Jeff Levering calls it “poetic” that his playing career peaked in the same state that his MLB broadcasting career began.
Despite winning the 2003 D-III World Series in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, as a designated hitter with California’s Chapman University, Levering knew he didn’t have a future as a player. But much like a player, the Sacramento native worked his way through the minors as a broadcaster for a decade before making it to Milwaukee’s major league radio team in 2015.
After the passing of the legendary Bob Uecker in January, Levering now will be the leading voice in Brewers radio. And like TV’s Brian Anderson, he’s getting national attention as a play-by-play man.
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Lane Grindle, WTMJ’s other play-by-play voice, remembers silently mouthing “wow” in the press box after Jackson Chourio’s and Garrett Mitchell’s lead-stealing homers in Game 2 of the doomed wild card series last October. He wasn’t admiring the blasts themselves but how perfectly his partner narrated them. “If [Levering] wasn’t already on the map nationally – which he was – those calls should’ve put him over the top,” Grindle says.
Levering didn’t start with those instincts. He attempted a catchphrase during his first broadcasting job: “Arrivederci Roma, ciao baby! However you wanna say it, that ball’s gone!” Oof.
There are three keys to calling a sporting event: Story, Stats and Silence. Balancing the three is akin to balancing three plates in a circus act, a metaphor Jeff Levering says he learned from Brian Anderson. Levering “has become so good at the little mechanical things of a broadcast that most people don’t think of,” his broadcasting partner Lane Grindle says. “He understands how to capture the moment, and then get out of the way and let the crowd take it over.”
Summer 2025 will be different in Milwaukee, the first without Uecker on our airwaves since 1970. Levering knows he isn’t Uecker and never could be – a man who was not just broadcaster but ballplayer and comedian, mentor and prankster, friend and enigma.
Levering was one of the few who knew about Uecker’s two-year battle with small-cell lung cancer. He says the 90-year-old was “like a grandpa” to his kids, and “like a second father figure” to him. When Levering broke down on air after the Mets eliminated the Crew last season, it was no act.
He understood it was probably the end of Mr. Baseball’s career. Come March 31, Levering figures he will choke up on the air again at some point during the first Milwaukee home opener without Uecker in 55 years. “It’s not going to get easier in the blink of an eye, because you’re always going feel him, no matter what,” he says. “I still feel him, every day, without fail.”
Uecker was basically a member of the clubhouse, even throwing batting practice for decades. Levering’s preparation is more academic – he makes notes for every game like it’ll be a four-hour, extra-inning grinder. Heading into the season, he’s keeping his dedicated approach the same.
“I love it. I’m just a junkie. I absolutely love baseball,” Levering says. “I’ve never patted myself on the back, but there are times where I know I was right for the moment.”
