We all remember CC Sabathia creating a double play to set up the Brewers’ first postseason birth in 2008. There’s the “Goodbye Detroit! Hello New York!” call from Bob Uecker when the Crew clinched their first-ever pennant in ’81. And of course “Here comes Gomez!” when the Brewers won their first playoff series in three decades in 2011.
Most baseball games, however, don’t have that level of gravitas. Uecker called somewhere around 8,500 games from the broadcast booth, and appeared in another 916 professional games as a player – starting in the MLB wearing No. 8 for his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1962.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Most of those thousands of broadcasts would have been forgettable small slices of the pie, except for Uecker’s wit, joy and passion. The legendary Milwaukeean and Hall of Famer died Thursday, Jan. 16. He was 90.
Here, we remember eight moments from Uecker’s career that aren’t in most highlight reels, but are moments that we never want to be forgotten.
Trashing Wrigley Field and Cincy
“There are guys in prison who have friendlier confines than that.”
That time he found out what furries were
And then he wouldn’t stop talking about them for a whole half-inning in Pittsburgh, barely pausing to call a Ryan Braun home run before going back to claiming “There really is a Bigfoot; I saw one this morning.”
Getting Really Friendly With Bob Gibson
Don’t tell Bobs what they aren’t allowed to do.
The Greatest Hall of Fame Speech of All Time
Is that George Bush?
“I still — and this is not sour grapes by any means — still think I should have gone in as a player.”
Uecker Turns Drill Sergeant (and recruits two cops into the Brew Crew Corps)
As told by “The Kid,” Robin Yount.
He Was the Worst Baseball Scout in History
Anyone got a stopwatch?
When Ueck would try to tell teammate Hammerin’ Hank how to hit
Uecker hit .200 for his career. Hank hit 200 homers in a five-year span, twice.
Saying Goodbye
“Tonight, is the final curtain. It’s time to say goodbye. We will never forget you for what was, will always be. So long old friend. And good night everybody.”
