Suzyn Waldman and Michael Kay remember Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker as Milwaukee wins World Series

Ueck Gotta Believe!

Perhaps no baseball announcer ever has been a symbol of a team and city the way the late Bob Uecker is for the Milwaukee Brewers.

After Wednesday night, you can call them the World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers. And as the Brewers completed their five-game victory over the Rays, Uecker’s presence could be felt at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at a watch party at the Brewers’ ballpark in Milwaukee — especially at the very top of the stadium in section 422, where there are $1 “Uecker seats” and a statue honoring his everyfan status.

Uecker, who died in January 2025 at the age of 90, was a Milwaukee native who broadcast games for the team from 1971 to 2024.

A former light-hitting catcher who started his career in Milwaukee, Uecker used to joke about how bad a player he was on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He earned the satirical nickname “Mr. Baseball” and became a national celebrity through multiple TV and movie appearances and Miller Lite commercials, including the one in which he said, “I must be in the front row!” before finding out his team-issued seats were in the last row of the upper deck.

Uecker starred in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” and was a riot in the “Major League” film series as fictitious Cleveland announcer Harry Doyle. In the first movie, Uecker coined the phrase “juuuuust a bit outside” for a pitch thrown by Charlie Sheen’s “Wild Thing” character, Ricky Vaughn, that was a lot more than just a bit outside.

But in Milwaukee, Uecker was just “Ueck” or “Uecky.”

“He could have been your uncle,” Yankees radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, who first met Uecker in 1988, told Newsday on Thursday in a telephone interview. “People are associated with teams, but they’re not ‘us.’ Bob Uecker was ‘us.’ You didn’t go into a bar and expect to see [Vin] Scully. You wouldn’t go into Home Depot and see Vin Scully. You could do that with Uecker.

“He was just warm and hysterical and interested in people. He became part of the fabric. I’m trying to think of anybody that was like him and there wasn’t, because he played there. He lived there. He was always around. You’d see him in the stores. You’d see him everywhere.”

Yankees television broadcaster Michael Kay told Newsday that Uecker “might have been a bigger star than any of the players. I mean, he was beloved in that town. He played, and so he had a player’s background, and he stayed in Milwaukee, lived in Milwaukee. They loved him there. They absolutely loved him. He was one of their own. And he was a big part of Milwaukee baseball. Into his late 80s, he was pitching batting practice and stuff like that. He was the team broadcaster, but he was literally a member of the team.”

Uecker was oft-mentioned during the World Series both on the Fox broadcast and in the ballparks. Former Brewers star Robin Yount wore one of Uecker’s signature plaid sport coats before throwing out the first pitch before Game 1 in Milwaukee and said he felt Uecker’s presence. The Brewers’ radio announcers also wore blazers that had been part of Uecker’s wardrobe that were given to them by Uecker’s widow, Judy.

“They didn’t wear jackets like his,” Waldman said. “They were his jackets. I can’t even explain what it is with him. When Robin Yount said he was talking to him on the mound, I believed him.”

Kay told a story of an interaction after a game in Milwaukee.

“I get in the elevator and John Sterling gets in the elevator and they would hold the elevator for Uecker,” Kay said. “He’d have his car right downstairs and they treated him like the VIP that he was. So he sees John. I mean, John at this point is like 83, 84, and Ueck goes, ‘How you doing, kid?’ And I thought that was the funniest thing. He was always funny, always welcoming.”

Kay said he heard that George Steinbrenner once tried to bring Uecker to New York to become the voice of the Yankees.

“A lot of lives would have been changed,” Kay said. “I think Uecker would have played anywhere because he was just so naturally funny and he loved the game and he loved the team that he was broadcasting for. But I remember that story and he just couldn’t bring himself to leave Milwaukee.”

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.