Bob Uecker, Light-Hitting Catcher Turned Comic Actor and Broadcaster, Dies at 90

Bob Uecker, Light-Hitting Catcher Turned Comic Actor and Broadcaster, Dies at 90

Bob Uecker, who parlayed six laughable seasons as a light-hitting catcher into a second career in comedy highlighted by hilarious turns in the Major League movies, on The Tonight Show and in beer commercials, has died. He was 90.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Uecker was a popular play-by-play man for his hometown Milwaukee Brewers since 1971, and on Thursday it was the team that announced his death.

On the 1985-90 ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere, Uecker starred as sportswriter/sportscaster George Owens, who contends with the antics of his three kids (Rob Stone, Tracy Wells, Brice Beckham) and the title character, a sophisticated English butler (Christopher Hewitt) hired to bring order to a suburban Pittsburgh household.

As Harry Doyle, the eternally optimistic (and inebriated) play-by-play announcer for the beleaguered Cleveland Indians in Major League (1989), he tried to put an upbeat spin on the dismal play he was witnessing. When bespectacled rookie Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) threw a fastball several feet to the right of home plate, Doyle memorably described the pitch as “juuuuuuust a bit outside.”

Uecker returned as Harry in Major League II (1994) and Major League: Back to the Minors (1998).

Before all this, Uecker was a catcher (and a backup one at that) in the big leagues, playing with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962-63, the St. Louis Cardinals (1964-65), the Philadelphia Phillies (1966-67) and the Atlanta Braves (1967). His career batting average was .200, and he hit just 14 home runs in 731 at-bats.

Uecker led the National League in passed balls in his last season — all the more notable considering he caught only 59 games that year. He often was on the receiving end of Phil Niekro’s unpredictable knuckleball and liked to joke that the best way to catch this type of pitch was to wait for the ball to stop rolling and then pick it up.

“Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues,” he once said. “But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat.”

The knack for finding humor in his woebegone baseball career turned out to be Uecker’s strongest talent, and after he hung up his chest protector, he entertained audiences as a paid speaker, making fun of his days on the diamond.

One night in 1969, jazz trumpeter Al Hirt, who had opened a nightclub in Atlanta, coaxed Uecker up onstage. His spirited nature and natural joke-telling ability made him a hit, and Hirt convinced Johnny Carson to give Uecker a shot.

“So, I’m standing behind the curtain … my first time on The Tonight Show, and I had never been this nervous before,” Uecker recalled on David Feherty’s Golf Channel show in 2016. “Not that I wasn’t going to be funny. I knew I could be funny.

“So I go out. I do my thing with Johnny and he laughs. We have a good time. Now after the show is over, we’re all saying goodnight. As I’m walking away, I hear Johnny say to Ed [McMahon], ‘Did that guy really play baseball?’ And Ed says, ‘I think so.’ Neither one of them believed I played baseball. But they called me back. I actually did three shows in about six weeks.”

In fact, during Carson’s run on The Tonight Show, Uecker made about 100 appearances and was given the nickname “Mr. Baseball” by the host. With his gregarious personality, he delighted viewers with his self-effacing observances. His jokes included:

“I knew my career was over in 1965. My baseball card came out with no picture.”

“Sporting goods companies pay me not to endorse their products.”

“When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs in the ninth, I’d look over at the other dugout and the players would already be in their street clothes.”

When asked to cite a highlight of his career, he recounted the time he was intentionally walked by Dodgers great Sandy Koufax.

Robert George Uecker was born in Milwaukee on Jan. 26, 1934, to Swiss immigrants. He father was a tool and die maker. He attended Technical High School in the city and frequented Borchert Field to root for the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association.

After serving in the U.S. Army, he signed in 1956 with the Milwaukee Braves, the parent club, for $3,000 and made it to the majors six years later. He was on the Cardinals squad that defeated the New York Yankees to win the 1964 World Series, and teammate Tim McCarver credited Uecker with keeping the club loose (the catcher shagged fly balls with a tuba before Game 2).

In his final season of 1967, Uecker was injured in a motorcycle accident and involved in a bar fight.

In the 1980s, Uecker was a member of ABC’s Monday Night Baseball team; hosted a syndicated TV series that showed wacky highlights and evolved into The Lighter Side of Sports; presided over Saturday Night Live; appeared as himself on Who’s the Boss? and in Robert Altman’s O.C. and Stiggs (1985); and worked several World Wrestling Federation events, most notably a big showdown between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.

He also made a splash with his clever 1982 book, Catcher in the Wry.

In 2003, Uecker was honored with the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for contributions to baseball broadcasting. Among those was his signature home run call: “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” (For years before announcing Brewers games, he would pitch batting practice.)

His last game as an announcer in his 54th season with the Brewers came on Oct. 4 when the New York Mets rallied to eliminate Milwaukee in the playoffs with a shocking ninth-inning home run by Pete Alonzo off ace reliever Devin Williams. “I’m tellin’ ya, that one … had some sting on it,” he said on the radio.

Survivors include his wife, Judy, and his children, Bob Jr. and Sue Ann. Two other kids, Steven and Leeann, died in 2012 of lung disease and in2022 of ALS, respectively.

Miller Lite tapped into Uecker’s popularity by featuring the former catcher in a series of TV spots. The one most fondly remembered is from 1984 that found him exclaiming, “I must be in the front row!” after he is escorted from his box seat by an usher. In the closing shot, he’s seen in the near-empty upper deck, enthusiastically challenging an umpire’s call.

The Brewers now have a statue of Uecker that sits in the last row at American Family Field in Milwaukee. “I can’t think of a better place to put it,” he said. “It’s great for the fans and even better for the pigeons.”

Mike Barnes contributed to this report.