw mine in the grass in left field, it was such a thrill … I found it in about the 4th inning. (big laughs)

Eucker went on to an acting career in the 80s and 90s, including numerous commercials:

AUDIO (Miller Lite commercial): These fans know I drink Lite because it’s less filling and it tastes great. Good seats, uh? You’re in the wrong seat, buddy. Come on. [fade under and out]

And he played father and sports writer George Owens on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere. He also appeared on the big screen, including his role as a sportscaster in the 1989 comedy Major League.

AUDIO (Major League clip): Vaughn into the windup, and his first offering … juuuuust a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed. Ball 4, ball 8 …

But in that 2003 address in Cooperstown, where he was honored with an award for broadcasting excellence, Uecker made clear that even though his career included an unlikely Hollywood twist when it came to what he loved to do:

UECKER: Number one has always been baseball for me. No matter what else I ever do, baseball was the only way I wanted to go.

And that’s why they called him Mr. Baseball.

Bob Eucker was 90 years old.

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