Former Major League Baseball catcher and acclaimed broadcaster Bob Uecker passed away Thursday morning. According to a statement from the Uecker family, he had privately been battling small cell lung cancer since early 2023.
The Milwaukee Brewers, for whom Uecker called games for 54 years, released a statement Thursday: “Today we take on the heaviest of burdens. Today, we say goodbye to our beloved friend, Bob Uecker. Ueck was the light of the Brewers, the soundtrack of our summers, the laughter in our hearts, and his passing is a profound loss… Saying goodbye to Bob shakes us all. He was much more than a Milwaukee Brewers icon. He was a national treasure… We are left with a giant void in our hearts, but also remember the laughter and joy he brought to our lives.”
Uecker was a household name for many baseball fans, especially in Milwaukee, where he broadcasted games from 1971 until 2024. His home run catchphrase, “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone,” has its own signage at American Family Field below the left field roof and lights up when a Brewers player hits a home run.
His iconic status began not long after becoming a broadcaster, and he appeared on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” more than any other celebrity. Carson loved having Uecker so much that he nicknamed him “Mr. Baseball.” He was also featured in several films, most notably playing the role of Harry Doyle in the “Major League” trilogy, whose iconic line, “Juuuuust a bit outside,” continues to be quoted today.
“I am heartbroken with the loss of my dear friend, Bob Uecker. I can’t begin to describe how much he meant to me, let alone what this loss is for Brewers fans, the state of Wisconsin and countless others worldwide. Bob had the easiest way of making others feel at ease, share a laugh and always left people feeling a little better. Nobody was his equal.” – Bud Selig, Commissioner Emeritus of Major League Baseball and former Milwaukee Brewers owner
Bob Uecker wasn’t just a broadcaster. He played catcher for three teams across seven Major League seasons, three of which with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves. His batting average was .200 and he only hit 14 home runs as a backup catcher, but his defense was mostly responsible for him staying in the Major Leagues.
During his final season in 1967, despite playing in only 59 of 162 games, Uecker led the league in passed balls, which are pitches that are deemed catchable by the catcher that get away from him enough to advance a runner to the next base. Most of this was due to a new pitch from future Hall-of-Famer Phil Niekro called the knuckleball, which has no spin that leads to an unpredictable flight path on the way to the batter. Uecker often joked, “The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait for the ball to stop rolling and pick it up.”
After his playing career, he took his first broadcasting job with WSB-TV in Atlanta before becoming a play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1971, a job that he would continue to do until his death.
“No words will really do you justice but I think that’s how it should be,” posted 2018 National League Most Valuable Player Christian Yelich. “To say you were one of one is probably an understatement, the stories you could tell, the life you lived and way you impacted people. I’ll miss you my friend.”
